At trial, witness to murders recalls suspect's approach
Michael Keetley listens to testimony.
TAMPA, Fla. - Jose Rodriguez says he was sitting on a porch, playing poker with his buddies on Thanksgiving Day when a man dressed as a police officer came looking for someone.
"He came asking for ‘Creeper.’ We said, ‘He’s not here; we don’t know him,’" Rodriguez recalled in court Monday.
The next thing Rodriguez remembers was the man pulling out a gun and having everyone lay on the ground. "Then he started shooting.”
Prosecutors say the shooter was defendant Michael Keetley, also known in the neighborhood as Mike the Ice Cream Man. Keetley had been robbed and shot in his ice cream truck 10 months earlier and was out for revenge.
They say when the shooting was over, two brothers were dead and four others severely injured.
Rodriguez says he was a regular customer of Keetley’s but initially was unable to identify him as the shooter in a photo lineup. However, defense attorney Lyann Goudie tried to show Rodriguez’s memory was fuzzy at best – that he was drunk and high on drugs.
Goudie says this is a case of mistaken identity. “Isn’t it fair to say that only after you heard it was Mike the Ice Cream Man from all these people that you said that’s the shooter?” she asked.
"Yes,” Rodriguez replied.
Later, Terry Radcliffe testified that her husband at the time painted cars for a living. She remembered Michael Keetley showing up the next day after the murders wanting a two-tone paint job. What she found strange is that her husband and Keetley stayed up until 2 in the morning painting the van.
She also remembers what Keetley told her following the armed robbery of his ice cream truck.
“Did he indicate 'What do you want done with the robbers that shot him?'” asked prosecutor Jay Pruner.
“He said he wanted them to be like him. He wanted revenge," Radcliffe responded.