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'God Was With Me,' Says Man Shot In Polk Arson Attack

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By THOMAS W. KRAUSE and JEFF PATTERSON, The Tampa Tribune News Channel 8

Published: December 18, 2007

Updated: 12/17/2007 11:34 pm

Photos | News Channel 8 Video

LAKE WALES - He was just a neighbor trying to help.

On Thursday afternoon, Brandon Greisman looked through his window and saw smoke. Minutes after he walked outside to investigate, he was shot across the bridge of his nose. His 5- and 10-year-old daughters witnessed the shooting. They thought he had been killed.

"If God hadn't made me turn my head," Greisman said Monday, "I'd be dead right now."

Still in pain and groggy from medication, Greisman wore a white bandage across his face but said he has no regrets.

"I would do it again if it happened again," he said. "I wish things didn't have to happen that way, but you know what? God was with me."

About 3:30 p.m. Thursday, a man walked into Headley Nationwide Insurance and pulled a gun on Juanita "Jane" Luciano, 23, and Yvonne Bustamante, 26. He demanded money, then began to pour gasoline around the room. He set the business and the two women on fire.

Luciano was nearly six months' pregnant.

Lake Wales police arrested Leon Davis Jr. on attempted murder and arson charges. He remains held without bail.

Before the two women were rushed to the hospital, with burns over 90 percent of their bodies, they were able to identify Davis as their assailant, police said.

Polk County sheriff's officials said Davis also is responsible for the execution-style killings of two men at a gas station Dec. 7. He has not yet been charged in those shootings.

Greisman said he left his home to investigate the smoke and saw Luciano on fire.

"I tried to pat her out," he said. "I got burns on my stomach and chest."

Then, he heard a gunshot.

"There was no, 'If you don't get away from them,' or anything," Greisman said. "He just shot me."

Greisman's daughters screamed. His wife, who also had wandered outside, became hysterical. Greisman said he didn't know he had been shot until his family reacted.

"I realized I didn't have a nose anymore," he said.

On Monday, Greisman said he is in a lot of pain. Loud noises make him jump and he suffers from nightmares. Doctors had to remove skin from his shoulder to use as a graft for a new nose.

Greisman, the father of six children ages 2 to 14, said he moved to Lake Wales after leaving Las Vegas and his native California. One of the reasons he came here was to get away from high-crime areas.

"This is probably the last place I thought this would happen," he said.

Some lawyers have suggested the Polk County State Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty for Davis. Greisman said he didn't know what to think of that.

"I just pray for his soul," he said.

The brothers, sisters, cousins, mothers and fathers of the two burned women held a brief news conference Monday at the Lake Wales Police Department. They thanked everyone in the community for the prayers and support. They also thanked Greisman.

"Words cannot say how we appreciate what you have done," said Eric Torres, Bustamante's cousin.

Luciano and Bustamante remained in stable but critical condition Monday in an Orlando hospital. Luciano's son was delivered by Caesarean section. The boy, Mike Bustamante Jr., died early Sunday morning.

Polk County sheriff's officials and a state attorney spokesman said they were in meetings today to discuss additional charges against Davis. An announcement is expected soon.

Rita Peters, the chief of the sex crimes and child abuse division of the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office, said Florida has a law called the unlawful killing of a fetus. If someone intends to kill a woman but her fetus died instead, the charge is the equivalent of murder.

"Basically, the baby takes the place of the mom," Peters said.

Polk prosecutors can seek the death penalty for the baby's death, Peters said. They would have to prove that Davis intended to kill Luciano and his actions were the cause of the baby's death.

Mike Benito, a former homicide prosecutor with the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office, said he expects Polk prosecutors to first move forward on the attempted murder charges regarding Luciano and Bustamante. If they secure those convictions, he said, they could seek the death penalty in the killings of the two men at the gas station - Pravinkumar Patel and Dasharathbhai Patel.

Convictions on the attempted murder charges could be used against Davis and facilitate a death penalty sentence, Benito said.

With witnesses and ballistics linking Davis to the deaths, prosecution should not be problematic, Benito said.

"If the evidence is there to present this case, I assume any prosecutor in Polk County is going to go after this full bore," Benito said.

News Channel 8 videographer Joe Martin contributed to this story. Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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