Nov. 23--CLEARWATER -- Detectives couldn't get anywhere with pumping information from the teenager accused of shooting a St. Petersburg police officer to death.
So they manipulated his parents into hammering out a confession from him instead.
That is what defense attorneys told Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge Thane Covert at a two-day hearing into a request to suppress that confession from the first-degree murder trial of Nicholas Lindsey Jr.
Lindsey, 16, is accused of the Feb. 21 shooting death of David Crawford. He became the third St. Petersburg officer to die in the line of duty in a month.
The defendant's attorneys are trying to get his confession thrown out as evidence, saying police did not read him his rights until several hours after he was in police custody. A ruling from Covert is not expected until Dec. 2.
It was Lindsey's parents, Nicholas Lindsey Sr. and Deneen Sweat, who first got him to speak while in police custody about his role in the shooting. The statements were captured on videotape in a police interview room after the teenager and his parents had been at headquarters for several hours.
"They came to that interview room convinced he was guilty," defense attorney Frank McDermott said of the parents. "The seed was planted. The parents were manipulated."
They had been told by various detectives, the attorney said, that Lindsey had admitted to a cousin and to his grandfather that he had killed Crawford. Police also told the parents they had their son's shoes -- including one that was left by Crawford's cruiser as he ran from the scene.
"They are confronting their son with evidence," McDermott told the judge. "The tone of it is that he's not telling law enforcement what they want to hear. They are hammering their son.
"It's clear his will was overcome by his folks. He was doing what they wanted him to do."
Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant state attorney for Pinellas and Pasco counties, said that was not the case at all.
"There was no coercion," the prosecutor said. "There's no sneaky business played by anybody."
Bartlett also told Covert again that despite testimony to the contrary a day earlier, nobody in the Lindsey household ever asked for an attorney to be present.
"Nobody -- mom, dad, the defendant -- ever said anything at all about a lawyer," he said. "It never, ever comes up."
The teen suspect was read his rights after he confessed to his parents, authorities say. They say that afterward, he told detectives what happened and even went with them to the scene to retrace his steps the night of the shooting.
Lindsey's father and mother testified Monday during a daylong hearing. The defendant declined to testify Tuesday.
His mother, Sweat, told the judge Monday that she had asked about an attorney three to five times, but detectives never addressed that issue. She also said a detective misled her while showing her a photo of one of the flip-flops found at the scene.
The two-day hearing saw a parade of St. Petersburg police officers and detectives take the witness stand.
One told of getting a phone call less than an hour after the shooting that the suspect lived in Citrus Grove, formerly known as Bethel Heights.
Several witnesses told of seeing a young, slender black male wearing a hooded sweatshirt running from the shooting scene. One said he had what appeared to be a gun in his hand. At least two drivers almost hit him as he ran across the road in front of them.
Many of the callers said the video released by police from a nearby business looked like "Little Nick," as the suspect was known. The teen told his cousin he had shot Crawford, detectives testified, after he ran in the house "like a bat out of hell," panicked and sweaty.
Lindsey, who had been arrested several times before on auto theft charges, was arrested the day after the fatal shooting.
His trial is set for next month, but defense attorneys said Tuesday they doubt that is realistic.
Lindsey is not subject to the death penalty because of his age.
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