Lobik murder trial contd.

4 | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | St. Petersburg Times CLW

Sports >

The West Florida Y Runners Club had another healthy crowd — 203 runners — for the second installment of the Sunsets at Pier 60 Summer Series at Clear-water Beach on Friday night.

Seventeen-year-old Wes Reynolds, who will start his senior year at St. Petersburg High in August, ran the fastest 5K in 17:02.

Kenneth City’s Mark Benja-min, 19, an assistant cross coun-try coach at Dixie Hollins High, finished second in 17:24. Round-ing out the top three was Thomas McGrath, 17, of Largo in 17:43.

In the women’s ranks, Christa Benton, a five-time high school Florida state champ and former All-American for USF, had the fastest time in 17:56. The 18-year-old is the only woman ever to run a sub-18:00 at any of the West Florida Y’s beach races.

Other male winners included: Rayce Peters, Belleair, 33:32 (10 and under); Hunter McCann, Treasure Island, 21:00 (11-12); Cameron Wheeler, St. Peters-burg, 19:31 (13-14); Rick Pluta, Clearwater, 18:12 (15-19); Joe Palmer, Palm Harbor, 18:56 (35-39); Daryl Mullholand, Clearwater, 21:11 (40-44); Keith Sawayda, Clearwater, 17:45 (45-49); Dennis Byron, Palm Har-bor, 18:39 (50-54); Duncan Cam-eron, Palm Harbor, 21:17 (65-69).

Female age group winners included: Julia Siegel, Tarpon Springs, 27:58 (10 and under); Bobbi Marie LaBrant, Largo, 27:17 (11-12); Ashley Forn-shell, Clearwater, 22:06 (15-19); Nika Merta, Palm Harbor, 22:16 (20-24); Ali Smith, Clear-water, 22:06 (25-29); Christy Ford, Clearwater, 28:53 (30-34); Pamela McCann, Trea-sure Island, 25:09 (40-44); Patti Spence, Belleair, 22:09 (45-49); Vickie Krivacs, Palm Harbor, 29:51 (50-54); Karen Alexeev, Gulfport, 26:36 (55-59); Millie Hamilton, Redington Beach, 28:42 (60-64); Annette Frisch, St. Petersburg, 27:50 (65-69).

Traveling triathletesPatricia and Tom Hoffman,

two triathletes from Pinellas County, recently made a trip to Fort Lauderdale to compete in the Publix Family Fitness Triath-lon. Patricia, also an avid open-

water swimmer, finished first in the 55-59 division in 1:19:18, despite losing five minutes to a bike crash. Tom finished sixth in the 40-44 division in 1:03:17.

Traveling runnersMadeleine Zolfo, 43, of Trea-

sure Island was the first female finisher on July 12 at the E.L. Bing Beat the Heat 5K in Thono-tosassa. Zolfo finished in 19:12.

Swimming newsTim Kennedy, 51, of St.

Petersburg traveled to Man-hattan on July 5 for the annual 28.5-mile swim around the island. The event’s organizers limit the field to the fastest 25 swimmers who apply. Kennedy said that at the pre-race meeting, one of his fellow contestants told race officials, “It’s harder to get in the Manhattan swim than it is to get into college.”

Kennedy’s goal was to com-plete the counter-clockwise cir-cumnavigation of Manhattan in eight hours or less. He finished in 7 hours, 51 minutes, 28 sec-onds — just 20 minutes behind the winner.

The performance put him in sixth place overall — he was the third male and first in his age group. His secret: just zone out.

“You try not to think too much. Otherwise, you know how far you have to go and how cold the water is,” he said. “So I just zoned out, let time go by and kept my rhythm.”

The St. Pete Mad Dog Triath-lon Club member and St. Mas-ters Team swimmer was accom-panied by his daughter Lauren and girlfriend Carolyn Kiper.

Do you have running, swimming, biking, triathlon or adventure rac-ing news? Send it to Terry Toma-lin at [email protected] or call (727) 893-8808. You can also submit news online at community.tampabay.com.

