Double-Slaying Trial Begins

TAMPA - Khalid Ali Pasha was at the office complex where his wife of three weeks and her 20-year-old daughter were slain, his defense attorney acknowledged to a jury Wednesday.

The defense attorney also acknowledged that it was Pasha's van that was searched by Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies and it was his white jumpsuit that was covered in the women's blood. Witnesses, the attorney said, will testify to all of those facts as this week's murder trial continues.

But defense attorney Nick Sinardi asked the jurors to pay close attention. No one, he said, witnessed the slashing and beating deaths.

"The question is, who killed Robin Canady and Renesha Singleton?" Sinardi said. "That is the state's burden."

Pasha's trial is an odd case of a gentlemanly career criminal charged in two killings who greatly distrusts his attorneys. He unsuccessfully has represented himself in the past, resulting in prison time, and considered representing himself in this case - although a conviction could result in the death penalty.

Opening statements began Wednesday.

About 11:30 p.m. Aug. 23, 2002, prosecutors said, a man who spoke Spanish asked his lady friend to call 911. Her English was much better and he wanted to alert authorities that another man, wearing a white jumpsuit and covered in blood, was walking in and out of the woods at the Woodland Center corporate complex near Waters and North Manhattan avenues. The man carried a shiny object.

Prosecutors said the witnesses will describe how the man walked to his van and how they followed him until deputies arrived.

Assistant State Attorney Jalal Harb told the jury that deputies found a crumpled jumpsuit and a kitchen knife in the back of Pasha's van. They were covered in blood with DNA that matches Canady and her daughter.

The two women's bodies were found nearby in Canady's car. Slashes on the inside of the car roof showed that someone in the backseat had cut the two women.

Pasha has a long history on the wrong side of the law.

Bill Herrbach, the former chief deputy prosecutor for LaPorte County, Indiana, said he prosecuted Pasha for a bank robbery in 1984.

Pasha represented himself.

Herrbach said Pasha was always exceptionally polite. He answered 'yes sir' and 'no sir' and remained calm at all times.

'Up here, I remember him being kind of comical,' Herrbach said. Pasha often laughed at himself when he asked a silly question.

At one point, Herrbach said, Pasha asked a bank teller how she recognized him.

'He said, 'How do you know it was me, because I had a mask on?'' Herrbach said.

Pasha laughed at his own faux pas, Herrbach said.

Pasha's record of convictions dates back to a charge of mail theft, Herrbach said. As an adult, he served several stints in federal and state prison, beginning in 1967 and ending in 1996. His convictions include charges of escape, bank robbery and armed robbery.

Herrbach said Pasha has at least four aliases.

After Pasha's arrest here, neighbors told The Tampa Tribune that he seemed like a nice man. Canady's children, however, would tell them that Pasha would get mad and become 'demonized.'

Neighbors also said Pasha and Canady fought often and that they were surprised when they married, just three weeks before her death.

As the trial began Wednesday, Pasha almost had no legal representation.

Since his arrest, Pasha has fired more than one public defender and three private lawyers.

As his trial drew closer, at least two judges persuaded him not to represent himself - most recently Wednesday, right after Sinardi gave his opening statement.

Pasha calmly and politely told Circuit Judge William Fuente that he was worried his attorney did not have his best interests at heart. Then, just as politely, he apologized to Sinardi for the insinuation.

'I have no intention of hindering the court or holding up the court, but this is my life here,' Pasha said. 'You're throwing me to the wolves to let this proceed as it is.'

Fuente said for Pasha to represent himself, he had to make an unequivocal request before the trial. At a hearing Monday, Pasha said he wanted to represent himself but felt he would be better off with a lawyer.

That, Fuente ruled, was not unequivocal.

Trial testimony begins this morning.