Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 1, 1993 TAG: 9308010030
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN SEWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
The lyrics of his latest song tell why at age 20 Puccio sits in Broward County Jail, potentially facing the rest of his life behind bars or even death in Florida's electric chair.
Attorney Thomas Cazel said Friday that it is natural for Puccio to express himself in music but added, "He appreciates the seriousness of the charges." He would not release details about the new song.
A grand jury soon will hear testimony that six young people, four of them teens, lured 20-year-old Bobby Kent to a rock quarry lake with the promise of drag racing a new car, attacked him with knives and a baseball bat, and left his gurgling body in the lake the night of July 14.
"I guess you eventually run into all various possibilities," said Broward County sheriff's spokesman Ott Cefkin, who has spent three decades as either a crime-beat reporter or lawman. "This is the first like this."
According to one statement given to police, Kent pleaded for help after the first knife penetrated. He turned to his best friend for years, his fellow supermarket deli clerk, his nearly inseparable neighbor five doors down in their middle-class Hollywood neighborhood, and called: "Jesus, I'm cut! Marty, help me!"
Puccio, it's alleged, answered by stabbing him - a scene out of a surreal rock 'n' roll version of Julius Caesar and Brutus.
" `Leave it to Beaver' on steroids," suggested lawyer Michael Dutko, as if Wally, Beaver and the rest finally got fed up with Eddie Haskell and took him out and killed him.
In the days since the killing, scrutiny of the young lives has led into a subterranean suburbia of underemployed, unambitious kids, still at home with little prospect for the future. They depict abusive male-female relationships, other violence, pornography, strong-arm robbery, phone sex and prostitution.
"This case is a mirror into the '90s," said Dr. John Spencer, a Broward County forensic psychologist. "There's a whole subculture out there.
Cazel said Puccio was "very distraught and denies" stories of homosexual relationships that originated last week with a 42-year-old man named Lawrence Shafer. He claimed he paid Puccio to talk dirty to him over the phone, made pornographic videotapes with Puccio and Kent, and was beaten and robbed repeatedly by them.
"There are so many spinoff stories to this case that may or may not have an impact on the ultimate outcome," Cazel said.
Dutko's client, 17-year-old Alice Jean Willis, was involved in a high school hooker ring in which a retired boat captain allegedly pimped for teen-age girls he recruited from Fort Lauderdale suburbs. Her role hasn't been disclosed, but she is said to be cooperating with police.
Willis left her home and year-old baby in May to move in with Lisa Connelly, Puccio's girlfriend and her friend since first grade. Lisa fixed her up with Kent.
The relationship didn't last long. She filed a complaint that Kent beat her.
Supposedly, Kent also dominated Puccio, slapping him around and transforming him from "nice guy" to abusive jerk.
"It's all nonsense," said Kent's 22-year-old sister, Laila. "He's not here to defend himself."
A circle began forming, according to comments trickling out - Puccio, ready to escape his friend's domination; Alice, supposedly beaten by Kent; Lisa, her boyfriend dominated by Kent; Lisa's cousin, Derek Dzvirko, eager to protect her; Donald Semenec, Alice's new boyfriend; and Derek Kaufman, self-proclaimed tough guy with a theft record, brought in to help.
Some describe a scenario in which youthful tough talk generated a pack mentality that took its participants by surprise and resulted in a sloppily vicious killing.
"There was a groundswell of hatred and anger over continued fear of Bobby Kent that led to a tragic end that nobody really expected to happen," said Dutko.
He said much of his initial interview with his client, who didn't actively participate in Kent's killing, was "explaining to a 17-year-old that she faces the most serious penalty - death by electrocution."
"All these kids were playing `chicken' with somebody else's life," said Spencer, the psychologist. "Nobody else swerved."
by CNB