Reynolds, Benton continue 5K success

. FAST FACTS

Upcoming events Today • Take the First Step, Sum-mer Series No. 4, 5K, 6 p.m., Al Lopez Park, Tampa. Call Lynn Gray at (813) 453-7885 or (813) 398-2217.Friday• Picnic Island Adventure Run No. 3, 5K, 6:45 p.m., Pic-nic Island, Tampa. Call (813) 232-5200 or visit active.com.Saturday• Gaither workout (for experienced bikers), 7:45 a.m., behind Gaither High. Call Richard Johnson at (813) 238-2464 or visit tbfreewheelers.com.• Marathon training, various group runs, 5:30 a.m., Downtown YMCA, Tampa. Contact Fred Vasconi at (813) 222-1334 or [email protected].• Stanley Breakfast Ride, 7:45 a.m., Seffner Elemen-tary, 109 Cactus Road, Seffner. Contact Terry Farrell at (813)684-3503 or [email protected], or visit tbfreewheelers.com.• West Florida “Y” Runners Club, 6 a.m. at City Hall Plaza in Clearwater, 7 a.m. at John Chesnut Park in Palm Harbor. Call Michael Weiss at (727) 644-7702 or visit wfyrc.com.Tuesday• Progressive Training Team, track workouts, 6:30 p.m., Coleman Elemen-tary, Tampa. Contact Dror Vaknin at (813) 846-5021 or [email protected]. 1• Sunset at the Pier Series No. 3, 7 p.m., 5K, Pier 60, Clearwater Beach. Contact Michael Weiss at (727) 644-7702 or [email protected]. 2• Top Gun Triathlon, 7:30 a.m., quarter-mile swim, 10-mile bike, 3.1-mile run, Fort DeSoto, St. Petersburg. Call (813) 874-7223 or visit topguntriathlon.com.

TERRY TOMALINRun, bike, swim

DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

Swimming toward triathlon success From right, Dylan Powers of New Port Richey, Jessica Henslee of Clearwater Beach, Cody Downes of Barstow, Calif., Noah Snare of Tarpon Springs, Nicole Winter of Sarasota and Breanna Lifand of Tarpon Springs demonstrate swimming with their fitness coach, Celia Dubey, left, at Total Fitness Health Club and Spa’s children’s triathlon clinic. Kids were taught the fundamentals of swimming, cycling and running for triathlon competitions.

FOR THE RECORDBaseballTampa TarponsThe adult 18-and-over Clearwater team is looking for former high school, college and minor-league players for the summer league. Please call Kevin Minto at 742-6192. USA PatriotsThe 9-and-under AAU team is looking for players. For informa-tion, call coach Mike Galinski at 556-3200.

BasketballCity of Largo CampThe city of is offering a summer camp Aug. 4-8 at Indian Rocks Baptist Church. For more infor-

mation call 460-1904 or visit www.largoyouthbasketball.com.

MiscellaneousSYAA meeting, electionsThe Seminole Youth Athletic Association will hold a general membership meeting and elec-tions Aug. 3, 2 p.m., at the conces-sion stand at 12100 90th Ave. N. Any family associated with foot-ball, soccer or baseball is encour-aged to attend. For more informa-tion, call Steve Kemp at 391-8679. SYAA is a volunteer organization that depends on donations to maintain the facility. To make a donation, contact Bob DeKorte at 397-3928.

SoccerSYAA soccerRegistration dates for the Semi-nole Youth Athletic Association are Aug. 6 from 6-8 p.m., Aug. 9 from 11-2 p.m., Aug. 13 from 6-8, Aug. 16 from 11-2 p.m., Aug. 23 from 11-2 p.m., Aug. 27 from 11-2 p.m.) and Aug. 30 from 11-2 p.m. Registration takes place at the SYAA Field, 12100 90th Ave. N., Seminole. For more information, visit www.syaa-soccer.com or call 398-3699.

SubmissionsAnnouncements should be mailed to Times Sports, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731-1121 or e-mail [email protected].

That inconsistency led author-ities to charge him with first-degree murder a year later.

Defense attorney Kandice Friesen said Lobik, who lived in Largo at the time of the killing but later moved to Ocala, never confessed to police or in letters to family.

On Tuesday, medical exam-iner Jon Thogmartin testified instead of John Gallagher, who performed the autopsy in 1987 but died a year later.

