Former Sweetwater cop Manuel ''Manny'' PardoJr., awaiting execution on Florida's Death Row for nine murders, lost another bid to escape lethal injection. Pardo, 51, claimed his 1988 convictions and death sentences should be set aside. Among the reasons: He says he was incompetent at trial because of a ''thyroid and hormonal disorder'' that wasn't diagnosed at the time.
He also says his attorney, Ronald Guralnick, was ''ineffective'' because Guralnick sought one trial, rather than separate trials for each murder case, to save time and money. Guralnick maintains Pardo had a ''better shot at winning the lottery'' than winning individual acquittals.
Last November, Pardo's appellate lawyer, Leor Veleanu of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel's office, filed a petition in federal district court to obtain a new trial. Florida assistant attorney general Sandra Jaggard represented the state.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Cohn shot down Pardo's request. In a 30-page order, Cohn says Pardo ''failed to demonstrate grounds'' that a new trial is warranted.
Pardo killed six men and three women -- in five separate episodes -- between January and April 1986. He went to trial two years later, with Guralnick using an insanity defense. Pardo took the stand against Guralnick's advice, telling jurors he killed the nine because they were drug dealers. ''I enjoyed shooting them,'' he testified. ''They're parasites and they're leeches and they have no right to be alive.'' He also told prosecutors David Waksman and Sally Weintraub: ``I don't think I'm crazy. . . . I never said I was insane.''
At sentencing, Pardo asked for the death penalty, saying he wanted a ''glorious end.'' Then-Judge PhillipKnight accommodated.
Florida death sentences are automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court. In July 1990, that court upheld his conviction -- unanimously. Pardo has filed subsequent appeals. ''Every court indicated that he was effectively represented,'' Guralnick says. ``I know I did a good job.''
Pardo, inmate No. 111983 at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, plans to appeal Cohn's order to the federal circuit court in Atlanta.
Waksman, an ex-New York cop who has helped send about a dozen killers to Death Row, says none has yet been executed. In Pardo's case, Waksman says, ``every judge who reviewed this 1988 trial has found the defendant was treated fairly. The families of the victims are now one step closer to seeing justice. Hopefully, the appeals in the federal courts will not take too much longer.''
TV TIDBITS
• WPLG-ABC 10 reporter Elena Echarri says someone swiped her purse from the station's white van while she and photographer Lani Carrier did a live shot for Friday's 5 a.m. newscast. ''Right under our noses,'' Echarri says. They parked outside Soyka's restaurant in Miami's Upper East Side to use the eatery as a backdrop for a story on rising food prices.
Echarri, 40, is missing her black Cynthia Rowley leather handbag containing a wallet, ID, credit cards, cash and BlackBerry, along with a black cloth bag filled with TV makeup. The culprit spilled the cosmetics.
The BlackBerry contained photos of her baby daughter. ``They can't be replaced.''
• Randi Goldklank, WSVN-Fox 7's former national and local sales manager, was arrested at Boston's Logan International Airport last Sunday after what The Boston Globe described as ''an allegedly drunken, obscenity-laced tirade.'' Goldklank, 40, who worked in South Florida from '01 to '05, is now general manager of Boston's WHDH.
Ed Ansin, whose Sunbeam Television Corp. owns WSVN and WHDH, issued a statement saying Goldklank is ''regretful'' and on administrative leave while undergoing medical treatment.
