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Tampa Slaying Suspect Asks For His Mother

WALB-TV

Timothy Blackwelder is led away by a deputy after his extradition hearing in Georgia.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

Days after attempting suicide, a Florida murder suspect told a Georgia judge that rather than being extradited to Florida or spending even more time in a Georgia jail, he'd rather have his mother come pick him up.

That option isn't available, a judge told him today, according to WALB-TV.

On Friday afternoon, Timothy Blackwelder shot and killed George Anthony Stewart Jr., the father of twin 2-year-old girls, Tampa police say. Police say Blackwelder drove off with Stewart's estranged wife, Brittani Stewart, who was not injured.

Brittani Stewart, 22, told Tampa police she left her home with Blackwelder because she was worried about her safety. Blackwelder was apprehended in the Valdosta, Ga., area Saturday night and attempted to hang himself from a vent Sunday night in the Lowndes County Jail, investigators say.

Blackwelder, 24, signed a waiver of extradition today and will face charges in Stewart's shooting death. In court this morning, 14 guards followed him closely. There was concern because of an escape attempt Tuesday.

"Last night at the hospital, they had to take the restraints off him to take care of some medical procedures, and he attempted once again to escape from our officers," Captain J.D. Yeager of the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office told WALB-TV. "And it took about eight of our people to restrain him at the hospital."

Bruises around Timothy Blackwelder's
neck were still visible Wednesday

Yeager said he is happy to get Blackwelder out of his county's jail.

"There's a lot of manpower involved in a case like this," he said to told WALB-TV. "It cost us. It cost us a lot more to house an inmate on a capital charge like this – especially a suicide and escape risk."

Between April 2000 and January, Blackwelder served concurrent terms in a Florida prison for convictions of armed robbery, two counts of burglary of a dwelling and one count of grand theft, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.

In a 2004 letter to a Hillsborough County Circuit judge, Blackwelder wrote that he was ready to be released from prison and be with his family.

"I'm sorry for what I did, I was young and being stupid, but I larned my lessin since the '5' years I been locked up almost," he wrote.

Brittani Stewart and Blackwelder have known each other since 1998 and had lived together, court records show. She asked for a domestic violence injunction against him in November, and it was granted, Tampa police spokesman Jared Douds said.

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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