Thogmartin said Heyliger was hit behind the head and on the forehead, leaving bruises and cuts.

But it wasn’t enough to kill her.

Thogmartin said Heyliger was choked so hard, her neck-lace left an impression in her skin.

But it wasn’t enough to kill her.

It was the three slashes to the throat that killed her, Thogmar-tin said, but not before she took a few breaths and bled to death.

“She was alive after the stran-gulation and she was alive after the throat cut,” he told jurors.

Allen Kough, who has 11 fel-ony convictions, said in his tes-timony that he was in the van transporting him and Lobik to jail. Lobik told him about Hey-liger’s murder “like he didn’t care at all,” he said.

“They couldn’t prove it then

and they’ll never prove it now,” Kough said Lobik told him.

The trial is scheduled to con-tinue today.

Jackie Alexander can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 445-4167.

. SLAYING continued from 1

Two-decade trail finally leads to trial

JIM DAMASKE | Times

Retired Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime scene technician Joel Carey goes through evidence during the trial of Jeffrey Lobik. Some involved in the case have died.

From the front page >

tal land the county owns in the Brooker Creek, Mobbly Bayou, Shell Key and Weedon Island pre-

serves and in 15 other man-agement areas throughout the county.

But the Friends of Brooker Creek, a non-profit group organized to advocate for and support the Brook-er Creek Pre-serve, say the charter amendment doesn’t go far enough.

The rea-son: Voter ap-proval would not be need-ed before leas-ing preserve lands, as com-missioners did when they

leased 38.5 preserve acres on Old Keystone Road to the East Lake Youth Sports Association for youth sports fields.

Will Davis, the county’s direc-tor of environmental manage-ment, confirmed the Friends’ take on the charter amendment in a discussion with Tom Reese, a St. Petersburg attorney, and Barbara Hoffman, a member of Pinellas County’s advisory Envi-ronmental Science Forum and

vice chairwoman of the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve.

“It stops the sale of the land — period,” Davis said of the charter amendment.

Hoffman said the Friends want to see a vote required for leasing, donating or licensing environmental lands as well as selling them.

And she said the vote should be required for any interest to be transferred, not just the transfer of “fee simple” inter-est — in essence, the transfer

of all property rights — as the amendment now reads.

The ordinance abandoned a year ago contained six excep-tions that would have allowed commissioners to take big steps affecting parks and environmental lands without getting voter approval first. Commissioner Calvin Harris and residents objected to the loopholes.

Opponents of the ordinance hoped the charter amendment would include language pre-venting commissioners from unilaterally approving proj-ects — like an equestrian cen-ter and the ballfields — once proposed in the Brooker Creek Preserve.

Last year, environmental activist Lorraine Margeson of St. Petersburg gave commis-sioners a proposed charter amendment based on the provi-sion in St. Petersburg’s charter that gives city voters there sim-ilar authority over the down-town waterfront.

The charter amendment now under consideration is not the one she proposed, she said, but it’s much better than the coun-ty’s discarded ordinance.

Charter amendments put vot-ers in the driver’s seat, she said.

“With the stadium, if we had not had the charter amend-ment protection, we’d probably already be building a baseball stadium,” she said.

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 445-4170.

ATOYIA DEANS | Times

ATOYIA DEANS | Times

Brooker Creek offers visitors an array of landscapes, such as the xeric hammock, left, and a field of the Xyris species, commonly known as yellow-eyed grass.

. LANDS continued from 1

Future land sales may go to voters

Commissioner Susan Latvala backs the idea of an amendment.

Activist Lorraine Margeson is supporter too.

. FAST FACTS

If you goWhen: 9:30 a.m. Aug. 5Where: Commission assembly room, fifth floor, Pinellas County Court-house, 315 Court St., Clear-waterWhat: A public hearing on whether to amend the county’s charter to require a referendum before selling more than an acre of the county’s environmental lands. It will be the only public hearing if commis-sioners vote on the issue that day. If commissioners move ahead, county voters would consider the charter amendment during the general election Nov. 4. If passed, the charter amend-ment would take effect Jan. 1.