Fight over girlfriend led to fatal shootings in St. Petersburg, records say

ST. PETERSBURG — James Pagan shot and killed two people inside a home after learning a woman he described as his girlfriend was having a relationship with another man, according to an arrest affidavit.

Pagan, 29, was arrested in Alachua County shortly after the Sept. 16 shooting. Since then, he has been charged with two counts of murder in the first degree in the deaths of Barbarajean Lombardi, 18, and Tommy Dixon, 21.In an arrest affidavit, St. Petersburg police describe what led up to the shootings.

Tommy Dixon, 21, was shot to death Sept. 16 in St. Petersburg. A GoFundMe page was set up to help his family with expenses. [ GoFundMe ]

Pagan picked up Lombardi from work at Panera Bread around 8 p.m. Sept. 16 and they went to Walmart to return something. Then they drove to her home at 1738 Granville Court South, where Lombardi asked that Pagan not stay the night with her.

As he dropped her off, Pagan saw a man he believed was having a relationship with Lombardi, he told detectives. He left, returned around 11 p.m., and entered the house to find Lombardi inside the bedroom with Dixon, he said.

A fight broke out and Pagan claimed that Dixon punched him in the face, according to the affidavit. Pagan fired at Dixon as Lombardi got between them, he told detectives.

Lombardi was hit four times, Dixon 11 times, according to the affidavit.

Lombardi’s brother, Luke, 19, also was in the house and called 911. Also inside was Lombardi’s younger brother who is 15, and a 53-year-old man who rented a room in the home. The brothers told police they had been playing video games with Dixon and another friend, who left between 9:30 and 10 p.m.

James Pagan, 29, has been arrested in the fatal shootings of a man and woman in St. Petersburg. [ Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (2019) ]

Just before the shooting, officers were dispatched to Pagan’s home because the Pinellas Sheriff’s Office received an alert that he had tampered with an ankle monitor he was required to wear, the affidavit said. Officers arrived at Pagan’s home at 11:01 p.m. to find him gone and his roommates inside.

An officer used one of the roommate’s phones to speak to Pagan, who was making suicidal comments, according to the affidavit. Because of this, police said they sought court approval to arrange an emergency ping for Pagan’s cell phone to determine his location. By the time the ping was approved, Pagan had already killed Lombardi and Dixon and was headed north to Alachua County, police said.

Alachua deputies were sent to the location of Pagan’s cellphone. They spotted his gray Chevrolet Malibu and pulled him over at 2:10 a.m. on Sept. 17. Deputies wrote in an arrest report that Pagan smelled like marijuana as he stepped from his car. They found 18.7 grams of marijuana as well as hundreds of pills not prescribed to him in a search of the car. He was arrested and taken to the Alachua County Jail on drug charges.