His time is now measured in grown-up years

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 15, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- A boy who became the poster child for violent teenagers after a British tourist was killed in North Florida eight years ago is now an adult facing a possible life prison sentence.

Cedric Green was 13 when Gary Colley was fatally shot at an Interstate 10 rest stop in September 1993.

"He was a little boy when I saw him," said Margaret Jagger, Colley's companion, who was wounded in the shooting.

Green is not a little boy now. He's 21. And today he will be sentenced for the armed robbery of a Tallahassee grocery store in July 1999.

Under Florida's "10-20-Life" law, he faces at least 10 years in prison. He could get life.

That's what Green's older brother, Deron Spear, was sentenced to Wednesday under another law that requires a life sentence for a criminal who gets into trouble within three years of being released from prison.

"I don't know that I agree with a life sentence," Jagger said Thursday from her home in West Yorkshire, England. But, she added, she thought Green should be given a "substantial" sentence.

"I think they need to be taught a lesson," she said.

Colley and Jagger were shot during a botched robbery attempt at a rest stop near Monticello, about 35 miles east of Tallahassee.

Green pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact in the Colley shooting and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service. He spent seven months in a juvenile facility for an unrelated auto theft. Spear was sentenced to eight years in prison but got out after two.

The other two teens involved in the shooting, John "Billy Joe" Crumitie and Aundra Akins, were both sentenced to life in prison.

In March, Green and Spear were convicted of two counts of armed robbery in connection with the stick-up of a Winn-Dixie grocery two years ago. A third defendant, Isaac Wilson, testified for the state and was sentenced to eight years.

Green's public defender, Nushin Sayfie, said Thursday she would argue for a 10-year sentence because she didn't think the case warranted anything more.

Charges stemming from another grocery store robbery in Panama City are on hold, and Green will probably be transported there after his sentencing today to face those charges, Sayfie said.

Colley was one of 10 foreign visitors killed in Florida during a 13-month period, and his murder drew international attention.

State lawmakers the next year created the Department of Juvenile Justice to focus on teen criminals. Two years ago, the state passed a law requiring a 10-year minimum prison sentence for having a gun while committing a violent crime, a 20-year prison sentence if the gun is fired and a sentence of 25 years to life if the firing of the gun causes injury or death.

Greg Cummings, a Tallahassee attorney who represented Green in the Colley shooting, said Thursday he was sad to see his former client in the news again.

"It's unfortunate that this new case gets him so much attention because he was not involved in the tourist murder case," Cummings said. "I emphasize the word "not.' "

The no-contest plea to being an accessory after the fact to the Colley shooting was "just something to . . . get it over with," Cummings said.

But a few years later Cummings was appointed to represent Green again. This time the teenager was charged with armed robbery of a pizza delivery person, Cummings said. Green spent about a year in a juvenile facility.

"I guess he needed guidance more often than most kids," Cummings said. "I think he failed himself."

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001