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2 Men Arrested In Fatal Shooting Outside Club

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

TAMPA - Three weeks after her husband was shot to death outside the Groovy Mule bottle club, Sesily Coleman only has been able to rest three to four hours a night.

She said life is much harder now that her husband, award-winning educator Antonio Coleman, is no longer there by her side or to help her with everyday things like cooking, cleaning or their children's homework.

Max R. Jasper

"The people who shot him had absolutely no idea who they took away," she said today. "The dad that they took away, the husband that they took away and the educator that they just swiped from these kids. They don't know the caliber of person that they snatched from us. They don't know."

Two men were arrested Saturday, charged with first-degree murder in the Atlanta educator's death.

Raymond Torres Jr., 36, was arrested about 5 p.m. at 7002 N. Clark Ave. in Tampa, and Max R. Jasper, 22, was arrested at an Oldsmar residence at 8:30 p.m., sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said.

Raymond Torres Jr.

Antonio Coleman, 36, was shot Jan. 20 while sitting in a car at Waters Avenue and Dale Mabry Highway, authorities said. It is not thought Coleman was the intended target, Callaway said.

After a fight at the club, the suspects allegedly left, armed themselves and returned.

Both suspects are being held without bail. Jasper is in Pinellas County, and Torres is in Hillsborough County.

Coleman, a father of three who was named 2004 elementary school teacher of the year by Atlanta Public Schools, was in Florida to attend an Orlando technology conference, said Sesily Coleman, his wife of eight years.

He left the school system in December to begin work as a teaching and learning coordinator with Promethean, which provides technological equipment for classrooms.

"It appears that the victim was killed when he was about to leave the parking lot," a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office release says. "The bullet [went] through a rear window of the victim's rental vehicle striking the victim in the head."

Sesily Coleman said her husband was bubbly, smart, well read and always smiling. If something bothered him, she said, you'd never know it.

She said Saturday's arrests will give her a little bit of closure.

"I'm glad they're off the streets, because I couldn't get any sleep knowing that whoever that did this was still out there," she said.

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

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