Investigation reveals criminal pasts of those toting guns
By Megan O'Matz and John Maines
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 28 2007
Garth F. Bailey, of Pembroke Pines, pleaded no contest to manslaughter in 1988 for shooting his girlfriend in the head while she cooked breakfast. Eight years later, the state of Florida gave him a license to carry a gun.
John P. Paxton Jr., then of Deerfield Beach, pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse in 1993 for grabbing his 4-year-old nephew by the neck, choking and slapping him for flicking the lights on and off. Eight years later, the state gave him a license to carry a gun.
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John M. Corporal, of Lake Worth, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in 1998 for pulling a chrome revolver from his waistband and placing it against his roommate's head during an argument. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to grand theft. In February 2006, the state gave him a license to carry a gun.
Florida has given concealed weapon licenses to hundreds of people who wouldn't have a chance of getting them in most other states because of their criminal histories. Courts have found them responsible for assaults, burglaries, sexual battery, drug possession, child molestation -- even homicide.
In an investigation of the state's concealed weapon system, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found those licensed to carry guns in the first half of 2006 included:
More than 1,400 people who pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies but qualified because of a loophole in the law.
216 people with outstanding warrants, including a Tampa pizza deliveryman wanted since 2002 for fatally shooting a 15-year-old boy over a stolen order of chicken wings.
128 people with active domestic violence injunctions against them, including a Hallandale man who was ordered by a judge to stay away from his former son-in-law after pulling a handgun out of his pocket and telling the man: "I'll blow you away, you son of a b----."
Six registered sex offenders.
"I had no idea," said Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson, who sits on an advisory panel for the state Division of Licensing, which issues concealed weapon permits. "I think the system, somewhere down the line, is broken. I guarantee you the ordinary person doesn't know [that] ... and I'd venture to guess that 160 legislators in Florida don't know that, either."
The National Rifle Association, the prime mover behind the state's nearly 20-year-old concealed weapon law, says it's the court system that is broken, not the gun -licensing system.
The problem rests with gaps within law enforcement and with "bleeding-heart, criminal-coddling judges and prosecutors," said Marion P. Hammer, Tallahassee lobbyist for the NRA and its affiliate, the Unified Sportsmen of Florida.
"What you need to understand is the NRA and the sportsmen's group are law-abiding people," she said. "We don't want bad guys to have guns."
But the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofit group dedicated to reducing gun violence, studied Florida's concealed weapon program in 1995 and concluded that it "puts guns into the hands of criminals."
"The people who are intimately familiar with these laws, the people at the NRA, they know exactly what's going on," said Kristen Rand, the center's legislative director. Florida's gun lobby and the program's administrators "know they're permitting some bad people, but they don't want the general public to know that."
Last summer, the Legislature made it even harder for the public to find out. It made the names of licensed gun carriers a secret.
Pistol Packin' Paradise
From the country's founding, the protection of house, home, life, land and liberty has come at the point of a muzzle. Few other constitutional rights are more cherished, or more controversial, than the right to bear arms.
Nationwide, Florida has long been considered a gun enthusiast's paradise -- a place where licensed gun dealers outnumber golf courses; where gun ranges are protected from lawsuits for contaminating groundwater with lead bullets; and where Hammer, the NRA lobbyist, holds so much sway in Tallahassee lawmakers are, in the opinion of one adversary: "scared to hell of her."
"If she says they're anti-gun, their political life is over," said Arthur C. Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
In fact, Florida often is referred to as the Gunshine State.
The label dates back to 1987, when the state passed a law to "ensure that no honest, law-abiding person who qualifies" for a license to carry a gun would be denied the right. The legislation became the model for so-called "shall-issue" concealed weapon laws nationwide.
The licenses enable people to carry handguns -- hidden usually under clothing or in a purse or briefcase -- in most public places.
"We need to send a strong message to criminals in the state of Florida that the next time you rob someone or rape them or try to kill them, that they very well may be armed, and they very well may be able to protect themselves," former state Rep. Ron Johnson, a Panama City Democrat and sponsor of the bill, argued on the House floor nearly 20 years ago.
