Tampa PBA Call To Action - Tampa Cop Killer Hearing

[TampaPBA]

[Greg Stout]

This is a special thank you to all who attended yesterday's hearing. Without a doubt you made an impact.

Thanks again for holding the thin blue line!

Greg



Judge orders medication for man’s sentencing


He was convicted in the 1981 killing of a Tampa police officer.

By JOSH POLTILOVE

jpoltilove@tampatrib.com

TAMPA » Every time Carlos Bello faces being resentenced for killing a Tampa police detective and wounding another in July 1981, he stops taking medicine for his mental health, prosecutors say.

He has been ruled incompetent about a dozen times.

But a Hillsborough County judge ruled Friday that Bello will be forced to take psychotropic medications so he can remain competent for sentencing. The ruling is contingent upon more details about the type and amount of medication Bello will receive and how it will be administered.

“I do not want this to be overly broad, where we’re giving him everything but the kitchen sink in order to maintain his competence,” Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta said.

Bello, 56, was in court for the hearing. He was convicted in 1987 of killing Detective Gerald Rauft and shooting Detective Robert Ulriksen during a drug raid at an Ybor City home.

Rauft, a 38-year-old U.S. Army veteran, had been with the department for eight years. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

His daughter Patricia attended Friday’s hearing. She’s glad progress is being made in the case.

“I think I would get more satisfaction if I were able to look at him and say, ‘Do you know what you did to my family? Are you aware that you killed my father and left his children without a father?’” she said. “I think I would get more satisfaction out of it. But I know we don’t run the system like that.”

After Bello’s conviction, a psychiatrist testified the Cuba native exhibited characteristics of paranoid and catatonic schizophrenia and was mentally ill when he killed Rauft. But a clinical psychologist said Bello was bright, refused to share information with doctors and no longer needed to be hospitalized if given anti-psychotic medicine.

In April 1987, Bello was sentenced to die.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1989 but overturned the sentence, saying Bello shouldn’t have been shackled during sentencing deliberations. Since then, Bello has been confined at various institutions, including Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee.

Patricia Rauft said she wants Bello to spend the rest of his life in jail instead of a hospital.

“I can’t imagine putting him to death,” she said, “because I’ve forgiven him.”

News Channel 8 photographer Kate Caldwell contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

“I do not want this to be overly broad, where we’re giving him everything but the kitchen sink … to maintain his competence.”

CIRCUIT JUDGE RONALD FICARROTTA




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