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Pinellas Jury Finds Man Guilty In 2005 Shooting Of Friend

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 5, 2009

After about an hour of deliberating, a Pinellas jury Wednesday evening found a 27-year-old Miami man guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a friend in 2005.

Pinellas Circuit Judge R. Timothy Peters sentenced Thiago Decarvalho to life in prison.

In closing arguments Wednesday afternoon, Assistant State Attorney Nathan Vonderheide summed up the case against Decarvalho, saying he shot Malcolm Wilson, 27, six times over a dispute involving $300.

The shooting occurred Aug. 25, 2005, in the parking lot of an apartment complex on 31st Street, in the shadow of Interstate 275. Decarvalho shot Wilson in a Monte Carlo, while two women were in the car, police said.

Wilson's body was dumped elsewhere, and the Monte Carlo was abandoned, Vonderheide said. Decarvalho hopped on a Greyhound bus and was eventually apprehended in Miami.

There, St. Petersburg Detective Gary Gibson found on Decarvalho a handgun laboratory analysts later linked to the shooting, Vonderheide told the jury.

Decarvalho's defense attorney, John Thor White, tried to persuade the jury that the shooting was not premeditated and so Decarvalho should be convicted of a lesser offense, such as second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Vonderheide noted that Decarvalho admitted in a taped interview that the slaying was premeditated. But Thor White said Decarvalho misused the word by saying the killing was "premeditate."

Thor White also said Decarvalho misused other words in the interview, illustrating his unfamiliarity with the terms associated with murder investigations. For instance, when detectives asked to check his clothing for gunshot residue, Decarvalho asked whether they wanted to check his clothes for gunshot "resident."

Decarvalho also wondered whether he was going to be on television.

Vonderheide said Decarvalho and Wilson, the victim, had known each other for years, and had been stealing cash and guns in burglaries. Decarvalho thought he wasn't getting his fair share of the loot, and believed Wilson owed him $300, the prosecutor said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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