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Grandfather, Girlfriend Beat Toddler, Police Say

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2008

LARGO - Police think 4-year-old Zineah Taylor Johnson was beaten with several objects covered with duct tape - including an electrical cord, a spatula and possibly a coat hanger - before her grandfather and her grandfather's girlfriend took her lifeless body to Northside Hospital in August.

Those details are contained in court documents unsealed this week after Johnson's grandfather, Sylvester Carew, 54, and his girlfriend, Nikki Tyler Gardner-Bradley, 37, were transferred from a Hillsborough County jail to Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday.

Each is accused of killing the girl; each is being held without bail on one count of first-degree murder.

The pair took the girl to Northside Hospital on Aug. 16, court records state, but Zineah already was dead. Carew blamed Gardner-Bradley and Gardner-Bradley blamed Carew when asked what had happened.

An autopsy on the 33-pound child revealed she had more than 100 injuries on her head, neck, torso and legs, with some wounds fresh and others at various stages of the healing process, the court records say.

In a search of the Largo apartment where the three were living at 11446 137th St. N., investigators found the instruments they think repeatedly were used to beat the child, the court documents state.

The couple had custody of Zineah since the end of 2006 through an informal arrangement between Carew and Carew's daughter, who was Zineah's mother.

HILLSBOROUGH

2 Bank Robbers Sought

Deputies were looking for a man who robbed a BB&T bank in Brandon about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The man entered the bank at 404 Oakfield Drive, approached a teller, gave her a plastic bag and told her to put money in it, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

The robber was described as white, in his early 50s, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and about 160 pounds. He had a mustache; short, sandy-brown hair; and was bald on top. He was wearing thick, tinted prescription eyeglasses, jeans with blue sweatpants pulled over the jeans, and a blue and white short-sleeve buttoned shirt and black loafers.

Anyone with information can call the sheriff's office at (813) 247-8200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.

Meanwhile, Tampa police detectives continued their search for a man who on Friday robbed the Synovus Bank at 4003 W. Neptune Ave.

The man held three bank employees and a customer at gunpoint while he forced another employee to give him cash, police said.

Detectives said another person may have been involved in the robbery because the gunman was talking on his cell phone.

The robber was described as black, 30 to 40 years old, and 6 feet tall with a medium build. He was bald and wearing a fake beard, blue cap, blue hooded sweatshirt, white T-shirt, blue pants and sunglasses.

Anyone with information can call Tampa police at (813) 231-6130.

Judge Dismisses Murder Charge

TAMPA - A judge on Wednesday dismissed a second-degree murder charge against a man who said he killed his nephew in self-defense.

Edwin Allen Kendrick, 60, was charged with fatally stabbing Randall Marquayne Harrelson, 33, on Jan. 7, 2007.

Kendrick was on trial this week, but Judge Manuel Lopez dismissed charges, saying the state could not rebut the self-defense claim. Pam Bondi, spokeswoman for the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office, said prosecutors argued that the jury should decide the case.

2 Arrested In Drug Bust

An anonymous complaint led Hillsborough County deputies to 25 marijuana plants in a garage Tuesday.

The sheriff's office narcotics unit used a warrant at 6601 Webb Road in Tampa to find the indoor grow operation, deputies said. The plants are worth about $20,000.

Deputies arrested 23-year-old Kristina Brana and 38-year-old Armando Pena.

Brana was charged with cultivation and possession of marijuana, and Pena was charged with cultivation of marijuana, a sheriff's office news release states.

Brana's bail was set at $10,500, and Pena's was set at $2,500. They have been released from jail.

Alleged Shooter Named

TAMPA - Hillsborough County deputies have identified a man they say shot his girlfriend in the neck Tuesday as Julian Lujan.

Deputies responded to 2010 51st St. about 5:40 p.m. and found Ranaye Donnelly, 50, with a gunshot wound in her neck. Deputies chased the suspected shooter on foot and caught him in the area of 48th and 19th streets, the sheriff's office said.

He initially didn't cooperate but later said he shot her, deputies say. Lujan was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and was booked into Orient Road Jail.

Witnesses told deputies that Donnelly lives with Lujan.

A staff report

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