By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff Writer
Published July 7, 2005

TAMPA - Darion Conner has run his last yard. Ten months after the Tampa Bay Storm linebacker fatally struck a Carrollwood bicyclist with his Toyota Land Cruiser, a jury found Conner guilty Wednesday of DUI-manslaughter and vehicular homicide.

The second-degree felony charges carry a punishment of up to 15 years in prison. Conner's sentencing is scheduled for July 14.

Nearly a dozen witnesses testified during the two-day trial. Two USF students who witnessed the accident said they saw Conner, 37, swerving erratically down Gunn Highway before his sport utility vehicle rammed into Jonathan Michael Conklin about 1:50 a.m. Sept. 4, 2004. The collision shattered the windshield of Conner's vehicle and sent Conklin, 32, flying roughly 210 feet through the air, prosecutors said.

With his brain stem severed in the impact, Conklin, a lawn maintainance worker, died at the scene of the accident.

When investigators arrived a few minutes later they found Conner passed out behind the wheel with the smell of alcohol on his breath, Hillsborough County sheriff's Deputy Robert Barlow said. Tests showed Conner's blood-alcohol level at the time was 0.27, or more than three times the level at which, under state law, someone is presumed too intoxicated to drive.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement toxicologist Lisa Zeller said a test of Conner's blood alcohol concentration after the accident showed he likely consumed 16 to 21 drinks before he got behind the wheel of his vehicle.

"Nobody is saying he is a bad person for what he did. But he made a bad bad decision that night," said prosecutor Kim Seace.

Conner has made similar bad decisions before. He was previously charged three times with driving under the influence. That history led Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta to place Conner under house arrest after he was charged in October.

Ronald Kurpiers, Conner's defense attorney, told jurors Wednesday that Conner was not the only one responsible for the accident. Kurpiers said Conklin had also been drinking that night and may have swerved out of the bike lane along the poorly lit street.

"There was an accident but two people were involved," Kurpiers said. "Unfortunately in this particular accident a bicyclist was involved."

More unfortunate for Conner was the 20-minute videotape of Conner flubbing a sobriety test. About 10 minutes into deliberation, the jury sent a note to Judge Ficarrotta asking to see the video a second time. Jurors sat transfixed as they watched Conner slur through a confused explanation of what happened in the accident. Conner twice told a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy that a car pulled out in front of him and seemed surprised when he was told he had hit a cyclist. The jury returned with a guilty verdict about two hours later.

Conner bowed his head and closed his eyes as one juror cried while the verdict was read.

Conner's conviction comes about two months after his mother died. One of 11 children, Conner earned his football chops while playing with his brothers in his home state of Mississippi. He later attended nearby Jackson State University and went on to play for several NFL teams before joining the Tampa Bay Storm, said his sister Patty White. White and several other family members drove from Mississippi early Wednesday morning for the trial.

"We've had our share of tough times and good times," White, 51, said.

Kurpiers called the verdict "very disappointing," and said he hopes Conner's record of community involvement in Florida and Mississippi will help mitigate his punishment.

Copyright Times Publishing Co. Jul 7, 2005

The search for Derrick McNeal, accused of running over two young children as he aimed his pickup truck at his ex-girlfriend during a Fourth of July barbecue, ended Wednesday in room 233 of the Best Western Motel in Brandon.

Authorities say McNeal, 36, was taken into custody about 6 p.m. after a brief struggle with Tampa police detectives, Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies and agents from the U.S. Marshal's Office.

The investigators pursued leads all day and ended up at the motel on Adamo Drive, said U.S. Marshal's spokeswoman Lisa Alfonso.

"He didn't comply with our orders to come out of the room, so we had a brief struggle," Alfonso said. "But there were so many of us in the room, he didn't have much of a fight. It really couldn't have gone any better." Wednesday night, detectives took McNeal to Tampa police headquarters for questioning.

Sgt. James Contento said McNeal, a career criminal with more than a dozen felony convictions, will be booked into the county jail on charges of murder and attempted murder.

According to police, McNeal ran down the children while trying to hit Tosha Montgomery, who broke up with him in April after four years of dating. They say McNeal harassed Montgomery after the breakup, throwing a brick into the windshield of her parents' car and stalking her.

Authorities secured warrants to arrest McNeal on charges of aggravated stalking and throwing a deadly missile into an occupied vehicle after Montgomery filed police reports last month, but McNeal evaded police for weeks.

Then came Monday's hit and run, and the all-out search that followed. Just after 7:30 p.m. Monday, Montgomery was enjoying a barbecue at the east Tampa home of friend Toshia Kenner's grandmother, 66-year-old Louise Edwards.

Montgomery, 30, was in the front yard of the house at 3201 E 24th Ave., when a man came driving down the street in a red Dodge pickup, police said. Witnesses later identified the driver as McNeal.

The driver gunned the gas, rammed another car out of the way, plowed through a chain-link fence surrounding the yard and steered the pickup toward Montgomery, according to police and witnesses.

Toshayla Hall, 4, and Demontaye Simmons, 2, were playing in the yard. The truck grazed Montgomery and hit the children. McNeal abandoned the truck and fled on foot, according to police.

Rescue workers treated Montgomery at the scene for minor injuries.

Demontaye died at the scene. By the time his mother got there, rescue workers had covered his tiny body in a white sheet.

Toshayla went to Tampa General Hospital with scrapes and bruises. She was released Wednesday evening, just as her mother, Toshia Kenner, heard news of McNeal's arrest.

"I'm so happy," Kenner said. "I just want to see him behind bars. I hope he burns in hell."

"I'm happy he got caught," said Demontaye's mother, Tatiana Johnson. "Now he can't do any more damage."

McNeal's father, 56-year-old Ernest McNeal, said he is relieved his son is in custody. But he does not believe investigators' account of the hit and run crash.

Ernest McNeal said his son hit the gas of the pickup by accident after he was shot at by someone near the house along E 24th Avenue.

Contento said detectives found no evidence of shots fired near the house. McNeal called his father after the hit and run and told him he had been shot, but Contento said officers found no evidence of injuries when they arrested McNeal Wednesday.

When investigators arrived a few minutes later they found Conner passed out behind the wheel with the smell of alcohol on his breath,