BUDDY JAUDON


Buddy Jaudon
The Tampa Tribune news researcher
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"Road rage suspect has long rap sheet"

Byline: Jan Hollingsworth and Buddy Jaudon
August 8, 2000
Page 1A
Section: NATION/WORLD

TAMPA - A felon with a traffic citation record dating to 1985 is charged with murder in last week's "road rage" slaying. Police have charged a habitual traffic offender who has a checkered history of arrests for domestic violence and weapons violations in connection with the shooting last week of a Largo motorist. Robert Glenn Bruno, 31, was charged late Saturday with second-degree murder in what authorities are calling the ultimate form of "road rage." "You've got a very dangerous person off the street," said Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin.

Witnesses told police that shortly before Tuesday's shooting, the victim, Fernando Malagon, and the driver of a red compact car were speeding through the streets near Memorial Highway, exchanging obscenities. Malagon, 37, eventually stopped on the entrance ramp to southbound Interstate 275 from Memorial Highway. The other driver got out of his car and shot him at close range with a large-caliber handgun.

Police say there is no evidence the two knew each other. "We'll never know what the victim stopped for," Durkin said. Guns and cars play a prominent role in Bruno's long list of encounters with law enforcement. Court records show that in 1992, a jury convicted him of improperly displaying a weapon, apparently in connection with a traffic incident.

Hillsborough County Judge Dick Greco Jr. withheld adjudication and placed Bruno on a year's probation. A year and four days later, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies charged him with stealing foreign sports cars as part of a local "chop shop" operation.

Bruno pleaded guilty and was placed on five years' probation. One of the provisions of his probation required that he sell guns seized from him at the time of his arrest to make restitution to his victims. In December 1998, he was charged with domestic violence, being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana. The incident involved Bruno pointing a gun at an acquaintance while they were in a car, Durkin said. Prosecutors dropped the first two charges, and Bruno pleaded guilty to the third. Court records indicate Bruno repeatedly violated his probation on the car-theft charges, with little apparent consequence. That probation was terminated last August.

A second probation in the 1998 case expired in January. Bruno also has been cited for six traffic accidents in three counties since 1985. A string of additional traffic violations for speeding, careless driving, driving with a suspended license and other infractions prompted officials in 1990 to revoke his license for five years. Bruno continued to drive and collect citations. His arrest records list Bob's Custom Woodworks as his place of employment. But the Tribune could find no phone or corporate records listing a company by that name.

The case remained under investigation and more charges could be forthcoming, Durkin said. Homicide detectives also were exploring the role of two occupants of Bruno's car at the time of the shooting. Durkin would identify them only as a man and woman acquainted with, but not related to, the suspect. He would not say whether 18-year-old Heather Baker, listed as a witness on the arrest affidavit, was in the red Nissan Bruno was driving.

According to the affidavit, Baker identified Bruno by name as the gunman. "We had numerous tips that greatly added to the closure of this case," Durkin said. Malagon, who police say may have cut Bruno off in traffic, also had a number of speeding tickets. He apparently got caught up in a confrontation that escalated from trading insults to gunfire, Durkin said.

It is a lesson the public should take to heart, he added. "You never know who's out there, whether he or she is armed and what level they will take it to." Bruno was being held at a Hillsborough County jail without bail. He is expected to make his first court appearance this morning.

HISTORY OF CHARGES


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