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MAN CHARGED IN SLAYING
DANNIS WOODS IS ACCUSED OF SHOOTING JEREMISIA ADAMS
Orlando Sentinel
LEESBURG -- The brother of a man serving life in prison for a Lake County murder has been arrested, suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend in the early hours of Dec. 29, minutes after she left her two children with a baby sitter.
Dannis C. Woods -- who has been in and out of prison since the early 1990s, has more than 15 aliases and once told a judge he had learned that "crime doesn't pay" -- was being held without bail Saturday in the Lake County Jail.
Woods is accused of shooting Jeremisia Adams, a 22-year-old bank teller from Leesburg, several times with a .25-caliber handgun. Police arrested him Friday at about 6:45 p.m., charging him with first-degree murder. The Arkansas native listed his address as 909 McCormick St. in Leesburg.
"He didn't do it," said Eddie Harris, a man who answered the telephone at that address Saturday and said he is Woods' stepfather.
Harris, 52, would not comment further.
Adams, a 1998 Leesburg High School graduate, was slain in her Honda Accord shortly after 7 a.m. in the Carver Heights neighborhood, on Harlem Avenue just two blocks away from the baby sitter's home.
Witnesses said that Adams, who was on her way to work at a First Federal Savings Bank branch in Wildwood, appeared to know her assailant because she stopped her car to talk to him. She was then shot on the left side of her head and neck several times, police said.
Woods, who police say was a former boyfriend of Adams, served nearly three years in the Washington Correctional Institution for numerous cocaine sale and possession charges, according to records from the Florida Department of Corrections. He was released on Nov. 8, 1999.
Four years earlier while serving time in the Lake County Jail on drug charges and for violating probation, Woods pleaded to a judge in several letters to be let out of jail, saying he did not commit the crimes.
"I'm a real church-going young man, even though I've been in trouble here and there," Woods wrote to Circuit Judge Mark J. Hill in a letter dated Jan. 4, 1995.
Woods told the judge he made mistakes by hanging out with people he said he "thought were all right, but all along, all the time, they were not my friends."
"I didn't have nobody to really teach me right from wrong when I was young except my mother and daddy. All my brothers were locked up or moved out."
OLDER BROTHER CONVICTED
His older brother, Terry Woods, was convicted of shooting a Leesburg retiree to death and critically wounding his wife after trying to settle a dispute over the sale of their classic car.
A Lake County jury convicted Terry Woods in 1997 of killing Clarence Langford and shooting his wife, Pamela. Prosecutors said Woods tricked the couple into driving to a desolate spot, where he shot each of them in the back of the head. Leesburg police later found a forged bill of sale for the Langfords' 1961 Chevy Bel Air in Woods' home.
Terry Woods was sentenced to death, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned the death sentence. Defense attorneys argued that he shouldn't be executed for several reasons, including the fact that Woods had an IQ of only 77.
In another letter, dated Jan. 27, 1995, Dannis Woods asked the judge to help him "be like the sun" so he could "see the LIGHT." He said he wanted to shine that light on his little brothers and sisters and at church, and that he was "trying hard to become somebody very special."
"I will never mess up my life reputation by coming back to jail ever again," he wrote.
'CRIME DOESN'T PAY'
Woods again told the judge he did not commit the crimes, and said that police in his neighborhood think people who have "two or three gold teeth" must be selling drugs. According to Department of Correction records, Woods has six gold teeth.
In a final letter dated March 27, 1995, Woods pleaded again with a judge, saying he had "been in various troubles" for crimes, but that he had learned that "crime doesn't pay."
"I feel sir that I have really learned my lesson," he wrote. "And if I come back to jail or court in front of you again, then you can give me 50 years in prison or anything."
Woods told the judge he had a 4-month-old daughter he needed to take care of.
Some records matching Woods' Social Security number list him as 26 years old. Others, including records from the Florida Department of Corrections, show Woods as a 28-year-old.
Records also show that Woods was convicted in Hillsborough County in 1998 for cocaine possession and carrying a concealed firearm. He also was sentenced to community supervision in 1993 for trafficking stolen property and assault.
Police on the morning of Adams' death issued a "be on the lookout" notice for Dannis Woods.
By late morning, authorities had questioned and released Woods, who was living in the area where Adams was killed. Police officials on Saturday could not be reached for comment.
EARLIER LEADS ELIMINATED
Authorities on the day Adams was killed also were searching for a dark blue Chevrolet Lumina. At least one witness said the car was driven by a woman and had two passengers. Several days after the killing, police said they did not believe the three people seen in the car were suspects in the homicide. But authorities said they wanted to speak to them about what they might have seen.
