Blue Hole Gator Kllers Get 6 Months
The two young men who killed Cola the alligator with a high-powered pellet gun and souvenir baseball bat, ate her at a barbecue and gloated with pictures on MySpace.com are going to jail. ”They picked the wrong gator to kill,” Gordon Sharp, the arresting officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said Friday during the impassioned five-hour sentencing hearing.
Cola lived with its mate Bacardi at the Blue Hole, an abandoned rock quarry turned pond on a federal refuge on Big Pine Key. She was visited yearly by thousands, and described as “semi-tame.”
Circuit Judge Mark H. Jones, saying he rarely has seen a case with as much public interest, sentenced Jordan Milo, 20, and Timothy Goll, 19, to six months at the Monroe County Detention Center, five years’ probation, community service and a psychological evaluation. Before being led away in handcuffs, Milo, a sergeant in the 194th Army Reserve unit with orders to go to Iraq, blurted: “I will be dishonorably discharged.” That prompted an angry Jones to tell Milo: “You still don’t get it.”
The judge said he received letters from as far away as California demanding harsh punishment for the defendants. One stated they should be whipped at Mallory Square. A local petition with 4,500 signatures, also requesting harsh sentences, was presented by the nonprofit Friends, Advocates and Volunteers of the Refuge.
Jones said he didn’t give those letters or the petition consideration, but did give weight to the cruel killing’s effect on the community.
The six-foot alligator was killed March 24, 2006 in what prosecutors said was a premediated act by Milo, Goll, Theo Delerth, then 18, and an unnamed minor, then 17, to ”get a gator” at the Blue Hole.
LURED WITH BIRDS
According to court records, Goll and Milo shot birds to lure the alligator, then shot the alligator in the eyes with pellet guns and struck it on the head with a small bat, while Delerth and the minor served as lookout and getaway driver.
At the Blue Hole the next day, two native birds were found dead of pellet shots. Cola, who had been living at the refuge for about five years, was missing.
Carlene Edwards, a volunteer at the Blue Hole, later discovered what had happened to Cola: On Milo’s MySpace.com page were pictures of the alligator being held like a trophy, with a hat on its head.
Delerth and the minor were not charged, in exchange for attending a pretrial intervention program.
Goll and Milo pleaded guilty June 5 to killing the gator. They could have received up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. If the two friends meet their sentencing conditions, they will avoid felony convictions. CHARACTER WITNESSES
Milo, who appeared in court dressed in his uniform, had a bright military future ahead of him, according to his commanding officer and a top sergeant who drove to Key West on their own time and money to testify on Milo’s behalf.
Lt. Col. Donald Adsher said Milo was a ”top performer” of the terminal supervision team.
Master Sergeant Ann Marie McDonald said Milo “would be discharged if he was sentenced to jail and that would be a shame.
”He’s vital to our unit,” McDonald said. “His specialty [operator of forklifts, cranes and heavy equipment to move cargo] is rare and the government has spent a lot of money and time on his training.”
Goll is hopeful he will be able to return to his welder’s apprentice job in six months.
In a courtroom packed on one side with green-attired animal and nature advocates, the defendants’ attorneys said the young men admitted their stupidity and wrongdoing, but should get mercy due to their youth and lack of prior offenses.
However, Jones said: “This is a very serious crime that warrants a very serious punishment.
”This Blue Hole is a very special place,” Jones said. “This isn’t Broward, not Tampa. It’s the Florida Keys. . . . What you did was invade that. You brought your trucks, and guns and MySpace and callous disrespect for the law. You damaged this community. Killed a living creature.”
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