First-grade teacher indicted on murder charges
Bianca Prieto, Henry Pierson Curtis and Rene Stutzman | Sentinel Staff Writers
4:54 PM EDT, March 18, 2009
Update
4:54 p.m. Laster was accused of shoplifting $52 items from an Altamonte Springs Kmart in 1994. According to the arrest report, she stuffed several items into a handbag and then got into a shoving match with security personnel who confronted her.
She pleaded no contest to attempted robbery a few months later and was placed
on two years probation. The judge withheld adjudication, meaning she could say she was never convicted of the crime.
3:51 p.m.
Clarence Laster's blood was found spattered throughout the couple's master bedroom on Elon Drive, but his body was found wrapped in heavy plastic in the garage.
The forensic evidence didn't seem to match up with the scene, Orange County detective's thought at the time of the 1988 murder.
Laster's blood was found on the nightstand, the floor, a crib and on the walls in the couple's room, according to new information released this afternoon from the sheriff's office. It appeared he had been shot while in bed.
Delores Laster told deputies she'd last saw her husband leaving with another man early on March 19, a day and a half before his death was reported.
Detectives have not yet been able to determine a motive for his slaying, but it appears Clarence Laster may have been planning on leaving his wife, according to autho
rities.
Update
3:29 p.m.When Orange County homicide detective Duwana Pelton re-opened Clarence Laster's cold case murder, she looked to two of the agencies most well-respected retired detectives for insight.
Former homicide detectives Bill Hinkey Sr. and Tom McCann originally worked the case in 1988 and advised Pelton to look to the Laster's three young children - who were an infant and 10- and 12-years-old - who were not allowed to talk to investigators at the time of the man's slaying. Clarence Laster's six older children, from previous relationships, did not live at the home.
Detectives found the two older children who are now adults. Both had memories of the events that helped investigators build their case against
Delores Laster, they said.
Detectives would not give specifics on how exactly they solved their case.
Update
1:38 p.m. The first-grade teacher who is charged with killing her husband nearly 21-years ago wouldn't allow her three adopted childr
en to speak to deputies after the murder, Orange County deputies said at a press conference this afternoon.
A 21-year-old cold case murder was solved this week by the Orange County Sheriff's Office with the arrest of a long-time Orange County Public Schools employee.
On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Delores Laster on first-degree murder charges for the March 1988 murder of her husband Clarence Laster, according to the sheriff's office.
Laster is a first-grade teacher at Dillard Street Elementary School in Winter Garden. She did not report for work this morning and was not arrested at the school, according to a school district spokeswoman.
Investigators from the sheriff's office homicide unit and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reopened the Laster case last summer and began re-interviewing family members who were children at the time of the murder.
During the 2008 investigation, detectives were able to verify inconsistencies found in Delores Laster's statements
20 years prior.
On March 20, 1988 deputies responded to 5810 Elon Drive around 7:30 p.m. Delores Laster called police and said she came home from a trip to Gainesville and found her husband murdered in their garage.
Delores Laster told investigators in 1988 that someone broke into their home and then killed her husband. Deputies at the time found there was no forced entry and nothing was stolen from the home, according to reports.
Clarence Laster was a self-employed construction worker and died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to Orlando Sentinel archives. He'd been dead for about a day and half before he was found.
Delores Laster worked for the Orange County Public School District since 1969 and was an employee until very recently, according to a school spokeswoman.
