Story thread · 2 reports / 1 sources

He spent decades in a mental hospital after St. Petersburg killing. Would he get prison?

tampabay.com · 3hShare

On Oct. 7, 2002, Brandon Hitteman walked into a mental health facility. He was having hallucinations and racing thoughts. Eight days later, he called 911 and said his girlfriend wasn’t breathing. St. Petersburg police arrived at a grisly scene. Pamela Berkebile, 34, lay flat on her back on the floor of the living room. Her face was puffy and purple, her eyes swollen shut. An autopsy showed her skull was cracked open and the muscles beneath her neck had ruptured from strangulation. On Thursday afternoon, a Pinellas County jury found Hitteman guilty of first-degree murder. They deliberated just shy of two hours. Hitteman, 49, listened to the verdict from a wheelchair at the defense desk. The disheveled man wore orange jail clothes and had his hands shackled behind his back. Circuit Judge Christopher LaBruzzo gave him a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case stalled for more than two decades while Hitteman was undergoing competency restoration at

First report: After St. Petersburg murder, he spent 20 years in a mental hospital. Now he faces trial — tampabay.com, 1d