By Jason Geary
The Ledger
BARTOW, Fla. — The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has fired a female detention deputy for exchanging personal letters with an inmate accused of murder and lying to her supervisors about it.
Maria Guzman’s pen-pal relationship with Terrence Barnett was discovered after authorities say Barnett fatally injured Polk County detention Sgt. Ronnie Brown during an Aug. 30, 2009, altercation at the South County Jail in Frostproof.
Barnett told detectives the altercation that lead to Brown’s death started because he was upset Guzman was ignoring him. Guzman denied they had a relationship.
An internal investigation released Thursday concluded Guzman, 31, sent five letters to Barnett, 28, whom she met while he was in jail on charges involving a 2007 Highlands County slaying.
Guzman, who was hired by the Sheriff’s Office in November 2006, was fired Wednesday. She was paid $39,532 per year.
Barnett told detectives he was upset that night with Guzman for ignoring him, and he began making noise to get the attention of supervisors.
Barnett claimed he wanted to expose Guzman and other deputies for assisting him in a tax scam and smuggling drugs into the jail.
Detectives did not find evidence to support Barnett’s allegations, but they did find the letters Guzman had written to him, according to investigative reports.
Barnett began banging on the door, screaming and broke the sprinkler head in his cell, reports said. He also swallowed a number of pain-reliever pills and refused to let deputies put him on suicide watch.
An arrest report states Barnett shoved Brown, who fell backward onto his back. Brown died in the hospital days later from complications after surgery to treat his broken back.
Barnett is charged with first-degree murder in Brown’s death as well as other related charges.
Under Florida law, a defendant can be charged with “felony murder” if a person dies as the result of the defendant’s having committed certain felonies, such as resisting an officer with violence, as in Barnett’s case.
In addition, a judge rejected Barnett’s request to withdraw from a plea deal in the 2007 killing of Bryan “Red” Fanning, who was tied up and beaten, and then left to die when his home was set ablaze.
Barnett faces up to 30 years in prison at his May 13 sentencing for participating in that killing. A trial date has not been set in the case involving Brown’s death.
He was in custody at the jail for that killing when he met Guzman.
Guzman told detectives in an Oct. 21 statement that Barnett wrote to her first, telling her that she was attractive and wanted to know if he could do anything to help her.
She said she wrote back that she appreciated the offer but wouldn’t accept anything from him.
She said she wrote letters to Barnett while on duty and passed them to him while conducting dorm rounds. She said she didn’t sign her letters because she knew she wasn’t supposed to be writing to him.
One of Guzman’s letters describes Barnett as “very attractive” and “caring and giving.”
“I really appreciate your support in trying to help,” the letter states. “Maybe in the future but for now I’m just gonna lay low and try to stay focused.”
She told detectives she was trying to let Barnett down easy and had no intention of taking anything from him.
She denied wanting a sexual or personal relationship with Barnett and described the letters as a way to avoid face-to-face conversations with him.
“I didn’t want to be talking to him and you know giving him like attention and standing in front of his door and trying to make it seem like there was something going on,” Guzman said.
In another statement to detectives, Guzman recalled that Barnett got angry with her on the night when Brown was injured.
“I did start to see him get further upset trying to talk to me as I was doing my dorm rounds, and I just disregarded him or whatever,” she said.
Copyright 2010 Lakeland Ledger Publishing Corporation