Evidence of Murder (12 page)

Smith, a tall, lean man with sharp brown eyes and long shoulder-length rusty brown hair, told them, “I’m sure that you know by now that John showed up here on June twelfth, big as life in that fancy white Ford Explorer. It had a bug guard on the front, luggage rack and lightly tinted windows. I took one look at that automobile and thought, ‘Wow! What a car.’ I wondered where John came by it. I really admired it, even sat in it. It had grayish cream-color leather interior. I noticed the radar detector suction-cupped to the windshield.” Smith leaned back in his chair and explained that “I was surprised because it was hardwired directly into the electrical circuit, instead of being plugged into the cigarette lighter, which is normal.”

He continued, “I asked him where he got the car. He said it was a rental, but I was skeptical because I know rental cars don’t come with radar detectors hardwired into the electrical system.

“John asked if he could leave the car parked behind my house for a bit while he went next door to the lounge.” He gestured in the direction of the Illusions Lounge. “I said, ‘Sure,’ thinking he’d be back in a couple of hours. Instead, it was a couple of days. He finally took it away on the fifteenth.”

Smith hesitated a moment, then continued. “Several days after John drove the Explorer away, I was doing some tidying up in the back of my house. I found several items on top of our hot-water heater that didn’t belong to us and one was the radar detector, sitting there along with other stuff. I thought I was seeing things. But I knew positively that it was the detector from the Ford. It had the same style suction cup attachment hanger system as the one in the Explorer.” He said that the power cord was cut.

“What happened then, Mr. Smith?” Linnert inquired.

“Well, I’m hesitant to say.” He looked at the lawmen, reluctant to reveal more, but he knew he would have to talk.

“Just tell us. There won’t be any problem,” Weir assured him.

“Okay. I was afraid of what would happen if it was found here, so I got rid of it.”

“Where?” Linnert asked.

“I threw it in some bushes a few blocks from here.”

“Can you take us there?” Weir asked.

“Sure.”

Smith silently led the two detectives to a spot on South Atlantic Avenue, east of A1A, where he directed the officers to a thicket of bushes. He leaned down and retrieved a black instrument, which he held up, stating, “This is it. I threw it into the bushes here this morning.”

Weir and Linnert glanced at each other, thinking,
Was it before or after he knew of our visit to his home?

“Why did you discard it?” Weir asked.

“I was upset; I just didn’t know what to do,” Smith answered frankly. He laced his fingers together and went on. “Kim told me about your investigation and I just got concerned. I didn’t want to get involved in any way. I was worried about that detector and I just wanted to get rid of it and everything connected with it, so I threw it away.” He hesitated and added, “This morning.”

“Did you see John Huggins any time after he retrieved the Ford?” Weir inquired.

“I got a call from him about a week later, asking me to get some marijuana for him, which I did. When he came by to pick it up, he had a nice-looking woman with him. I was surprised and asked him who she was. He told me it was Angel’s sister. I asked no more questions.” He paused. “Angel is a friend of Kim’s.”

At the wrap-up of the interview, Weir summoned Deputy Criminalist Virginia Casey of BCSD, who photographed for evidence records the detector, where it was found and the top of the water heater area, where Kevin Smith said he found it.

The investigation broadened, moving forward slowly but inexorably, with the detectives following up meticulously on every bit of information that they learned about John Huggins.

Weir verified that John Huggins checked in the Holiday Inn on June 10. “He stayed through June eleventh,” the inn clerk told Weir. He also said that Huggins used a passport for identification.
That’s strange,
Weir thought.
Why would he have his passport with him? Why not use a driver’s license?

In answer to questions that Detective Weir asked, the clerk said that Huggins paid cash for his room. But when the detective asked about the vehicle that John Huggins was driving, he was told that they didn’t have any surveillance cameras overlooking the parking area.

Weir relayed the information to Linnert. “I’m just sorry we couldn’t establish what vehicle Huggins was driving when he checked into that Holiday Inn,” he said gloomily.

“Yeah, it would have been helpful,” Linnert responded. Adding a positive note, he said, “But we know that he was driving around on June tenth, and we have good indications that it was in Carla Larson’s Ford Explorer.”

Weir nodded in agreement.

The detectives checked out the Huggins clan’s visit to Orlando. “We need to establish their being here when these events occurred.” Weir checked the notes on his pad.

When the motel confirmed the Hugginses’ visit on the dates Angel told the detectives, they were satisfied that she was truthful.

Linnert gloated. “Finally things are beginning to fall into place. So far everything she told us has checked out. I have a good feeling that the rest of her story will, too.”

“Yeah, I like a girl who tells the truth.” Weir smiled at his partner’s enthusiasm. “Now let’s get back to the radar detector Kevin Smith gave us.”

“Let’s check with Jim Larson and find out if it came from the Explorer.”

“Right. If it was theirs, he should be able to give us the full background on it.”

When the detectives arrived at the Larson home in College Park, Jim greeted them with a friendly smile. “Good to see you.”

