Ice cream man trial opens 10 years after Ruskin porch slayings - Tampa Bay Times

TAMPA — The ice cream man — and the family and friends of two dead men — have all waited a decade for what began in a Tampa courtroom this week.

After years of legal wrangling, the trial of Michael Edward Keetley opened with two contrasting theories of who is responsible for shooting six men, killing two, on a front porch in Ruskin early Thanksgiving morning in 2010.

The state says Keetley wrongly believed the victims were the men who robbed him of $12 and shot him four times in January 2010 while he worked in his ice cream truck.

“The motive for this case simply is revenge, retaliation,” Assistant State Attorney Michelle Doherty said in her opening statement. “He wanted to shoot the people who shot him. And he became obsessed with finding the people who did this.”

But the defense says that Keetley didn’t do it, that he became a suspect because some of the surviving victims fingered the wrong person.

“This is a case of misidentification, unreliable eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence,” attorney Lyann Goudie told the jury. “And it’s not enough to convict in the state of Florida and not enough to convict anywhere in the United States.”

Related: Supreme Court ruling means longer wait in trial of ice cream man accused of Ruskin murders

Keetley, 49, worked the neighborhoods of southeast Hillsborough County in his purple ice cream truck. After he was robbed and shot, he was left disabled, his hand movements restricted, making work difficult.

Word later got around that Keetley was on a mission to find his attackers. He came to believe that a man called “Creep” or “Creeper” was responsible, according to the prosecution. He tracked that man to an address on Ocean Mist Court in Ruskin.

It was there early Thanksgiving morning in 2010 that a dark van pulled up as a group of men chatted and played cards on the porch. Some of the men later told detectives that the driver got out wearing a shirt that said “police” or “sheriff.” He held a long gun. He asked for “Creep” and ordered them all to the ground. As they complied, he began to shoot.

Juan Guitron, 28, died at Tampa General Hospital, one of two brothers killed in a hail of gunfire that injured four other men in 2010 in Ruskin, Family photo [HO | Handout]

Sergio Guitron, 22, one of two brothers shot and killed in 2010 in Ruskin. Family photo [HO | Handout]

Brothers Juan and Sergio Guitron, known as “Magic” and “Spider,” were killed. Four others were injured.

Detectives later searched the property in Wimauma where Keetley lived with his parents. In a dilapidated van, they found spent bullets and shell casings. Forensic experts later said some of them appeared to have been fired from the same weapon as the one used in the murders. But the gun was never found.

In Keetley’s house, investigators found a notebook that contained handwriting with an address for the man known as Creeper on Ocean Mist Court. Handwriting experts are expected to testify that it may have been written by Keetley. A fingerprint analyst will say that his fingerprints are on the same page.

Related: Eight years later, state drops death penalty in Ruskin double murder case

A laptop computer found in the Keetley home held data indicating that someone searched the internet hundreds of times for terms including “Creeper” and “Ocean Mist.”

Michael Keetley, seated, speaks with attorneys Lyann Goudie and Brian Gonzalez during Keetley's murder trial Friday. Keetley, 49, is accused in the fatal shootings of two men and the attempted killings of four others in 2010 in Ruskin. [OCTAVIO JONES | Times] [Octavio Jones]

But defense attorney Goudie pointed out a number of factors that could raise doubt about the reliability of the two witnesses who identified Keetley as the shooter. For one, it was very dark, with only a single porch light illuminating a small area of the yard. All the victims had been drinking, smoking marijuana or snorting cocaine, she said. The entire crime happened in within seconds.

Some didn’t get a good look at the gunman. When one of the wounded men was shown a series of photos of possible suspects hours after the crime, he failed to pick Keetley’s image even though he had bought ice cream from his truck.

In the days that followed the the shootings, a text message circulated among friends of the victims. It included a picture of Keetley and accused him of being the gunman. After that text had been widely disseminated, a detective visited another victim in the hospital. The detective showed a series of photos that included a mug shot of Keetley. The man became emotional. He said he was “2,000 percent sure” Keetley was the shooter.

If convicted, Keetley faces a mandatory penalty of life in prison. The trial is expected to take three weeks.

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Ice cream man trial opens 10 years after Ruskin porch slayings - Tampa Bay Times
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