At the time, counties had differing rules for who could or could not get a license to carry a gun.
Under the 1987 law, the rules became uniform statewide. People who wanted to carry a gun didn't need a reason other than basic self-protection.
The numbers skyrocketed. Before the law took effect, 25 people in Broward County had concealed weapon licenses. As of Dec. 31, there were 35,884.
"That's an alarming increase," said Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan Foster. "I don't view that as a positive trend. I view that as a negative. The more guns on the street, the more prone people are to violence."
During the same time, in Palm Beach County, the number of licenses went from 1,400 to 28,478; and in Miami-Dade, from 2,200 to 42,521. The numbers grew statewide from fewer than 25,000 to more than 410,000 today.
When the system changed in 1987, authors of the law promised that the state would give gun licenses only to "law-abiding citizens."
It hasn't worked out that way.
The Sun-Sentinel found that people who violate the law do get -- and at times keep -- licenses to carry guns. It happens because of loopholes in the law, bureaucratic errors, poor communication with cops and courts, and a loose suspension process.
As of July 1, the Legislature ended access to records of the licensees without a court order. Lawmakers made the change after an Orlando television station, in 2005, published the identities of Central Florida licensees on the Internet, infuriating some who were named.
The Sun-Sentinel obtained the state's database of licensees twice, once in March and again in late June, in 2006, before the new privacy law took effect.
The records provide a last public look at who is sanctioned to carry a gun in Florida.
And they are not all the "law-abiding" citizens the state promised.
One man, 22 arrests
Robert E. Rodriguez, a 71-year-old retired Tampa bar owner, was arrested 22 times between 1960 and 1998, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
In four cases, he pleaded guilty or no contest and received probation or fines but judges "withheld" formal convictions: in 1982 for trafficking 10,000 pounds of marijuana; in 1983 for aggravated assault, and in 2000 for aggravated assault and for firing a weapon into an unoccupied building.
As of late June, he had a valid license to carry a gun.
Numerous other states, including South Dakota, Texas and Maryland, likely would not permit Rodriguez to carry a gun given his rap sheet.
Rodriguez acknowledged that he has a long arrest record but told the Sun-Sentinel: "I've never been convicted of anything."
Convicted felons cannot get gun licenses under state and federal law.
But a loophole in Florida law allows people charged with felonies to obtain licenses to carry guns three years after they complete their sentences so long as a judge "withholds adjudication."
In a sort of legal no man's land, the defendants plead guilty or no contest. They serve probation, complete community service, obtain counseling, pay fines or fulfill other requirements. When they successfully complete the terms, they have no criminal record.
The break often is given to first- or second-time offenders in instances in which the state's case is weak, and a plea deal appears to be the best option for defendants without the money to mount a strong defense, legal experts said. But it also has aided people accused of violent felonies, sometimes repeatedly.
The Sun-Sentinel found more than 1,400 people, such as Rodriguez, with gun licenses who had felony convictions "withheld" from their records.
"That's incredible," said state Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Aventura. "I just can't believe it. It's outrageous."
"We should not have loopholes for these things," said state Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston. "It's too dangerous. I think the Legislature should look at that."
"If we need to plug up those holes, let's have that debate and let's plug up those holes," said state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale.
But Hammer, the NRA lobbyist, says the courts, not the gun law, should change.
"What you're talking about is taking away the rights of people who have not been convicted and punished for crimes because the court decided to give them a pass," she said. "How can a state agency take rights away from people when a court refuses to?"
Broward Chief Judge Dale Ross said the NRA's stance is inconsistent.
"The NRA is mad at judges because more people are able to own guns?" he said. "I thought they were advocates of gun usage. They want less people to have guns?"
The judge said he was unaware that Florida's gun law permitted people who have had formal convictions withheld to later obtain licenses to carry guns.
The Sun-Sentinel found six registered sex offenders with valid concealed weapon licenses at the time of its review. Five of the six had convictions "withheld" by the courts, making them qualified for gun licenses.
