DRUG BUST'S LEGACY: CRASH KILLS MOM OF 3

PINELLAS PARK -- A mother of three is dead.

Her father, with whom she had come from Florence, S.C., for a
construction job, is grieving.

And her father's girlfriend is in critical condition at Bayfront
Medical Center.

These are three of the lives affected -- or taken -- when two men in
a Chevrolet Monte Carlo ran a red light Thursday night while fleeing
Pinellas Park police and T-boned the Ford Taurus the mother of three
was driving, according to police.

Minutes before, two blocks away, one of the two men had sold $140
worth of crack cocaine to an undercover officer, in a Target parking
lot, raising questions as to why police would meet suspects in an
area populated by potential innocent bystanders.

The dead woman has been identified as Nachenga Robinson, 32. Since
the Monte Carlo made a direct hit at a high rate of speed with the
driver side of the Taurus, Robinson bore the brunt of the impact,
said Capt. Sanfield Forseth of the Pinellas Park Police Department.

In the front passenger seat was Caroline Johnson, 51, the girlfriend
of Nachenga's father, James. Johnson is in critical condition at
Bayfront Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. In the back
seat of the car were Nachenga's children: Obadiah, 11; I'on, 8; and
Eric, 13. They were taken to All Children's Hospital and Bayfront,
but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Forseth said.

"This is a shock," said Martha McCall, Nachenga's sister, from
Florence. "These are people's lives. This is a loss to us."

Robinson, her father, her children, and her father's girlfriend had
been staying for a couple of months at the Star Extended Stay Motel,
3491 62nd Ave., the manager there said. James Robinson confirmed he
and his daughter were working for a company involved in some
construction at the Bartow power plant on Weedon Island, but he
declined further comment.

SWAT Members Moved In

At 8:51 p.m.Thursday, the two men in the Monte Carlo -- later
identified as Devonta T. Merriex, 20, and Rashane Deangelo Barber,
21, both of St. Petersburg -- were at Park Place shopping mall to
sell crack cocaine, Forseth said.

Barber, who was in the passenger seat, sold an undercover officer
$140 worth, police records say. As 11 undercover narcotics detectives
and SWAT team members converged on the Monte Carlo, the driver,
Merriex, sped off, Forseth said.

He exited the massive mall in the 7200 block of U.S. 19, headed south
at a high rate of speed, and, two blocks from the alleged drug deal,
ran the red light at 70th Avenue, crashing into the Taurus, Forseth said.

After the wreck, Barber and Merriex bolted, Forseth said. Merriex was
tracked by a police dog and was found hiding under some heavy
vegetation behind a home at 2600 60th Ave., police records show.
Barber was found talking on his cell phone at 6767 34th St.

Forseth said Merriex was not being chased by police before he
crashed. A supervisor overseeing the drug buy in the mall told
detectives and SWAT team members to let him go once Merriex squeezed
through two unmarked police cars that were trying to block the Monte Carlo.

Pinellas Park's pursuit policy allows officers to chase a suspect
only if the suspect has been involved in a violent felony, such as
murder or rape. Selling crack cocaine does not qualify, Forseth said.

In addition, only marked police cruisers, equipped with lights and
sirens, are allowed to chase vehicles, Forseth said. The vehicles
converging on the Monte Carlo in the mall parking lot were unmarked
cars, he said.

As for why the narcotics unit arranged the buy in the parking lot at
a Target reserved for customers going to the department store's
garden section, Forseth said it is often the drug dealers who dictate
location. If undercover detectives lay down too many stipulations as
to locale, they risk spooking the dealers, he said.

"The bad guys tend to dictate where they are comfortable conducting
the transaction, and it seems some of them like to be in an area with
high traffic and a lot of people" Forseth said.

Still, Forseth said, the parking lot reserved for customers going to
the garden section of the Target store is not as populated as other
areas of the mall. And earlier that night, narcotics detectives
oversaw a different, unrelated drug buy in the parking lot of a
nearby McDonald's, and arrested that suspect without incident.

"I don't know where you could run an operation where the public is
not in danger, unless it's the Gulf of Mexico," Forseth said. "If you
survey where most drug deals take place, they are on the street."

Barber Was of Interest to Police

Merriex was charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an
accident involving death, four counts of leaving the scene of a wreck
involving serious injury, and loitering and prowling. The latter
charge was filed after police say he was hanging around the
neighborhood where he was eventually arrested.

Merriex was also scheduled for a court hearing in August stemming
from a charge filed in April of obstructing or resisting an officer
without violence. Merriex was being held at the Pinellas County Jail
on $80,250 bail.

It is apparent from police records that authorities had been
targeting Barber as a suspected drug dealer for some time. He was
charged with sale of cocaine, possession of cocaine and using a cell
phone to make a drug transaction, in relation to Thursday night's
incident, police records say.

But he is also accused of selling drugs to an undercover narcotics
detective on July 1, 3 and 8, records say. He is accused of using his
cell phone to make those transactions.

All told, Barber is charged with four counts of possession of
cocaine, four counts of sale of cocaine and four counts of unlawful
use of a two-way device or cell phone to make a drug transaction. He
is also charged with resisting arrest and a prior charge of failing
to pay child support, jail records show.

Bail was set at $120,787.

Barber had previously been sentenced to jail time after pleading no
contest to a charge of fleeing and eluding in 2005. That year, he
also pleaded no contest to trafficking in cocaine and was sentenced
to probation, which he later violated, Pinellas County court records show.