Focus on ‘lost hour’ of shot Britons

US detectives try to piece together the final movements of holidaymakers James Cooper and James Kouzaris Detectives in Florida have begun to focus on the crucial “lost hour” before two British holidaymakers were apparently led to their deaths in a suspected early-morning ambush in a run-down part of Sarasota in the early hours of Saturday. Assistant state attorney Karen Fraivillig said that teenager Shawn Tyson, 16, will be tried as an adult on first-degree murder charges following his arrest on Monday. A grand jury will hear allegations within two weeks that he shot and killed James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, after they had enjoyed a night out in Sarasota. Fraivillig added that although Florida still uses lethal injection for adults convicted of certain types of premeditated murder, Tyson’s age at the time of the double shooting keeps it “off the table”. “Despite the fact that he’s being tried as an adult, the death penalty simply doesn’t apply in Florida to anyone who’s under 18 years old, in any circumstances,” she said. “The grand jury is imminent but I haven’t set a date because we have to get our ducks in a row and make sure we have a presentation that the jury can understand all the facts of the case.” Tyson remained in custody at the Sarasota county jail, where detectives were attempting to interview him again about the killing of the Britons, who were enjoying a three-week holiday with Cooper’s parents on the exclusive west coast barrier island of Longboat Key. Central to the inquiry is what happened to the pair during the “lost hour” between 2am, when the bars in central Sarasota where they had been drinking in closed, and shortly before 3am, when their bodies were found with multiple gunshot wounds in the street in the crime-ridden neighbourhood of Newtown, several miles away. Photographs taken on Friday night show Cooper dancing in a bar called Smokin’ Joes on Sarasota’s Main Street and Kouzaris standing outside his resort, both wearing the same clothes their bodies were found in. Captain Paul Sutton of the Sarasota Police Department said the pictures helped with the chronology of their movements but that the trail went cold at 2am. “We have quite a narrow timeline,” he said. “We’d like to hear from anybody who has any information about what they were doing during that time.” Tyson, who has one previous arrest for gun crime, earlier this month, is said to be uncooperative. Investigators say he did not have access to a car and they believe he was already waiting in Newtown when an unknown third party arrived with Cooper, from Warwick, and Kouzaris, of Northampton, shortly before 3am. Police have said they believe the two were there of their own volition. “It’s plausible they were taken there and confronted by at least one individual,” Sutton said. Some reports say that several people were seen running when gunshots broke out, and Sutton added: “We’re continuing to investigate the possibility that others were involved.” While he said that detectives were still considering all theories, one that the former University of Sheffield students might have been part of a drugs deal that turned sour seemed to be losing popularity. Family members in the UK attacked suggestions that Cooper, a tennis coach at the University of Warwick, was buying marijuana. “He never did drugs. He did not even smoke – he hated people who smoked. He was a professional tennis coach. Taking drugs would be the last thing on his mind,” Desmond Walton, Cooper’s grandfather, told reporters. Gun crime Florida United States Crime Richard Luscombe guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 19, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.