Those people, along with a person who was seen in the area of the car and who placed the car into park before leaving the area, have been eliminated as suspects in the shooting.
During the course of the investigation, a witness told police about Woods, adding that Woods had "numerous contacts with the victim in person and by phone," Leesburg Lt. David Marden said in a written statement issued late Friday.
Further interviews with witnesses linked Woods to Adams, and "further evidence was developed which establishes that Woods shot and killed his ex-girlfriend," Marden said.
The investigation is continuing.
"It is our hope that since Dannis C. Woods is now in custody, additional witnesses who were afraid of him will come forward with additional information related to the homicide," Marden said.
BOSS PRAISES VICTIM
Dennis Rogers, who was Jeremisia's manager at the Wildwood bank, said he did not know Woods personally, but knew of him.
"He did come by the bank a couple times," Rogers said Saturday after learning of Woods' arrest.
Police received a call shortly after 7 a.m. the morning of Adams' death from someone who lives near the crime scene. When police arrived, Adams was dead in the car. A baby seat in the back of the car was empty.
Shirley Carter said Adams had dropped off her children -- 2-year-old Robert and 6-month-old Jasmine -- at her home at the end of Harlem Avenue about 7 a.m. Carter runs a day-care center at her home and had been Adams' five-day-a-week baby sitter for the previous year.
"Oh my goodness, I am so relieved," said Carter when she learned Saturday of Woods' arrest.
Carter, who described Adams as a "very concerned parent," said she did not know Woods, but saw him "at the street corner once in awhile."
LIVED IN VIRGINIA
Records indicate that although Adams has lived on Pamela Street for several years -- just blocks from where she died -- she also spent 1999 in Quantico, Va., where the father of her son, Robert Grover Jr., was stationed. Neighbors said the father is in the Marine Corps.
Adams' older sister, 26-year-old April Walls, said the couple were married and that he is in Leesburg taking care of the children.
Rogers described Adams as a "really great kid" who was a hard worker and a good mother.
"She was really trying to make something of herself," he said Saturday. "All I can say is I am really glad they finally did arrest somebody. Hopefully this can work out and we can all have some real closure to this thing."
DANNIS WOODS IS ACCUSED OF SHOOTING JEREMISIA ADAMS
Orlando Sentinel
LEESBURG -- The brother of a man serving life in prison for a Lake County murder has been arrested, suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend in the early hours of Dec. 29, minutes after she left her two children with a baby sitter.
Dannis C. Woods -- who has been in and out of prison since the early 1990s, has more than 15 aliases and once told a judge he had learned that "crime doesn't pay" -- was being held without bail Saturday in the Lake County Jail.
Woods is accused of shooting Jeremisia Adams, a 22-year-old bank teller from Leesburg, several times with a .25-caliber handgun. Police arrested him Friday at about 6:45 p.m., charging him with first-degree murder. The Arkansas native listed his address as 909 McCormick St. in Leesburg.
"He didn't do it," said Eddie Harris, a man who answered the telephone at that address Saturday and said he is Woods' stepfather.
Harris, 52, would not comment further.
Adams, a 1998 Leesburg High School graduate, was slain in her Honda Accord shortly after 7 a.m. in the Carver Heights neighborhood, on Harlem Avenue just two blocks away from the baby sitter's home.
Witnesses said that Adams, who was on her way to work at a First Federal Savings Bank branch in Wildwood, appeared to know her assailant because she stopped her car to talk to him. She was then shot on the left side of her head and neck several times, police said.
Woods, who police say was a former boyfriend of Adams, served nearly three years in the Washington Correctional Institution for numerous cocaine sale and possession charges, according to records from the Florida Department of Corrections. He was released on Nov. 8, 1999.
Four years earlier while serving time in the Lake County Jail on drug charges and for violating probation, Woods pleaded to a judge in several letters to be let out of jail, saying he did not commit the crimes.
"I'm a real church-going young man, even though I've been in trouble here and there," Woods wrote to Circuit Judge Mark J. Hill in a letter dated Jan. 4, 1995.
Woods told the judge he made mistakes by hanging out with people he said he "thought were all right, but all along, all the time, they were not my friends."
"I didn't have nobody to really teach me right from wrong when I was young except my mother and daddy. All my brothers were locked up or moved out."