Weir noticed that the man seemed thinner, and the detective wondered how Larson was coping with his situation.

“We’ve been going over some things and need to talk to you about something,” Weir explained.

“Sure. I’m glad to help you in any way I can. What’s up?”

“The radar detector.”

“What about it?” Larson asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

“We know that your wife had one in her vehicle and one was found behind a residence in Cocoa Beach. We feel very strongly that it came out of the Explorer.”

“Really?” Larson asked. “How can I help?”

“First of all, we need to know when you acquired it,” Weir continued.

“We had two,” Larson responded. “One in the Honda and one in the Explorer. I bought both of them by mail order. I should have the paperwork on them.”

Jim excused himself and went into another room, where he found the purchase order and serial number of the radar detector mounted in his Honda.

“I know that we bought the detector for the Explorer in 1995, but I haven’t been able to find the purchase order,” he explained as he handed Detective Weir the document with a serial number. “This is the one for the Honda, but I don’t know what I did with the receipt for the one in the Ford.”

Larson left the room again and returned with files filled with papers and receipts. The two detectives, along with Jim Larson, sat at the dining-room table and tediously searched through all of the papers.

Finally they found a sales receipt from Cincinnati Microwave, showing the purchase of a Passport 4500 Radar Detector by Carla Larson on August 31, 1995. “This is good,” Weir commented, “but, unfortunately, it does not list the serial number.”

There was also an item on the Larsons’ Discover credit card corresponding statement, which listed the purchase.

The detectives took the paperwork for their evidence file, then returned to their office, where Linnert contacted the Cincinnati Microwave company to try to determine the serial number of the Larsons’ radar detector to compare with the recovered instrument.

Linnert spoke with Jennie Girdler of the company, who apologized when she informed the detective that the serial number could not be traced because the company changed its computer systems and was no longer keeping detailed records of its sales.

Over coffee the detective team reviewed their efforts and the progress they were making.

Linnert reflected, “I keep coming back to Angel Huggins’s phone call from her husband and his mention of jewelry.”

“Yeah, me too. It’s time that we look into that again,” Weir said. “If we can find that jewelry and it turns out to be Carla Larson’s, we will have one really strong link to John Huggins.”

“Absolutely,” Linnert agreed.

“We need to get permission from Angel Huggins and her mother,” Weir continued, “to search through their property again. We’ve been missing the boat in the search. Let’s get some techs and really dig in.”

Angel and her mother, while somewhat puzzled, gave permission for the search, and both signed consent. This time the detectives made arrangements for a team of department personnel to assist them in this project, which would take place on Tuesday, July 8.

The group included Detective Ron Weyland, Detective Russ Girgenti, Deputy John Philbin and Detective Sue Coleman.

Weir told the group, “I am convinced that jewelry is here somewhere. So let’s give it our best shot.”

The search went into operation, the department officers and specialists combing through the entire residence. Detectives Weir and Linnert moved separately through the house, room to room, working with one officer and then another.

After more than two hours of looking through drawers, under beds, into overhanging lights, into vents, under carpets and rugs, into corner wastebaskets, through cupboards, closets and even into shoes and slippers, Weir called his team together.

“I don’t know where we’re missing the boat, but we are. That jewelry is here, I just know it. Anyhow, Linnert and I agree that we should abandon the effort at this time. Maybe we’ll get better information and come back.”

The group of techs filed out of the residence and drove back to OCSD headquarters, somewhat dejected.

Disappointed with the unproductive search, Linnert said, “We haven’t talked to Faye Elms yet. She apparently had a great deal of contact with John Huggins, maybe we can learn something from her.”

“I was thinking that,” Weir answered. “She certainly seems friendly and cooperative. Anyway, we’ve got nothing to lose.”

“Ma’am,” Weir said, approaching her. “Detective Linnert and I would like to talk to you about John Huggins.”

“He’s my son-in-law.”

“Yes, ma’am, we’re aware of that. We’re also aware that he is your ‘estranged’ son-in-law,” Weir responded pleasantly.

“What do you want to know?” she asked, mildly suspicious.

Detective Weir answered, “We’ve spent a good bit of time with your daughter, and she was entirely cooperative with us. We hope that you can be also.”

“Okay. I’m sure that we can get along.”

Detective Linnert asked, “How long have you known John Huggins?”

“We, I’m including my daughter Angel, have known him since 1992. We were living in Oviedo back then in a rented trailer.” (Oviedo is a small town bordering Orlando to the east.) She wrinkled her forehead, remembering. “In the Black Hammock reserve. Things changed there for us and we moved to the Wickham Village in Melbourne, which didn’t work out. Then we found this place and it fit our needs and our likes much better, so we moved in.”

Elms explained, “John Huggins, along with his wife, my daughter Angel, were with us from time to time.”

“How did you feel about him generally?” Linnert pursued.

“I was never really comfortable with John Huggins. I just thought that there was something about him in a shadow of doubt.”

