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Tampa man says he will serve 35-year murder sentence as a 'man of integrity'

 
Published May 31, 2012

TAMPA — Joshua Coleman declined a jury trial for a 2007 murder, but at sentencing Wednesday he told a judge he did so only to maintain his honor. "I ain't no snitch," he said. "I'm going to die a man of integrity."

"Your explanation boggles the mind," said Hillsborough Circuit Judge Lisa Campbell.

Coleman, 30, was arrested in 2010 on the day of his pending release from a Lake City prison for armed robbery. He had served a three-year term.

While he was doing his time, witnesses came forward in an unsolved 2007 murder at Port Tampa Park. The victim, Tedrick Dewayne Maynard, 26, had been found there, shot in the upper torso.

At his sentencing for second-degree murder Wednesday, Coleman apologized only to his own mother for causing her grief. If he had faced a jury, he said, he would have gotten a life sentence for a murder he didn't commit. By not identifying the true killer, he said, he would go to prison with his head held high.

Judge Campbell said he would have the rest of his life in prison "to think about what it means to be a man of integrity."

She then sentenced Coleman to 35 years in prison.

John Barry can be reached at (813) 226-3383 or jbarry@tampabay.com.