Hernando Today
Murder Trial Opens Monday
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Published: May 10, 2008
BROOKSVILLE - The two men grapple for the rifle, circling in a violent shoving match inside the small house.
The gun goes off five times: pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.
The fight spills out into the front yard. Blood pours down the face of the victim, who finally succeeds in wrestling the gun away from his attacker. The suspect speeds off in his sport utility vehicle.
Inside the house, the homeowner is slumped over dead on a couch, a bullet hole in his chest.
Who's to blame?
That, in a nutshell, is what jurors will have to decide when James Ray Booth's trial opens on Monday. Booth, 58, has five felony charges against him including first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison upon conviction.
Prosecutor Pete Magrino said it's a sad day when drug house murders migrate from the big cities to rural Hernando County.
"You wouldn't think it would happen here," he said.
Booth's attorney, Patricia Jenkins, didn't return a phone message.
Booth's court file has expanded since October 2006 to two thick folders crammed with arrest affidavits, sundry filings and depositions.
Collectively they spell out how Booth went to 21330 Canal Drive in DaMac Estates in the early afternoon of Oct. 21 to settle a $150 cocaine debt. He brought two rifles with him, probably as collateral.
He had already been there an hour prior to talk things over with Thor Richmond and the discussion was heated. Apparently, Booth was through with negotiations because he chambered a round in the rifle and opened fire, the affidavit states.
Richmond dodged the first shot and grabbed the hot gun barrel, instantly blistering his fingers. As Richmond tried to rip the gun away, it fired four more times.
The homeowner, Kenneth LaPointe Sr., was sitting at the kitchen table when the shooting began. One of those bullets struck him in the chest.
As Richmond and Booth took the scrap outside, LaPointe staggered over to a couch where he fell over and died. Outside the house, Richmond had finished the fight with the gun in his hand and Booth drove off to his girlfriend's house.
But the jury isn't going to get a broad interview or a summary of the facts. They'll have to sit through individual testimony and that could get dicey.
The depositions included in court filings are riddled with inconsistencies, contradictions and vague recollections. Richmond denies being the "muscle" for suspected drug dealer Sammy Rodriguez, to whom Booth owed money.
Rodriguez says he never sold cocaine to anyone and goes so far as to claim he doesn't even know what cocaine is. His memory is so shaky that's he threatened with contempt of court.
Magrino didn't want to say anything about the dodgy testimony.
"It is what it is," he said.
Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( chriss100602 ) on May 10, 2008 at 7:14 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
"Prosecutor Pete Magrino said it's a sad day when drug house murders migrate from the big cities to rural Hernando County." This happened in DaMac..... and he's surprised!? Must not be from Brooksville.
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