HYDE PARK BUSINESS OWNER IS CONVICTED

Red-faced and speechless, Dennis Fonte shifted nervously at the cherry
defense table Wednesday. His wife, perched on a packed bench behind him,
rocked back and forth in the silence as she fingered a bracelet of black
beads, the kind teens wear these days for courage.

Then the jury foreman announced the verdict - and howls of dismay filled
the air.

``How could they do this? How could they do this with all that crappy
evidence?'' one of Fonte's sisters wailed. ``God have mercy!''

After five hours of deliberations, a federal jury in Tampa found Fonte, the
well-connected owner of a Hyde Park dry-cleaning business, guilty of
conspiring to deal in cocaine. The conviction carries at least 10 years in
prison.

As an emotional Fonte handed over his belt and tie to U.S. marshals and
tried unsuccessfully to reach his wife for a goodbye hug, Fonte's brother
Ronnie crossed the railing that separates spectators from the lawyers and
the judge. He charged toward Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Preston but was
stopped by a defense lawyer, who escorted him from the courtroom.

Before lunch, Preston and Fonte's lawyer, Rick Terrana, delivered rousing
closing arguments for and against the credibility of the three chief
witnesses against Fonte, all criminals-turned-informants.

Both sides agreed: This was a case that rested on the word of three
convicted drug dealers.

The informants, one of them Fonte's cousin, swore they either supplied
Fonte with cocaine or bought it from him. The transactions occurred, they
said, in the house behind Morris Fonte & Sons Inc., a family landmark at
Swann and Howard avenues.

William Hart, Nelson Fonte and Gustavo Posada told jurors Fonte dealt for
years in large quantities of cocaine.

But Terrana repeatedly said the government never caught his client with
drugs and had no suspicious ledgers or secretly recorded dealings. The
prosecution's only additional evidence consisted of phone records and
car-rental receipts that Preston said bolstered Posada's testimony about
traveling to Tampa to make drug deliveries.

``I waited for some certainty ... I listened and I listened, but I never
heard anything,'' Terrana said. ``At the start of this trial, I told you
you would see nothing - nothing but the word of the government's new
darling angels.''

Preston bristled at the closing remarks, reminding the jury that he, too,
had acknowledged his witnesses were shady, testifying because they received
or hope to receive shortened sentences.

``There is no secret ... they were drug dealers,'' Preston said. ``They
were responsible for putting a poison called cocaine out on the streets.

``But ladies and gentlemen, you don't cast a play in hell and get angels in
starring roles.''

Hart agreed to cooperate with investigators after a federal drug arrest in
December 1996. Although he was facing life in prison because of previous
convictions, Hart served eight months.

Hart was also a key witness in 1999 in the federal prosecution of another
widely known south Tampa man, W. Howard Frankland II, who was acquitted
after being accused of plotting to burn down his mansion for the insurance
money. Hart admitted setting the fire but was never charged.

Nelson Fonte - once known by the motto ``Domino's Delivers'' because of his
dependability in the drug trade - was convicted twice in state cocaine
cases. He also dodged jail, serving house arrest and probation instead.

The third informant, Posada, testified that he was tied to powerful Miami
drug organizations and supplied the defendant. He is serving a 10-year
federal prison term but could see it reduced because of his testimony.

In addition to fueling debate about informant testimony, the trial deepened
a family rift.

The tensions had already manifested themselves with Dennis Fonte's arrest.
Relatives who own a rival chain of dry cleaners publicly dissociated
themselves from the cocaine case after erroneous newspaper reports.

The turmoil became more pronounced Tuesday when Frank Fonte, an uncle to
both Dennis and Nelson Fonte, took the stand for the defense, telling
jurors that Nelson Fonte envied his cousin and was a liar.

Family membersl were too distraught to comment after the verdict. The
jurors, who left after meeting privately with the judge, declined to
discuss the decision.

Sentencing will be in April, but a date had not been set.

It was unclear Wednesday night whether Terrana will appeal or ask the judge
to set aside the verdict. The decision may turn on something he told the
jury in closing - that the case was a classic example of reasonable doubt.

``He may have done this,'' Terrana said. ``There is a 50-50 chance, but
that's not enough. My gosh, folks, if there ever was a case of reasonable
doubt, you've seen it develop in this courtroom. Dennis Fonte is not
guilty, he's really not.''