POSITIVE DRUG TEST SENDS MAN BACK TO PRISON FOR MANSLAUGHTER

Found guilty eight years ago of manslaughter in the slaying of a
Golden Gate man dumped with his car in a canal, Adam Moore is headed
back to prison.

Moore, 34, was one of five people charged in connection with the 1995
drowning death of Shawn David Wood. Sentenced to eight years in
prison, he served five and was released from prison to begin serving
seven years of probation.

He made it through four of those years. Then he tested positive for
drug use.

And that put Moore, back on the hook Tuesday for the remainder
of the prison time he didn't serve the first time. He was sentenced
to more prison time for violating his probation.

"This was a senseless crime, and Mr. Moore was obligated to follow the
law. He has not done that. He tested positive for cocaine, an illicit
drug," the prosecutor, Mara Marzano, told Collier County Circuit Judge
Fred Hardt.

Marzano asked for the maximum sentence of about 81/2 years in prison.
Erik Lombillo, Moore's attorney, asked for house arrest, or at most
the minimum of just over five years in prison.

Hardt split the difference, sentencing Moore to 83.5 months, or about
seven years. With the five years Moore already has served, that means
he will go back for two more.

He was released from prison Dec. 20, 2002, according to Florida
Department of Corrections records. He was formally convicted of
manslaughter, third-degree murder and auto theft.

Moore, then 24, was one of five people arrested and charged in
connection with the slaying Aug. 6, 1995.

According to trial testimony, Moore was a central figure in the plan
to steal Wood's Camaro Z-28 and sell it for drugs and money. Three
men, Gary Blakeman, Greg Mills and Edward "E.J." Mitchell, jumped
Wood, with Blakeman and Mills severely beating him with a flashlight
and a stun gun. That was reported to have taken place at the home of a
friend, Sandra Garvey, who was charged and later acquitted.

According to testimony, after the beating the men brought Wood to
Moore's home. They were frantic, believing they had killed Wood,
whom they had tossed into the back seat with his feet, arms and head
bound with duct tape.

Moore was to fence the car but couldn't contact his buyer that
night. Moore instead came up with the idea of dumping the car with
Wood's body in it in a canal in Golden Gate Estates. Moore later
testified that was Blakeman's idea.

Moore admitted during the trial that he used his foot to help push the
car into the canal after it got hung up on the bank. A medical
examiner testified Wood died not from injuries sustained in the
beating, but by drowning.

Blakeman was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life
sentence. Mills received 15 years in prison, while Mitchell received
21/2 years after agreeing to testify against Mills.

Moore was clean for four years after his release from prison but was
arrested June 8 on the violation of probation charge. Marzano offered
Moore a plea agreement with the maximum sentence of 81/2 years. Moore
turned it down and requested a hearing similar to a trial. He lost
when laboratory experts confirmed the positive urine test.

The sentencing was Tuesday. The seven-year sentence Hardt chose was
two years less than what the prosecution had offered.

"I think it was a fair compromise under the circumstances," Lombillo
said outside court.

Moore worked for a tree-trimming service that helped do clean-up after
Hurricane Wilma last year. His probation officer, Lana Curran,
testified she'd rather see Moore working than back in prison. Moore
told the judge he had hoped to bury his past, stay clean and work to
support himself and his wife, whom he married after leaving prison.

"Since I've been out of prison I've been doing a lot of positive
things. I've been working two, three jobs from the day I got out,"
Moore said.

But Marzano tried to persuade Hardt to reject Moore's request for
house arrest, recounting some of the facts behind Wood's death.

"He was alive when he was put into the canal. He actually drowned to
death," Marzano said.

Collier County court records show Moore also was convicted and
sentenced to six months' probation on a misdemeanor battery charge
for punching his pregnant girlfriend in 1994. Also in 1994, he was
convicted on charges of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia,
for which he received six months of probation.