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Man charged with murder in Riverview stabbing death

 
Published March 3, 2015

TAMPA -- A man was charged with murder Monday after deputies said he cut another man's throat in the parking lot of a Riverview grocery store because he thought the man was hitting on his girlfriend.

The arrest of Charles J. Cline, 53, of Riverview, stemmed from an incident early Sunday when a man called 911 and told dispatchers he had been stabbed. The man, whom authorities did not identify, died within seconds of Hillsborough sheriff's deputies arriving in the parking lot of the Winn-Dixie store at 9802 U.S. Highway 301 in Riverview. He was found face-down, bleeding from a three-inch gash in his neck, sheriff's officials said.

Detectives later learned that before he was stabbed, the man was drinking with Cline and Cline's girlfriend, officials said. A witness, whom officials did not identify, told investigators that Cline later admitted getting into a fight with the man. Cline asked the witness for gasoline so that he could burn a set of blood-stained clothing that he carried in a plastic bag, officials said. The witness also told detectives that Cline is known to carry a sling-blade under the front seat of his Ford Escape.

On Monday, a patrol deputy spotted Cline driving the Escape and pulled him over, officials said. The deputy saw what looked like dried blood in the car's back seat.

In an interview with detectives, Cline admitted attacking the man and stabbing him, officials said. He also said he had burned a set of bloody clothes.

He was booked in the Hillsborough County Jail and held on charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence. When detectives interviewed Cline, he first told them his name was Robert Oakley, which detectives later learned was a lie, authorities said. That prompted another charge of giving a false name to a law enforcement officer.

Cline was held in jail Tuesday without bail.