ST. PETERSBURG — Shelley Gold confided to her longtime landlady last month that she wanted to end her seven-year relationship with Thomas P. Cappadona because he was often drunk and offensive.
"She said she was afraid to ask him to leave and, obviously, that was prophetic," said landlady Paula Bouseman.
On Saturday, Bouseman's husband called to tell her Gold was dead. So was Cappadona.
Cappadona shot Gold with a handgun, then turned the gun on himself, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Their bodies were found in the screened-in entryway of their mobile home at 5153 68th Lane N, a dead-end street in a community of mobile homes and single-family homes west of 66th Street N in unincorporated Pinellas County near St. Petersburg.
Bouseman said she believes Gold, 52, ran from Cappadona, 51, because she was at the doorway when she was gunned down.
While Gold was low-key and sweet, Cappadona was loud and belligerent, Bouseman said.
"She was just always helpful and quiet. She kept to herself. … She was a very quiet tenant who always paid her rent on time," said Bouseman, who lives next door.
Cappadona, on the other hand, seemed constantly drunk and obnoxious, Bouseman said.
"Mostly he hollered and yelled just to be hollering and yelling. He'd be working on his motorcycle and cursing it. … He was a very angry man," she said.
Philip LeBron, who lives two lots over from the couple, said Cappadona seemed perpetually drunk and hostile.
"He kept to himself, basically, but when you did come around him, he was drunk all the time. Every day, seven days a week, he was drunk," LeBron said.
LeBron said Cappadona screamed at neighbors, but also seemed to yell indiscriminately.
"He'd come out here and scream at the garbage cans," said LeBron, 49.
Cappadona had previous arrests on charges of disorderly intoxication and driving under the influence, but had not been arrested in Florida since 1999, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Bouseman, who has known Gold for 25 years, said Gold met Cappadona about seven years ago when Cappadona came into the restaurant where Gold was bartending. Cappadona moved into Gold's rented mobile home about a year later.
Bouseman said Gold told her Cappadona's erratic and violent behavior was escalating over the past year.
"He was acting crazy and doing things that worried her," Bouseman said.