WOMAN DIES OF WOUND TO HEAD

A Brooksville Woman Described As An Unemployed Addict Was Looking For
Drugs, Police Say, When She Was Fatally Shot In The Head.

BROOKSVILLE -- Linda L. Clevinger went to the abandoned United 500 gasoline
station looking for for drugs, police say.

Instead, she found her death at the hands of a man who shot her once in the
side of the head in what authorities are calling a "drug deal gone bad."

Clevinger, who would have turned 35 on Monday, died Sunday. The Brooksville
resident was in the passenger seat of a truck when she was shot in the
gasoline station parking lot, at 1360 Jefferson St., just after midnight.
The driver of the truck, whose identity police have not released, witnessed
the shooting and rushed her to Brooksville Regional Hospital. Doctors
transferred her to Tampa General Hospital, where she died.

Brooksville Police Chief Ed Tincher said officials are working on several
leads with help from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement.

"We have some suspect information, and we're in the process of developing
that," he said. "Unfortunately, I have more questions than I do answers."

Police do not think the driver was involved in the crime, Tincher added.

Authorities released little else Monday about the circumstances surrounding
the killing. Tincher said Clevinger was an unemployed addict who lived at
24304 Kaufman Road with a female roommate.

She had family in West Virginia and collected disability payments from the
military. She wore braces on her legs to help her walk, Tincher said.

Records show Clevinger was married, but the husband did not live with her
and could not be reached for comment Monday. She also has a criminal
record, including a conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Clevinger's death is the first homicide in Hernando County this year.

It is also the fourth straight drug-related Brooksville killing. Tincher
said the pattern concerns but does not surprise him.

"Anywhere you go, there is a higher incidence of homicides related to drug
activity," he said. "But does it resolve me to work harder to get a better
handle on things in South Brooksville? It certainly does."

Tincher said the gasoline station at which the shooting occurred is
notorious for drug dealing.

He said that his agency has done numerous stings at the location but has
been unable to stop the activity.

"It's a lot like a dog chasing its tail," he said.

"You arrest them . . . and they're back out doing it again and again and
again."

Ironically, he said, the department has been talking with the property
owner to try to buy the land and turn it into a police substation.