“What do you mean by that?” Weir asked.

“It wasn’t long before I knew that John Huggins was in and out of step with the law. After his release from prison this past February, he came and went frequently to my home. I pretty well accepted that. Then on June tenth, I got home from work and found a strange vehicle parked out front. I wondered about it. I thought that it was a neat white truck and I tried to figure out whose car it was. I went inside and looked around for the owner. It never occurred to me that it was John, and I didn’t see him inside the house. But John’s kids, Ruth Anne and Jonathon, were here. I stopped Jonathon and asked him whose car that was. He just beamed and told me, ‘It’s Dad’s. He rented it.’ ”

The woman said she left to attend a college class at 5:30
P.M
. “When I got back around nine o’clock, the white vehicle was gone.”

She told the detectives when she went inside, she learned that John Huggins and his children were gone. “I never saw that automobile again.”

“You have another daughter, Nancy?” Weir asked.

“Yes.”

“We understand from Angel that she visited down here.”

“Yes, that’s right. She’s Nancy Parkinson. She arrived on, let me see, June fourteenth. She brought her kids and also her neighbor Melanie Cramden.”

The woman smiled as she recalled that with Nancy’s arrival and all the others: “We had a great family gathering.”

“When did you last see John Huggins?” Linnert asked.

Faye thought a few minutes and answered, “On June seventeenth, when the whole family, including John Huggins and his children, joined in a gathering at the Wekiwa Springs in Sanford, Florida.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Weir said. “You’ve been very helpful. Now we need to talk to your daughter.”

“Fine. I’ll get her.”

When Angel came into the room and sat down, Detective Weir told her, “We just need to check some dates and other details.”

“Good. Because I was thinking a lot after our last meeting and I worked on an outline. It’s sixteen pages, some of the things I told you and things I thought of later.” She explained, “I’ve got the dates of significant conversations and observations I made and where we stayed together. I remembered that I saw that white Ford again on the eleventh of June.”

Since Angel was under the impression that it belonged to John’s girlfriend, she said she did not want it parked on her property. “John asked me to follow him as he drove it to the Courtyard on the Green apartment complex. He just left it there, although he didn’t know anyone who lived there. He backed it into a parking spot on the south side of the complex, with the rear against a tall hedge.”

Angel said that in one of her conversations with Huggins, he told her he stole the vehicle to use in a robbery.

On the morning of June 12, she drove Huggins back to the vehicle. He told her he needed it to take care of some business with his friend Kevin Smith.

Angel said that later that day Huggins called, asking her to pick him up at Smith’s, which she did. She recalled that she parked in the front of Kevin’s residence, and Huggins walked out from the rear of the home to meet her. She explained that from where she waited, she did not see the Ford Explorer, reportedly parked in back where Kim and Kevin normally parked.

She recalled staying at the Holiday Inn in Melbourne on June 13. She said John accused her of seeing another man. She responded by stating that he was driving another woman’s truck and John replied, “It’s not my girlfriend’s truck. I told you I stole it, and I plan to use it in one of my robberies.”

The detectives exchanged glances but made no comment.

Angel said that in her outline she also detailed the history of John Huggins’s physical abuse of her over a period of years.

In a surprising revelation she added that she had seen footage of a bank robbery on television news one night. When the surveillance tape was shown, she recognized her husband, John Huggins. “I’d know him anywhere.”

Linnert asked, “Do you know where John Huggins is now?” He waited, hoping she had an answer.

“No. The last I heard about him he was up in Delaware or Maryland somewhere.”

“Thank you, Ms. Huggins.” Weir assured her that “you will be hearing from us.”

Weir and Linnert were pleased to see that Angel’s second statement was consistent with her first, and when combined, it put the events surrounding John and Angel’s travels in good chronological order. It would not be difficult to follow through with checking everything out.

Weir also notified Detective Joe Jenkins of the OCSD robbery division, apprising him of Angel Huggins’s statement about John Huggins and the bank robberies.

Jenkins interviewed Angel and subsequently pursued her helpful information in that investigation.

Although worn from the intense sleuthing, Weir and Linnert were both satisfied that all was moving ahead. They finally had a suspect and all their attention was focused on John Huggins.

“Things have certainly turned around,” Linnert remarked.

“Yes, indeed,” Weir agreed, stretching his arms wide. “What do you say if we knock off for today?” He took a deep breath and added, “I’m bushed.”

Linnert looked at his watch: it was almost six o’clock. “That’s the best idea you’ve had today,” he responded.

The phone broke in. “I knew it,” Linnert groaned. “An early evening. Too good to be true.”

Weir answered the call. “No! Well, I’ll be. Wait till I tell John.” With the phone still at his ear, Weir faced his partner and shook his head unbelievingly, totally surprised with the news he just heard.

“It was Tom McCann,” Weir identified as he hung up.

Linnert waited expectantly. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

“It’s Huggins. Huggins is in Maryland. Arrested.”

“Holy jeez. What’s the story?”