At the core of the case will be the single budget document. Prosecutors say it is crucial because Sansom asserted in his testimony that his only involvement was to get the money for his local college, and that he had nothing to do with the placement of the building at Destin Airport, where Odom had long planned to open Destin Jet.

EARLY TALK

Sansom, who appeared before the grand jury two months ago, acknowledged there was early talk of putting the building at the airport but said it was the college's decision.

''This is an internal document,'' Sansom said, explaining that the airport reference was dropped because it was the college's job to find a spot.

To grand jurors, however, there were too many connections to Odom, who had his own plans for a state-funded hangar on the same airport land that he eventually leased to the college.

The college then used Odom's already approved development order with the city of Destin as it proceeded with the building.

''I look at those plans and, yeah, I see a hangar and I see hangar doors,'' a grand juror told Sansom.

Sansom testified that he would have never gotten state money for something Odom would use. Sansom said he felt comfortable going through the college to construct a building that could also be used as a staging area for Destin emergency response workers.

''So why use hangar plans to build it?'' a grand juror asked.

''Well, I can't answer for the plans,'' Sansom replied. ``As a legislator, once you get money to a college and purpose of the building, that's their decision how the plans work and what is designed.''

He went on to say that after he got the money he met with Richburg and Odom and said ``it was absolutely not to be used by a private individual.''

KEY TO DEFENSE

The crux of Richburg's defense is a lease between Odom and the college for the airport land that says nothing shall be construed as a partnership between Destin Jet and the college.

Richburg invoked that during his own grand jury testimony April 16 in Tallahassee. But jurors concluded that did not preclude the college from giving space to the developer.

''We're looking for something specifically saying that they couldn't use this for a private purpose . . . So we can be assured that it will not be used as a hangar,'' a juror said.

''Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you that if airplanes were leased in that facility, this board [of college trustees] would run this president out of the state, because there is no plan for this college to use it as a hangar,'' Richburg testified.

''I'm sure they would now,'' a juror replied. In fact, the trustees did fire Richburg after his indictment. The school also abandoned the project, which was still in design stages, and the money will be used for projects at other colleges next year. Richburg is fighting the dismissal, and the trustees may enter mediation.

The grand jury and State Attorney Meggs were perplexed by the two-story building and its tall hangar doors. If not to accommodate aircraft -- as a college vice president testified they were for -- then what were they for?

''I need a hangar door to get in every fire engine the city of Destin owns,'' Richburg testified. He suggested that the extra-thick floors the design called for were not for aircraft but for the heavy trucks.

Northwest Florida State College has offered a similar explanation before.

But before the grand jury, Richburg gave another justification for the tall, open building design. ``We are going to build within that . . . one of the most elaborate shoot-don't-shoot apartment kind of a facility you can imagine for the training for law enforcement people going in there.''

ON THE STAND

When Sansom was on the witness stand, Meggs asked him about fitting fake apartments into a building that was supposed to house emergency vehicles in times of disaster. ``See Representative Sansom, that's what has us all kind of balled up in a wad here. It can't be a staging area and build a mock apartment in there.''

Sansom's reply: ``Well, I think it can.''

Reporter Alex Leary can be reached at leary@sptimes.com.

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