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Father testifies against son at murder trial

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By JACKIE BARRON

jbarron@wfla.com

Published: July 9, 2009

Bruce Fast

Thomas Fast

Susan Fast

BRADENTON - The murder trial of Thomas Fast turned tense today when the defense tried to turn the tables on his father.

Bruce Fast blames his son for the murder of his wife of more than three decades, Susan Fast, 60.

She vanished from her home in June 2007 while Bruce Fast, 76, was on away on business.

A month later, the GPS in her sport utility vehicle led Manatee deputies to her body, which had been dismembered, put in garbage bags and then dumped in a Lakewood Ranch retention pond.

Today, Bruce Fast faced his son from the witness stand. Thomas Fast, 54, often worked for his father and stepmother on building projects. But Bruce Fast said he had no tolerance for Thomas's bouts of delusion and paranoia about threats from government agents.

"Each time he mentioned it I said, 'I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to hear about it. Take your meds or whatever is necessary. It doesn't affect our business relationship or what's going here and that's it,'" Bruce Fast said.

During testimony Bruce Fast held up his wedding ring to show that it matches the one worn by Susan, which deputies said they later found in a hidden compartment of a deodorant can in Thomas Fast's duffle bag.

Emotions heated up when Public Defender Franklin Roberts questioned Bruce Fast about his own actions in the days surrounding Susan's disappearance.

Judge Gilbert Smith sent jurors out of the courtroom as the prosecution and defense debated the relevance of a 2007 jailhouse visit between Bruce and Thomas Fast.

At one point Bruce Fast said from the stand that the line of questioning was "irrelevant."

Reporter Jackie Barron can be reached at (813) 221-5708.

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