AP Men Indicted In Lakeland Killing

AVON PARK - On Sept. 26, Luther Tyrone Golliday was gunned down in the parking lot of a BP gas station, located at 835 W. Memorial Blvd., in Lakeland.

He was transported to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where Golliday was pronounced dead at age 24.

An Avon Park man, James Walter Blackwell III, 20, of 904 S. Florida Ave., was arrested Friday after a grand jury in Polk County indicted him on a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Golliday.

A second man, Edgar Elijah Brown, 24, of 409 W. Kirkland St., Avon Park, was indicted Oct. 11, also charged with first-degree murder. He is awaiting trial.

According to the Lakeland Police Department arrest report, Brown got into an argument with Golliday at Club Kathleen, in Lakeland, when Brown was reportedly bumped by a car door from the car Golliday was riding in.

Witnesses told police that Brown was so upset he got a ride and located the victim at the gas station. He got a gun from one of the witnesses riding with him and started walking toward the gas station to a parked car, the report stated.

Golliday was sitting in the back seat when witnesses reported to police that Brown opened fire. He then ran back to the car he came in.

He reportedly told witnesses he shot the victim and put the gun in his pocket, the report stated. He wasn't sure he hit the victim, the report stated, until he saw a news report and learned the victim died.

Blackwell III was recommitted into the Highlands County Jail on Friday and sentenced to less than a year in jail for resisting or obstructing a law enforcement officer. The Polk County grand jury concluded on Nov. 1, regarding Blackwell.

Chip Thulberry, with the state attorney's office, could not specifically discuss Blackwell's involvement in the case other than to say he is accused of aiding in some way in the commission of this crime and is equally charged under the law.