Tag Archives: true crime

PREDATOR (Forward & The cast) 12.14.15


FORWARD CONTINUED:

A short-lived smile touched her lips. Her voice lowered, softened. She lit a cigarette, busying her fingers, took a deep draw on it, then blew the first exhale up and away from my direction. “My friends,” she inhaled again. “My family,” she said quietly, more to herself than to me. Her eyes were still looking down and with the palm of her free hand she absent mindedly smoothed her dress. “It was like, you know, I was at fault for some reason. I was the guilty one. That is what they wanted to know.” She took a sip of her tea and looked around at the other lunch customers seated at tables near ours who were, like she and I, enjoying a soft Florida breeze. “Every one of them.” She paused, then added, “‘He was your boyfriend,’ they said to me,” her voice climbed with passion. “Like that gave me some kind of magical insight into the man. It’s all bullshit.” Her eyes dropped to the pavement, then up, fierce, black.

“‘You lived together. And, you are telling me, telling us you didn’t know?'” She thumped her chest with a thumb and turned her head quizzically to look at me. Our eyes met and once more I could not look away. Her chin was high and her eyes, moments before warm and friendly had grown suddenly cold, hard, flinty.

I could see, could feel the emotional intensity that burned inside her. She felt wronged by the very people she thought would have been there for support. She wanted to say to each of them, “What about me? All these questions are about why I didn’t know. What about me? Don’t any one of you who are aware of the relationship that I had with Delmer recognize that I had feelings in this? Don’t you recognize my fear? My bewilderment? My sense of betrayal? Is it only that you want to know why I didn’t know? Well, better yet, if you were around him, why didn’t you know?”

She didn’t need to say those words. I felt them emanating from her heart and soul. I saw them in her eyes, the way she held her head, the silence that surrounded her as she sat and stared into her tea.

This was our first meeting, Michele and mine. However, it would not be the last.

************************************

MAIN CAST OF CHARACTERS 

SARASOTA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Sergeant J. Blessee, Patrol Supervisor District Two

Miss Farnsworth, Victim’s Assistance

Detective Rhonda V. DiFranco, Forensics

Detective C. Dusseau

Detective Michael “Mike” A. Dumer

Jessica Hendrickson, Crime Scene Technician

Jessica Jarecki, Crime Scene Technician

Detective B. Keane

Detective M. LeFebvre

Detective K. McGath

Deputy Mrzuack, K-9 Officer

Deputy Josh Pelfrey

Deputy B. Pollock

Sergeant Sirran

Deputy John Swinney

Jessica Sawyer, Forensic Technician

Deputy John Thomas

Detective D. Tuck

Sergeant Daniel Tutko

Detective Sergeant John Walsh

Deputy Wineka, Helicopter Pilot

SARASOTA CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT

Detective DeFrancisco

Detective Linda DeNiro

FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

Rochelle Gatemen, Supervisor FDLE Bio-Lab, Fort Myers, FL

Shana Hayter, FDLE Crime Laboratory Analyst in Biology and DNA

Michael Rafferty, FDLE Chief of Forensic Services

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Special Agent G. Sandoval

FEDERAL PAROLE OFFICER

Gerri Cotter

CITY OF VENICE, FLORIDA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Sergeant Jason Adams

Officer Guinart

Officer Long

FAMILY, AND ACQUAINTANCES OF DELMER SMITH

Shannon (Bodell) Barrett, landlady

Michele Quinones, former fiancé

Alicia Phillips, niece

Christina Smith, niece

Martha Tejeda, personal friend

STATE OF FLORIDA PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS SARASOTA OFFICE

Elizabeth Scanlan

Earl Varn

DEFENSE ATTORNEY SARASOTA COUNTY

Marjorie Bender

MANATEE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Detective Kumiko Carter

Detective Edward “Ned” Foy

Robert Feverston, Latent Fingerprint Examiner

Grace Givens, Crime Scene Technician

Andrew Hasty, Deputy

Hurley Smith, Crime Scene Technician

Richard Talbot, Crime Scene Manager

Adrianne Walls, Crime Scene Technician

FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS OF KATHY BRILES

James A. Briles, MD

Calvin Briles, MD

Kristie Gish

Mary Wanser

OTHER MANATEE COUNTY WITNESSES

Michael Bierds, Publix Store Manager

Wilson A. Broussard, Jr. M.D., Forensic Pathologist

Armenouhi Comstock, Owner Armiks Fine Collectibles

Stanley Grubbs, Atrue Lock Service

Kevin Noppinger, DNA Laboratory Manager, DNA Labs International

Istvan Szecsenyi, Owner Roadkill Auto, Inc.

