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Hernando Today

Police Call Shooting Death A Murder

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By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: May 27, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Isaiah Collins had minutes to live as he lay bleeding on the roadside by the bright green palmettos.

He had been shot - murdered to be specific.

Police turned up first, following a 911 call placed at 12:20 a.m. Monday. Someone had heard shots fired.

Medics were right behind the police, their emergency lights brightening the T-shaped intersection of Roberta and Buena Vista avenues. They shocked Collins in a bid to revive him, then tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation from the back of an ambulance.

The ambulance rushed him to Brooksville Regional Hospital where he died. He was 29.

His death left a wake of questions that Brooksville police spent Memorial Day trying to solve. All of the questions lead back to the big one: Who killed Collins?

There are some clues. Some the public can piece together, others detectives are keeping close to their chest. Start with the scene.

A bright yellow sign sits at the juncture where Collins was left that warns motorists they can either go right or left. Heading straight leads them directly into the thick woods that border Buena Vista. On Monday morning, a shred of yellow crime scene tape was the only indication anything was amiss.

Mark Mingee lives on the corner house. He was awake at midnight when he heard four loud pops. Fireworks, he thought. But then the cops showed up. He stepped outside and saw a man lying on his side on the ground, his feet facing the woods. He wore stone-washed shorts, white tennis shoes, a white shirt. The man wasn't moving.

"It was just crazy," Mingee said.

Police confirmed later that drugs were found near Collins. Mingee was told it was a drug deal gone wrong.

Collins lived on Twigg Street, a few miles south of where he was shot. Longtime friend Victoria Smith described him as someone "who never got into trouble."

He liked rapping. He was into shoes and clothes. He liked to gamble on the street.

His mom and dad, who raised him in Dade City, died before him. He leaves behind younger brothers.

"Everybody loved him," Smith said.

Sunday night he was watching a basketball game on TV with his friends. About 11:30 p.m. they went to a little club near Twigg Street. That was the last anyone saw of him.

Around 11:30 a.m., police swarmed onto the property at the corner of Hernando Street and Fort Dade Avenue and cordoned off a red Nissan Z in the driveway with crime scene tape.

A witness told Mingee that he saw what looked like a red Thunderbird leaving the intersection where Collins was left for dead. It was unclear what connection, if any, that car had with the murder.

People gathered outside the house on the corner property told a reporter to leave.

The last murder in the city was on Valentine's Day when 69-year-old Robert Rutherford was beaten with a fire extinguisher and strangled. Police have charged Treva Anderson, 23, in connection with his death. Anderson, who is being held on a no bond status, has pleaded not guilty.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

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