OLDER BROTHER CONVICTED
His older brother, Terry Woods, was convicted of shooting a Leesburg retiree to death and critically wounding his wife after trying to settle a dispute over the sale of their classic car.
A Lake County jury convicted Terry Woods in 1997 of killing Clarence Langford and shooting his wife, Pamela. Prosecutors said Woods tricked the couple into driving to a desolate spot, where he shot each of them in the back of the head. Leesburg police later found a forged bill of sale for the Langfords' 1961 Chevy Bel Air in Woods' home.
Terry Woods was sentenced to death, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned the death sentence. Defense attorneys argued that he shouldn't be executed for several reasons, including the fact that Woods had an IQ of only 77.
In another letter, dated Jan. 27, 1995, Dannis Woods asked the judge to help him "be like the sun" so he could "see the LIGHT." He said he wanted to shine that light on his little brothers and sisters and at church, and that he was "trying hard to become somebody very special."
"I will never mess up my life reputation by coming back to jail ever again," he wrote.
'CRIME DOESN'T PAY'
Woods again told the judge he did not commit the crimes, and said that police in his neighborhood think people who have "two or three gold teeth" must be selling drugs. According to Department of Correction records, Woods has six gold teeth.
In a final letter dated March 27, 1995, Woods pleaded again with a judge, saying he had "been in various troubles" for crimes, but that he had learned that "crime doesn't pay."
"I feel sir that I have really learned my lesson," he wrote. "And if I come back to jail or court in front of you again, then you can give me 50 years in prison or anything."
Woods told the judge he had a 4-month-old daughter he needed to take care of.
Some records matching Woods' Social Security number list him as 26 years old. Others, including records from the Florida Department of Corrections, show Woods as a 28-year-old.
Records also show that Woods was convicted in Hillsborough County in 1998 for cocaine possession and carrying a concealed firearm. He also was sentenced to community supervision in 1993 for trafficking stolen property and assault.
Police on the morning of Adams' death issued a "be on the lookout" notice for Dannis Woods.
By late morning, authorities had questioned and released Woods, who was living in the area where Adams was killed. Police officials on Saturday could not be reached for comment.
EARLIER LEADS ELIMINATED
Authorities on the day Adams was killed also were searching for a dark blue Chevrolet Lumina. At least one witness said the car was driven by a woman and had two passengers. Several days after the killing, police said they did not believe the three people seen in the car were suspects in the homicide. But authorities said they wanted to speak to them about what they might have seen.
Those people, along with a person who was seen in the area of the car and who placed the car into park before leaving the area, have been eliminated as suspects in the shooting.
During the course of the investigation, a witness told police about Woods, adding that Woods had "numerous contacts with the victim in person and by phone," Leesburg Lt. David Marden said in a written statement issued late Friday.
Further interviews with witnesses linked Woods to Adams, and "further evidence was developed which establishes that Woods shot and killed his ex-girlfriend," Marden said.
The investigation is continuing.
"It is our hope that since Dannis C. Woods is now in custody, additional witnesses who were afraid of him will come forward with additional information related to the homicide," Marden said.
BOSS PRAISES VICTIM
Dennis Rogers, who was Jeremisia's manager at the Wildwood bank, said he did not know Woods personally, but knew of him.
"He did come by the bank a couple times," Rogers said Saturday after learning of Woods' arrest.
Police received a call shortly after 7 a.m. the morning of Adams' death from someone who lives near the crime scene. When police arrived, Adams was dead in the car. A baby seat in the back of the car was empty.
Shirley Carter said Adams had dropped off her children -- 2-year-old Robert and 6-month-old Jasmine -- at her home at the end of Harlem Avenue about 7 a.m. Carter runs a day-care center at her home and had been Adams' five-day-a-week baby sitter for the previous year.
"Oh my goodness, I am so relieved," said Carter when she learned Saturday of Woods' arrest.
Carter, who described Adams as a "very concerned parent," said she did not know Woods, but saw him "at the street corner once in awhile."
LIVED IN VIRGINIA
Records indicate that although Adams has lived on Pamela Street for several years -- just blocks from where she died -- she also spent 1999 in Quantico, Va., where the father of her son, Robert Grover Jr., was stationed. Neighbors said the father is in the Marine Corps.
Adams' older sister, 26-year-old April Walls, said the couple were married and that he is in Leesburg taking care of the children.
Rogers described Adams as a "really great kid" who was a hard worker and a good mother.
"She was really trying to make something of herself," he said Saturday. "All I can say is I am really glad they finally did arrest somebody. Hopefully this can work out and we can all have some real closure to this thing."