Oliver Young, Duct Tape Product Manager

Victoria Marshall., Sarasota County Victim

STATE OF FLORIDA PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS MANATEE OFFICE

Suzanne O’Donnell

Brian Iten

DEFENSE ATTORNEYS IN MANATEE COUNTY

 Daniel Hernandez

Bjorn Brunvand

This material is protected by a copyright  by Gordon Kuhn  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PREDATOR: The Man Who Didn’t Exist


I am having a hard time with one section of the book. It is part of the murder case trial in Bradenton. Trying to pull together phone calls, testimony, trial records, and interviews to make it all more readable.

It is difficult and slow. I have a lot of data to write about and to blend. I think that is the hardest, the blending. I have testimony from several sources and am using those elements to create a story that will be smooth. I am also jumping between dates. Because of that I need to make sure that moving from one set of facts or data to another set of facts or data is not only smooth but will be entertaining at the same time.

I am going to be sooooo happy when this book is done.

Book naming….your thoughts.


I am into naming a book for publication. It is now at over 400 pages and is about a career criminal on death row in Florida for a brutal murder of a woman he did not know. He beat her to death as she lay on the floor with duct tape holding her prisoner. He was a sexual deviant as well. The man started his career as a criminal as a youth. His first rape that I know of occurred when he was 14. He has spent the majority of his life in prison and now sits on death row in Florida.

I had named the book to be: Predator; The Man Who Didn’t Exist.

Someone suggested that they thought there was a better name than that for such a book, true crime, and narrative nonfiction.

So, I’m asking. Any suggestions?

Welcome New Followers!


Hello! I have been working on several projects and must apologize to those of you who recently (within the past month or so) have decided to follow my blog here. I am excited that you are here and I want to thank you all for following me. My excuse is that I have been working on a new site to promote my books http://www.authorgordonkuhn.com and in the process of doing that my computer crashed. It took me two weeks to get the system back to where I think it should be. Thank God for the Dell Techs who took control of the computer several times and flushed out the viruses I had picked up. If you have a Dell I highly suggest that you get the service from them to protect your computer. They actually can take control of you computer and view it remotely. You sit there and watch your cursor move across the screen and you communicate with them in a message box or they can talk with you over the phone. They saved my butt!

The other thing I have been doing is writing. I know I told you all that Tincture Journal (an online magazine) published The Intersection in its September electronic publication. I was really excited about that and was happy to share the story with so many people. Tincture has a huge following.

The other thing I have been doing is working on the true crime novel: Predator, The Man Who Didn’t Exist.

I have crossed the 400 page mark and have about another 100 pages to write. I have been looking for an agent, but have not found one. I need to finish the book and if I have to do it I will publish it myself.

So, that is what has been going on with me.

I have to say you all have been great with your notes to me and with your visits. Thanks! I will write more later on, it is now 0530 here and I’ve been up about 3 hours. Just restless and wanting to communicate with you all. So, have a great day!

 

PREDATOR: The Man Who Didn’t Exist…….Chapter One


The following is the first chapter from my book Predator: The Man Who Didn’t Exist.

 

CHAPTER 1—911 Operator 143

 

She lay face down.

At least, that is how they found the body—face down.

They, being the hastily established Manatee County team of sheriff’s deputies, forensic personnel, fire department paramedics, and the county coroner’s office staff that had been called into service on August 3rd, 2009, in the middle of the night. It was their job to descend on the horrifying scene at a residence in a quiet neighborhood in response to her husband’s frantic 911 call.

Manatee County 911, what is the nature of your emergency?

The operator’s voice was calm, well-practiced, having responded thousands of times in the same cool manner during stressful telephone calls as this would soon become.

Caller: (Unintelligible) I just got home, my wife is on the floor!

The voice was breathless, filled with shock and terror.

Three years after the Manatee County 911 system recorded the emotion-filled phone call from a distraught man, the prosecution introduced the tape as evidence in Case No. 2010-CF-000479, The State of Florida vs. Delmer Smith, a murder case.

The Court, jury, and gallery would sit and listen completely absorbed by the conversation being played back for them. While the horror of the night slowly became indelibly evident for everyone else in the room, the defendant appeared indifferent. He spent most of his time looking at the highly-polished wooden conference table-top where he sat, or at his handcuffed hands.

He focused on them, turning them over, then right side up. He twisted them one way, then another, carefully examining each hand like a person would checking to see if they might need to wash them.  Perhaps, in this case, to remove the invisible stain and erase the scent of his victim’s blood that only he was conscious of.

The act was eerily reminiscent of the scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth where the Thane of Fife’s wife spoke those incredibly memorable lines, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say! … What! will these hands ne’er be clean? … Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

The 911 operator immediately obtained the caller’s name, address, and phone number. He then went on to ask questions of the caller concerning the nature of his call and then:

Caller: (unintelligible) she’s tied up. It looks like someone hit her on the head with something here. I don’t know. It’s just….

