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Conviction Satisfies Widower Boat Burns In St. Petersburg

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By JOSH POLTILOVE

jpoltilove@tampatrib.com

Published: October 21, 2008

TAMPA - Every day for 21 years, Bill Heyliger thought about his wife's slaying and the fact that nobody was brought to justice.

On Friday, Heyliger finally saw a man convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Susan.

"This business about closure is frankly a soap opera word," Heyliger told the Tribune on Monday. "But to have this savage animal off the streets is huge."

Jeffrey Lobik was sentenced to life in prison for the June 1987 slaying of Susan Heyliger at Country Club Lounge in Largo, where she worked as a bartender. She had five children and was 42 years old.

Heyliger locked herself in the lounge at closing time to restock the bar, investigators said.

Lobik descended from the men's room ceiling, bashed Heyliger's head with a trophy, choked her and then slit her throat with a large knife, the Largo Police Department said. He stole money from the cash register and left.

There were a few clues: a shoe print, an overturned chair and rubble that indicated the killer dropped in through the ceiling. Witnesses said they saw Lobik enter the restroom that morning, but nobody recalled seeing him leave.

Lobik told police he was in the lounge but never entered the bathroom ceiling. Authorities had arrested him eight times in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show. Since then, he served nearly 10 years in state prison on robbery and burglary charges, corrections records show. He was released in March 2002 and became a landscaper in Ocala.

Two years after his release, investigators interviewed him again.

Lobik told authorities he had entered the bathroom the morning of the murder and hidden in the ceiling to smoke crack cocaine.

Manager Jailed In Theft At Office
Cristine Sanchez stole more than $100,000 from the Ruskin business where she worked as office manager, Hillsborough County deputies said.

From August 2005 through February, the Riverview woman wrote herself about 125 checks from Sunpointe Automotive and kept the money, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. The business owner reported the money stolen in February.

Sanchez, 24, was arrested in New York and extradited to Tampa.

She was booked into Orient Road Jail on Saturday and remained in jail Monday, with bail set at $302,000. She was charged with grand theft, fraudulent use of personal information and 123 counts of making a false entry on corporate books.

A staff report

Man Found With Seafood In Pants

A Bradenton man was caught Sunday with shrimp in his pants, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said.

Detective Robert Stevenson was shopping at the Sweetbay supermarket at 2501 Cortez Road W. when he noticed a man with what appeared to be groceries stuffed in his pants.

Stevenson approached the man, identified as Joseph Young, 32, and ordered him to stop, a report said. Young then removed several bags of frozen shrimp from his pants and ran for the store's exit. Stevenson tackled Young and restrained him until deputies arrived.

A staff report

Bulls' Tormenter Back In Jail

LAND O' LAKES - A man who authorities said was part of one of the worst local animal cruelty sprees in recent history is back in jail on a probation violation charge.

Robert Pettyjohn, 25, was being held without bail at Land O' Lakes Jail on Monday.

Officials said Pettyjohn violated his 9 p.m. curfew Friday and went to Orlando without permission.

Pettyjohn was sentenced in Hillsborough County to three years in prison for using a bow and arrows to shoot bulls in Odessa in 2001. He received a concurrent five-year term in Pinellas County on other cruelty charges.

Authorities said Pettyjohn and Brandon Eldred used a golf club to sodomize and kill a nursing mother llama and gouge the eye out of a baby llama in rural East Lake in Pinellas.

A staff report

2 Charged After Dog, Cat Shot

A Valrico man shot a basset hound with a .22-caliber rifle Sunday and a Lithia man shot a cat with a shotgun Saturday, according to Hillsborough County Animal Services.

The cat died and the dog is recovering.

On Sunday morning, James Fisher, 57, shot a stray dog he said kept coming into his yard, a criminal arrest affidavit stated.

Investigators had not located the owner Monday.

Investigators arrested Fisher, 57, on Sunday afternoon and charged him with one count of animal cruelty.

His bail was set at $2,000 and he has been released.

The day before, Miles Clayton Shirley, 55, told investigators he shot a cat from 50 to 70 feet away because he was in fear for his life, Ryan said.

Shirley was charged with one count of animal cruelty. He was released on $2,000 bail.

Josh Poltilove

Man's Death Called Homicide

DADE CITY - Pasco sheriff's detectives have ruled the death of a man whose body was found Sunday evening near a bar a homicide.

Bernaldo C. Vasquez, 23, was found dead outside a home at 38827 Island Ave. just before 5:30 p.m., not far from Cooper's Bar, sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said.

Lisa A. Davis

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