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DUI-Manslaughter Felon Is Returned To Prison

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By TOM BRENNAN

tbrennan@tampatrib.com

Published: March 25, 2009

TAMPA - A man on probation for DUI-manslaughter is going back to prison after being found drunk behind the wheel of an idling car.

Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Daniel Perry said Tuesday that he had no choice but to revoke the probation of William Edward Ham and order him to serve the remaining three years and seven months of his sentence.

"I can't sit here and say he is not going to get drunk again," Perry said. "He not only was drinking, he was wasted."

In 1999, Ham was sentenced to 10 years in prison and almost four years of probation in a 1998 wreck that killed Sandra L. Allen, 36, of Riverview.

He was released from prison in January 2008.

Ham was arrested again March 4 when Tampa police officers found him passed out or asleep behind the wheel of an idling car. His blood-alcohol level tested at 0.180 and 0.179, prosecutors said. State law presumes a person intoxicated at 0.08.

Timothy Taylor, Ham's attorney, asked that his client be placed in an in-patient alcohol treatment program. "Obviously, he has an alcohol problem," he said.

Prosecutor Barbara Coleman questioned Ham's desire to change.

"If Mr. Ham was serious about getting help, help is not being passed out at the wheel," she said.

Perry also ordered that Ham's driver's license be permanently revoked. The judge who sentenced Ham in 1999 did the same, but a paperwork error allowed Ham to get another license when he got out of prison.

"Let's try this again," Perry said.

Woman, 75, Takes Bite Of Robber

ST. PETERSBURG - Seventy-five-year-old Marcie Rae Lee took a bite out of crime Monday afternoon.

Well, out of a criminal.

The septuagenarian had just gotten in her sport utility vehicle after shopping at a Publix at 1700 34th St. N. when a woman approached her window, St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa said.

The woman asked Lee whether she would rather be shot than hand over the small amount of cash Lee still had in her hand, Kajtsa said. The woman then grabbed Lee's hand and snatched the cash.

Lee bit the woman on the forearm, Kajtsa said. "Apparently it was a pretty significant bite," he said, "because there was blood all over the place, and the victim wasn't hurt. It was the bad person who was hurt."

The robber did make off with the cash.

Video-Attack Teen Out Of Jail

The only teenager to receive jail time for her role in the videotaped beating of a Polk County girl is back home.

Brittini Hardcastle, 17, was sentenced Friday to 15 days behind bars and released Tuesday because of time already served.

She also will be on probation for three years.

Hardcastle pleaded guilty Jan. 29 to false imprisonment and misdemeanor battery in a March 2008 attack on Victoria Lindsay, who was 16 at the time. Hardcastle was one of five teenage girls charged with orchestrating the beating, which the girls recorded. They planned to post the video on the Internet, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Hardcastle received the most severe sentence of those charged. The judge said that was because she threw the most punches.

The four other girls pleaded guilty to battery charges and are serving probation and community-service sentences.

Burger King Worker Arrested

Monica DiMaio and her family took a break from their Florida vacation so they could grab dinner at Burger King. She took her purse, which contained more than $5,000.

When the family left the restaurant at 3009 E. Busch Blvd, DiMaio accidentally left the purse behind.

When she returned to reclaim her property, she noticed a whopper of a problem. Her money was gone.

On Monday, Tampa police arrested 24-year-old Stephen Janvier, the restaurant's assistant manager. He was charged with third-degree grand theft of $5,000 to $10,000.

Police say that after DiMaio left the purse, a Burger King employee turned it over to a supervisor.

Detectives obtained video at the restaurant that they thought implicated Janvier, police said. Police set up a call between the store's manager and Janvier. Janvier appeared nervous and later asked for a detective to speak with him, police said. He agreed to return the money and was arrested, police said.

Janvier posted $2,000 bail and has been released.

A staff report

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