The man’s voice stumbled, falling away, trailing off. His breathing, haggard, short gasps for air recorded, played, filled the courtroom.

911: Are you with her now?

Caller: Yeah (unintelligible)—I think she’s already dead!

911: How old is she?

Caller: Kathy is in her — 40s. She was — born in — 1960. Holy — shit. Please (unintelligible)….

The painful distress in the caller’s voice was clearly palpable as it tumbled in volume into a stumbling pile of meaningless garble.

All who sat in the relative safety and comfort of oak-paneled courtroom 5-A of Florida’s Twelfth Circuit that day in Manatee County and listened to the replay of the taped telephone callmade that alarming night would never forget what was said; nor would they ever be able to erase from their memories the emotions they felt individually as a result of hearing the heartbreaking descriptions of the scene as addressed in that tragic recording.

It was a simple conversation between a 911 operator, who identified himself only as “operator 143,” and a distressed husband who had just entered into a nightmare world of epic horror-filled dimensions. Yet, as it unraveled, it would leave the courtroom chilled and silent except for the voices of the attorneys and their witnesses who were called to testify. By this point, Operator 143 had the address and the name of the caller: Dr. James Briles, a local physician who lived on Terra Ceia.

PREDATOR: THE MAN WHO DIDN’T EXIST


Delmer Smith III was born July 19, 1971 in Detroit, Michigan to a couple who are now both deceased. He is one of several children from this union. He is light skinned, light enough to pass for being white. He is given his father’s name and the family happily pronounces him to be Delmer the 3rd. His name, and that of his father, is a variant of Delmar (also used within the family) and comes from Spanish and “Old” French. It means “of the sea.” The choice is, perhaps prophetic in an eerie way.

The sea is a mercurial place. It can be calm, inviting, sublime, and soft at one point and then, in the next, with little if any warning, treacherous, evil, violent, destructive, a merciless killer. And, so it was to be with Delmer the 3rd. As it is for the sea, he also will be a mystery to those he meets in life as told to me by his onetime girlfriend, “He was the man who didn’t exist.”

She went on to say to me, “I recall one day we were fishing and he was standing off behind me and I looked up at him. He didn’t know I was watching him. What I saw was a man stripped for a moment of what or who he was. He was so soft standing there, a little boy. So strange. He was so at peace. And yet, there is this other Delmer that I did not know or even suspect might exist.”

This is a man who is an enigma to many—perhaps even to himself. He will leave in his wake terror as well as love.

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Predator: The Man Who DIdn’t Exist …… update


The book, Predator, The Man Who Didn’t Exist is a complex work. Currently at 290 pages and about half way through it. The book is about a serial killer/rapist who began his criminal career at age 14 and in March of 2013 he received a death sentence for the murder of a doctor’s wife in Bradenton, FL.

I am setting up a contact program to let my followers know what is going on.

If you wish to be on the contact list please write to me at GKUHNWRITES@AOL.COM and give me your email address.

EXCERPT FROM Predator, The Man Who Didn’t Exist

CHAPTER ONE: Murder

She lay face down.
At least, that is how they found the body—face down.
They, being the hastily established Manatee County team of sheriff’s deputies, forensic personnel, fire department paramedics, and the county coroner’s office staff. It was their job to descend on the horrifying scene at a residence in a quiet neighborhood in response to her husband’s frantic 911 call.
Manatee County 911, what is the nature of your emergency
Caller:…I just got home, my wife is on the floor!
911:…Are you with her now?
Caller: Yeah…I think she’s already dead.
911: Is she awake?
Caller: No, I think she’s dead.
911: What makes you think she’s dead?
Caller: She’s not breathing. She’s laying here and she’s cold and blue.
They would come like a small, sudden swarm of cautious, curious, searching ants. Their rapidly advancing presence along four-lane US 19 was heralded by the growing sound of wailing sirens coming north out of the cities of Bradenton and Palmetto.
911: She’s cold?
Caller: Oh, yes. …
911: Do you believe she’s beyond any help?
Caller: She’s not breathing. She’s not breathing.
911: Do you think she’s beyond help?
Caller: I can’t, I can’t…her mouth is bound…gagged. Oh, God.
911: I am sending paramedics to help you….
The disjointed string of vehicles slowed as it crossed the bridge passing over the murky greenish brown Terra Ceia Bay. The conversation continued between the caller and the 911 operator for several minutes with the 911 operator finally transferring the call to the sheriff’s department.
911: Okay, stay on the line. I am going to let you speak to the sheriff’s department.
Sheriff’s department: This is Carey on a recorded line.
911: I am transferring a call to you….
The 911 operator quickly passed information to the sheriff’s deputy concerning the nature of the call and the caller’s identification. The deputy immediately dispatched personnel who raced to the location where the caller was at while continuing the conversation calmly on the phone.

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