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Bartow Case Unusual For Federal Trial

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: February 23, 2009

Updated: 02/23/2009 12:33 am

TAMPA - An execution-style slaying in a Bartow drug house is the subject of a rare, federal death penalty trial starting this week.

Death penalty cases - and murder trials, in general - overwhelmingly are heard in state courts, and local legal experts are baffled as to why the Polk County slaying is in federal court.

"This is a murder, and it's a heinous crime," said Charles Rose, a Stetson University College of Law professor. "But it's not the sort of heinous crime you'd normally see as a death penalty case in federal court. It's odd."

Since the federal death penalty was enacted in 1988, and largely expanded in 1994, three people have been executed nationwide. Among those was Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

By comparison, the state of Florida has executed three people since July.

Officials cannot remember the last federal death penalty trial in Tampa. The most recent one in the Middle District of Florida, which stretches from the Georgia border to Fort Myers, was in Jacksonville nine years ago, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. That case involved civil rights charges against a sheriff's officer who was sentenced to four life terms for killing a businessman as part of a crime spree.

There are no civil rights charges in the Bartow case.

According to federal court records:

On Oct. 19, 2006, Jermaine Michael Julian, David Emanul Jones and at least one other person robbed Carton Potts' house at 1735 Martin Luther King Blvd. The place, referred to as "The Carter," was known for drug sales.

Inside were Potts, Prayer Hamilton and Tyrone Williams.

The armed intruders beat the three and forced them onto the floor as they ransacked the house looking for money and drugs.

Julian, known as "Kid," said he wanted to kill or burn someone. He pointed a pistol at Williams and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. He chambered another bullet and pointed the gun at Potts. He pulled the trigger and a bullet exploded through Potts' chest, killing him before it lodged in the floor.

Julian then pointed the gun toward the victims and pulled the trigger. Again, the gun jammed.

The robbers left, taking marijuana, cocaine, cash and guns.

Nearly a month later, Jones was arrested on unrelated charges and told investigators he and Julian had robbed "The Carter."

Julian was arrested three days later. He told investigators someone named "Bling" told him "The Carter" had marijuana and $50,000 in cash. He said he contacted Jones and two others to help him rob the house or "hit a lick."

Julian said he saw someone fire a shot toward Jones during the robbery so he fired his weapon. He said he took 240 bags of cocaine and $6,500 from the house.

Jones eventually pleaded guilty to federal robbery, firearms and drug charges, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Julian, 26, is now on trial in federal court for his life.

'Just Doesn't Make Sense'

Tampa lawyer John Fitzgibbons, a former federal prosecutor, said it's hard to speculate why Julian is being prosecuted in federal court.

"But the Bush administration did push these kinds of cases or did encourage these cases," he said. "A lot of critics would say the state system is very capable of handling death penalty cases because well over 99 percent of the capital cases in the United States are brought in the state courts."

Stetson law professor Bruce Jacob said trying the case in federal court is "ridiculous."

"It's an ordinary state murder case," he said. "Why in the world is the federal government taking it? It just doesn't make sense."

Karin Hoppmann, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said the case falls under statutes that classify armed robbery and using a firearm in the course of a murder as federal crimes.

Still, she couldn't say how Julian's case differs from the majority of similar cases prosecuted in state court.

Chip Thullbery of the Polk County State Attorney's Office would say only, "The case is better suited to the federal system."

David Brooks, interim Bartow police chief, said his department's investigators told him some of the participants in the crime are part of a broader federal investigation.

"This was a thing worked out between the state prosecutor and the federal prosecutor," he said. "For whatever reasons they all amongst themselves came up with, they decided the federal people would pick it up."

A Harder Case To Make

All decisions to seek a federal death penalty must be approved by the U.S. Attorney General. In the Julian case, the authorization came from Peter D. Keisler, who was acting attorney general after the resignation of Alberto Gonzales.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said attorneys general sometimes authorize a decision to seek death even when local federal prosecutors advise against it.

Nationwide, 55 people are on federal death row, but none from Florida, Dieter said.

Florida has 394 death row inmates, including 38 from Hillsborough County and 19 from Polk, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Dieter said federal death penalty cases expanded during the presidency of George W. Bush: 19 people were on federal death row in 2000, a Justice Department survey found.

He said federal death penalty trials result in death sentences about a third of the time.

Unlike in Florida's capital cases, federal juries must reach a unanimous decision on imposing the death sentence.

Another benefit for the defense, Fitzgibbons said, is that federal juries are drawn from several counties. A state prosecution in Polk would involve only jurors from that relatively conservative county.

"I'll be surprised if he gets the death penalty," Rose said. "We'll see."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.

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