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Victim Testifies In Plant City Home Invasion That Killed 1
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Published: September 3, 2008
TAMPA - About 3 a.m. Oct. 9, 2006, Diogenes Vazquez awoke to loud banging and a commotion in the Plant City home he shared with four other men, he said on a witness stand today.
He walked into the kitchen to investigate and saw that a group of men with flashlights had broken through the front door. One chased him into his bedroom. The man punched him on the chest then struck him on the head with a hammer. Vazquez tried to cover his head. Additional hammer blows broke two of his fingers.
"When he gave me the first blow, I imagined that he came to rob me," Vazquez, who only speaks Spanish, testified through an interpreter. "I gave him my wallet so he wouldn't hit me anymore."
Twice Vazquez tried to scramble for a window. Twice he was pulled back inside. On a final try, Vazquez managed to escape.
When the melee was over, he and three roommates had severe injuries from hammer blows and the butt of a handgun. The fourth roommate, a construction worker and father of two who had recently become a U.S. citizen, was killed.
This week, prosecutors are trying to prove to a jury that Justin Jerrod Grayer, 21, delivered the blows that killed José Anaya. Grayer faces charges of first-degree murder, robbery, aggravated battery and armed burglary. If convicted, he could serve life in prison.
Vazquez testified that he recognized his attacker's voice but that the man's face was covered.
Plant City police detectives put together a list of suspects. Vazquez initially said he did not know his attacker, but when he saw a group of pictures, he pointed to Grayer and said it was his voice he had recognized. Grayer often hung out at a house across from Vazquez's.
Assistant State Attorney Ronald Gale said Grayer's fingerprints match prints found in Anaya's house.
In all, five men were arrested. Only Grayer is on trial this week.
Another suspect, Clayton Maxwell of Mulberry, will testify for prosecutors that he saw the other men cover their faces, arm themselves with hammers and a gun and walk into Anaya's house, Gale told the jury.
Maxwell has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and will receive a five-year prison sentence.
What prosecutors do not have – because of an "unbelievable" mistake, Gale said, is a murder weapon.
Maxwell's former roommate John Ashwell testified that four of Maxwell's friends moved into their home about the time of the Plant City attack. Ashwell did not know the men and told them they had to leave.
Later he read a newspaper article about the attack and three men who were arrested. He recognized the photos as his roommate's friends.
He noticed several hammers on the ground outside his home and called the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
Ashwell showed a deputy the newspaper article, told him that his roommate's friends were suspects and showed him the hammers. He said the deputy seemed uninterested and that he had to insist the deputy take the hammers.
Although his roommate had four friends, only three were arrested, Ashwell told the deputy.
Polk County Deputy Steven Pickavance testified today that he did not believe Ashwell. He put the hammers into a paper bag and placed them in his trunk.
"I drove them to a Dumpster and threw them away," Pickavance said.
Eventually, Maxwell and his fourth friend were arrested on charges that they were involved in the attack.
Months later, a Plant City detective interviewed Ashwell and heard about the hammers.
Pickavance testified that he had been promoted to detective at the Polk County Sheriff's Office. An internal investigation regarding his disposal of the hammers, however, resulted in a one-month suspension and his demotion to patrol deputy.
The hammers were never recovered.
Assistant Public Defender Anna Frederiksen-Cherry told the jurors there is scant evidence linking Grayer to the crime. Vasquez was severely injured when he told the detectives about the attack and could only identify Grayer by his voice, she said.
Maxwell, she said, was on a drug binge for several days before the attack. When he cooperated with detectives, he was facing life in prison.
"He had self-interest, and he was completely motivated by saving himself," Frederiksen-Cherry told the jurors. "The only evidence you will hear about my client's part is from Clayton Maxwell. He is a highly unreliable witness because he is a druggie."
The trial is expected to continue through Friday.
Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.
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