Deaf Tampa man loses bid for early parole in murder
TALLAHASSEE — Despite his claim of innocence, a deaf Tampa man serving life for his role in a 1981 murder at an East Fowler Avenue motel won’t be eligible for parole for another 11 years.
In a 2-1 decision on Wednesday, the state’s parole board decided to set Felix Garcia’s potential release date at August 2025. The Florida Commission on Offender Review, formerly the Florida Parole Commission, also agreed to reconsider his case in another three years.
The decision followed nearly an hour of emotional and often conflicting testimony from Garcia’s advocates, the victim’s family and Tampa’s chief prosecutor, State Attorney Mark Ober, who had personally tried the case.
And one of Garcia’s brothers later told the board that Garcia, now 53, was in fact involved in the murder. Garcia, convicted in July 1983 on charges of first degree murder and armed robbery, did not attend the hearing.
Felix Garcia and his brother Frank Garcia both are in prison for the shooting death of Joseph Tramontana Jr., killed either for his expensive jewelry or as a result of a drug deal gone bad.
Ober said claims that Garcia didn’t get a fair trial were “disingenuous,” referring to trial transcripts that showed Garcia said he could hear and understand what was going on. Garcia was given a hearing aid and a loudspeaker.
But Garcia’s supporters say he was unfairly convicted because he wasn’t provided a sign-language interpreter and had only a fourth-grade reading comprehension at the time.
He also had an alibi: His then-girlfriend and her mother said he was at their house six miles away from the motel at the time of the murder.
Retired paralegal Pat Bliss, who said she’s been “like a mom to him,” has been working on Garcia’s case since 1996.
“This has been an injustice,” she said.
Garcia told his lawyers he just kept saying “yes” because “if I say no, they’re going to think I’m stupid,” records show.
The defense said Frank Garcia framed his brother by getting him to pawn a ring stolen from the dead man; evidence against him included the signed pawn ticket.
Four of Tramontana’s sisters also appeared before the board.
“You have the facts but what you don’t have is what this has done to us as a family,” one sister, Emily Hobson, told commissioners.
Learning of his son’s murder “was the only time I saw my father cry,” she added. “My mother was never the same … she could never really talk in completed sentences from that moment on.”
Frank Garcia also had a parole hearing immediately after Felix’s, at which their other brother Mike asked commissioners to consider releasing Frank.
When Commissioner Richard Davison asked why he did not also speak on Felix’s behalf, Mike Garcia said he wasn’t asked, explaining that Felix was estranged from the family.
He also said that brother Frank, with whom he still talks, had told him that he and Felix “were both there” in the hotel room during the murder.
That contradicted the alibi and Frank’s own claim in a 2006 evidentiary hearing that Felix wasn’t involved. Frank’s guilt has not been questioned; 13 of his fingerprints were eventually found in the motel room.
Felix’s attorney, Reginald Garcia, who is not related, called that “the cover-up narrative ... Frank knew he had to blame Felix.”
Ober said the two brothers had conspired to lie for each other to get them both out of prison. Commissioners Wednesday decided to let Frank Garcia remain in prison.
In Felix’s case, Davison differed only slightly from fellow commissioners Tena Pate and Melinda Coonrod in his recommendation, suggesting a potential release date one year later in 2026 and reconsideration in five years rather than three.
Garcia is now serving his sentence in Ocala’s Marion Correctional Institution, state records show.
Commissioners explained their job wasn’t to decide on Garcia’s innocence but whether he was ready to rejoin society.
As of now, 2025 represents the earliest Garcia could be paroled, though that does not guarantee he’ll be out by then.
Attorney Reginald Garcia also is trying to get the case reviewed by Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet, which sits as the Board of Executive Clemency.
http://tbo.com/news/politics/deaf-tampa-man-loses-bid-for-early-parole-in-murder-20141119/