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Dad, Uncle Of Slain Prep Athlete Charged In Attack On Teen

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2008

Updated: 10/23/2008 03:59 pm

TAMPA - Vidal Mills once said in a police report that he had no problem being arrested for taking up for his son.
He finds himself in that situation again.

Eighteen months ago, Mills' 17-year-old son, Cedric "C.J." Mills, was fatally shot in his driveway. Now Mills and Ernest Mills, the teenager's uncle, have been charged with misdemeanor battery and felony false imprisonment, accused of beating 19-year-old Fredrick Powell because he had allegedly talked about being involved in the unsolved killing.

Reached at home, Vidal Mills, 36, declined to speak to a reporter today. Ernest Mills, 33, could not be reached. Each is free on $2,500 bail.

Attempts to contact Powell were unsuccessful.

Tampa police detectives interviewed Powell soon after April 25, 2007, when two men sprang out of a Chrysler Sebring and fatally shot C.J. Mills at his home at 4219 W. Laurel St., police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. They did not consider him "a person of interest," she said Thursday.

In light of recent events, however, "we are looking into the father's concerns and talking to the Mills family about the rumors they've heard," she said.

Police and the Mills family repeatedly have expressed frustration over the unsolved shooting and have asked the public for tips.

C.J. Mills was a Jefferson High School football star who dreamed of playing in the National Football League. His father spent a year on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' practice squad and was a linebacker for the Tampa Bay Storm, an Arena Football League team.

"I think it's obvious from his actions that the family is struggling with the fact that they don't have answers to what happened to C.J.," McElroy said of Vidal Mills' arrest.

C.J. Mills' sister was working at a McDonald's restaurant at 1905 N. Dale Mabry Highway on Oct. 15 about 7:50 p.m. when she recognized a customer later identified as Powell as "the person that was bragging on the street that he killed her brother," according to a preliminary police report.

The sister told her mother that Powell was in the restaurant, and a short time later her father and uncle arrived, the report states.

Police said Vidal Mills struck Powell in the face, then grabbed Powell from behind and began dragging him toward the exit.

When Powell resisted, Vidal and Ernest Mills began kicking him, police said. When told the police had been called, the men left.

Police arrested Vidal Mills at home the following day. They arrested Ernest Mills at home Wednesday. In an affidavit, Ernest Mills denied kicking Powell and told police it only looked as though he had been dragging Powell because Vidal Mills had pulled him and Powell outside at the same time.

In January 2005, Vidal Mills pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge from Oct. 15, 2004. He was ordered to pay court costs and received time served in the county jail, according to online court records.

A police report from that incident says Mills punched Allen Brooks, then 18, in the face at Skyway Park over a fight Brooks had had with C.J. Mills at WestShore Plaza weeks earlier.

"We both fought each other, yes," Vidal Mills told police in the report. The report notes, "He further stated he has no problem with being arrested for taking up for his son."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at vkalfrin@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7800.

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