State Rules Questioned
Overall, the rules governing who gets a license to carry a gun in Florida are a mishmash of contradictions and provisos.
Convicted of a misdemeanor crime of violence, such as stalking, assault or battery, against a member of your family? License denied.
Convicted of a misdemeanor crime of violence against someone outside your family? License approved (so long as three years have passed since the completion of the sentence).
Convicted of driving under the influence? License approved.
Convicted of driving under the influence twice within the past three years? License denied.
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Subjected to a current domestic violence restraining order? License denied.
Subjected to a prior domestic violence restraining order? License approved.
Have a long rap sheet but no convictions? License approved.
The state's licensing methods bother some in law enforcement.
"I believed, and still believe, the system in place now is not strong enough to discern the credibility of the person applying for it," said Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne, who voted against the 1987 law when he was in the state Senate. Broward County, he said, would be far stricter in issuing the licenses than the state is.
"Some of these people make your head spin," said Lt. Tundra King, spokeswoman for the Lauderhill Police Department. "You know what you've arrested them for, yet they still produce a legal concealed weapon permit. ... It's kind of scary. ... I don't know if I even understand all of the loopholes."
Finding Loopholes
The loopholes enabled John Corporal to obtain a license to carry a gun.
The Lake Worth man pleaded guilty and received 18 months probation in 1998 for pulling a gun on his roommate and threatening to kill him, according to court records. The judge withheld a formal conviction.
In 2002, he pleaded guilty to grand theft. He was accused of stealing $96,058 from a medical imaging company he worked for, according to a police report. Again, a judge withheld a formal conviction.
He was sentenced to 10 years probation, which ended early in March 2005.
The state gave him a license to carry a gun in 2006.
On June 6, two weeks after the Sun-Sentinel asked the state for information about Corporal, the Florida Division of Licensing moved to revoke the license because three years had not passed from the completion of his sentence, as required by law.
The loopholes also helped John Paxton, 36, the Deerfield Beach man who pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse. He had his conviction withheld by the courts.
A judge sentenced him to one year of community control, two years probation and 120 days in the Broward County Stockade Facility, with work-release privileges. The court also ordered Paxton to complete a family violence prevention program.
Paxton, now living in Lake Placid, Highlands County, told the Sun-Sentinel that he took a parenting class as part of his court sentence but disagreed with much of the teachings.
"If you're punishing a child and you send a child to cut his own switch ... that's not allowed," he said. "That's mental cruelty. ... If he cusses, you can't wash his mouth out with soap. You can't use Tabasco sauce when they talk back to you."
The state gave Paxton a license to carry a gun in 2001
The loopholes also benefited Garth Bailey, the Pembroke Pines man who killed his 20-year-old girlfriend in 1985 as she cooked breakfast.
"It was an accident, it was an accident," Bailey insisted, telling police he was showing the 9 mm Smith & Wesson to Marie A. Lue Young when it fired. There were no witnesses.
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A search turned up 10 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of a car, court records state.
Prosecutors charged Bailey, now 40, with drug possession and manslaughter, arguing that he showed a "reckless disregard for human life."
He pleaded no contest to the drug charge in 1986 and got 18 months probation.
In 1988, he pleaded no contest to manslaughter in Young's death and was sentenced to four years probation. The court withheld a formal conviction on each charge.
Four years after the shooting, in October 1989, Bailey got into trouble with the law again.
Miramar police stopped him for speeding and charged him with carrying a concealed weapon without a license. Police found a samurai knife under a paper on the passenger's seat and two firearms in the glove box.
Bailey pleaded no contest. The court withheld a formal conviction again.
He applied for and received a license to carry a gun in 1996.
As of late June, it was listed in state records as valid until June 2009.
Tomorrow: Fugitives, mistakes and an inmate.
Megan O'Matz can be reached at
[email protected] or 954-356-4518.
John Maines can be reached at
[email protected] or 954-356-4737.
), out of 410,000 licensess, roughly 1,400 have felony convictions? A whole 0.3%? 
