Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 9-27-19

Feature
Man Found Guilty Of Killing 9-Year-Old Girl
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Wednesday, a jury took less than 5 hours to find a Tampa man guilty of raping and killing a 9-year-old girl. The murder trial began two weeks ago.
The sentencing phase of the murder trial of Granville Ritchie began Thursday morning. All 12 jurors must vote unanimously for him to be sentenced to death. If all of the jurors don’t agree, then he will spend the remainder of his life in prison.
For the past five years, Ms. Felecia Demerson has waited for justice in the mur- der of her daughter, Felecia Nicole Williams.
In a telephone interview, Ms. Demerson said, “I still have to wait on Eboni (Wiley) to be sentenced, too. But I’m glad the State tried him first. I know that nothing can bring my daughter back. But I feel relieved to know that
FELECIA WILLIAMS
he won’t be out there walking around free. And I’m glad that he will never harm another child again.”
On May 16, 2014, the Tem- ple Terrace Police Department investigated the disappearance of 9-year-old Felecia Nicole Williams. She was last seen at an apartment complex where she had gone with Ms. Eboni Wiley, an acquain- tance of the family.
Felecia had gotten per- mission from her mother to go
GRANVILLE T. RITCHIE ... Charged with first-degree murder
off with Ms. Wiley. Ms. Wiley took the child with her when Granville Ritchie, a man she admitted to knowing only 3 days, picked them up. They were the last people to have seen the child alive.
The child’s body was found the following day in the bay off Courtney Campbell Causeway.
Ritchie, now 40, was ar- rested and charged with first- degree murder, sexual battery, and aggravated child abuse, among other charges.
During an interview with the Temple Terrace Police De- partment, Ms. Wiley gave different accounts of what hap- pened to the child.
In one interview, she told police she left Felecia with Ritchie for about 35 minutes while she went to buy mari- juana. She further stated that Ritchie called her and al- legedly said he had given the child some money to buy candy from a CVS. She report- edly drove to the store, but re- turned to the apartment upon Ritchie’s request. She told police they consumed alcohol and had sex before Ritchie took her home.
Several hours passed be- fore she contacted Felecia’s family to notify them that the child was missing. She was ar- rested and charged with pro- viding false information to police during a missing person investigation.
Ritchie allegedly told po- lice that Felecia disappeared during a 45-minute time frame while he and Ms. Wiley were having sex. He said Ms. Wiley briefly looked for the child before he took her home.
Changing The Face Of HIV/AIDS: ‘Plus+ Me’ Aims To Erase Stigma, Share Awareness
New PLUS+ Me initiative crafts community leaders, shares education and awareness
PLUS+ Me has launched a new initiative dedicated to changing the stigma associated with individuals living with HIV/AIDS. A press conference to preview the initiative will take place at 10:30 A. M. on Friday, September 27, 2019, and will be held at The Edge Hotel, Clearwa- ter Beach.
Funded by the Southern AIDS Coalition through the Gilead Compass Initiative, PLUS+ Me presents an open dia- logue on the subject and provides educational support to make an impact. The mission is focused on three core areas – creating opportunities for education through outreach, reducing the infection rate, and crafting new community leaders.
“PLUS+ Me is a great way for a person living with HIV to be- come self-sufficient and better able to contribute back into our community,” says Charles Ware, Outreach Specialist for PLUS+ Me.
With Southwest Florida hav- ing a concentration of persons living with HIV in 18 of the area’s top zip codes, PLUS+ Me’s goal is
to change the narrative sur- rounding HIV/AIDS.
Participants of PLUS+ Me at- tend weekly training courses, in- clusive of storytelling, entrepreneurial development, and community relations. The first group of PLUS+ Me Ambas- sadors will graduate in Novem- ber, having “real-world experience with advocacy and the skills to serve as leaders and trusted sources of information within their community,” says Ware.
A master quilt maker is cur- rently crafting a Quilt of Re- silience, signifying it as a sign of endurance for those living with HIV/AIDS – a bold statement that the diagnosis does not rep- resent a death sentence. The Quilt of Resilience is sched- uled for public release and view- ing at the culmination of the program.
As a part of the growing ini- tiative, PLUS+ Me has partnered with the Southern AIDS Coali- tion’s LEAD Academy to create a 3-day interactive training work- shop September 27th – 29th fo- cused on leadership, education, and advocacy development. In- terested individuals may register at bit.ly/SACPM and choose ‘TPAN’.
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