Murders Florida

Police in South Florida searched for a man suspected of accidentally killing a woman during illegal plastic surgery to enlarge her buttocks. Vera Lawrence, a 53-year-old employee in Miami-Dade County's community development division, died in a local hospital after being injected in the buttocks with either silicon or collagen, police in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Miramar said.

Gov. Jeb Bush said he will consider speeding up the clemency process for Lionel Tate, the 14-year-old boy serving a life-without-parole sentence for beating a little girl to death. Prisoners are not normally eligible for clemency until they have served two years. But the governor can waive that requirement and also order the request expedited. Tate received the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder for the 1999 slaying of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick.

A 14-year-old boy who said he was merely imitating his pro wrestling heroes when he killed a young playmate was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole--a fate that some jurors and even the prosecutor say is too harsh. Broward County Judge Joel T. Lazarus imposed the mandatory sentence on Lionel Tate, calling his actions "cold, callous and indescribably cruel."

Alive, Gus Boulis seemed bigger than life. Driven to succeed, the onetime dishwasher from Greece grew rich while weaving a web of business and personal relationships that was often explosively complex. Dead, the story of the controversial tycoon seems even more complicated. "The nature of his personality means that we've got to look into every scenario possible--business, love and money," said Fort Lauderdale police Det. Michael Reed.

An American Indian was convicted of second-degree murder for drowning his two sons. It was a case tribal leaders said never should have gone to state court because of sovereignty concerns and because he had been forgiven. Kirk Douglas Billie, 32, admitted driving a sport-utility vehicle containing his sons into the canal off the Miccosukee reservation in 1997. He said he did not know that the boys, Keith, 3, and Kurt, 5, were in the back seat.

Rejecting a "blame pro wrestling" defense, a jury Thursday found a 13-year-old guilty of murder in the beating death of his young playmate. Lionel Tate is believed to be the youngest person in Florida history--and one of the youngest in the nation--ever convicted of homicide in an adult court. He could face life behind bars. The defense had contended the boy simply was imitating the violent moves he had seen his wrestling heroes perform on television and had not intended to hurt anyone.

Did a 12-year-old boy murder his younger playmate in what prosecutors have termed "a brutal, savage beating"? Or did Tiffany Eunick die accidentally as she and Lionel Tate imitated what he had seen his muscled heroes do on TV? Those are the questions that a jury will begin to weigh today in a first-degree murder trial that has gained national attention because of the age of the accused--now 13--and his novel defense.

One of the youngest defendants to face an adult murder trial in Florida has an unusual defense in the beating death of a 6-year-old family friend: Pro wrestling made him do it. Nobody disputes that Lionel Tate, 12 at the time, smashed in Tiffany Eunick's skull. But the boy's attorney contends it was an accident that resulted from an intellectually immature youth imitating the wrestlers he watched on television. The World Wrestling Federation is suing the lawyer for libel.

A 15-year-old boy was charged with first-degree murder after he allegedly shot and killed his sleeping father. Police said Anthony Adderley, 33, and his son had argued after Adderley would not let his son visit his teenage girlfriend, the mother of their 6-month-old child.