I Would Find a Girl Walking by Diana Montané, Kathy Kelly Page A

back to Florida and took a job as a stockman at a Jefferson Ward store, where he was fired after six weeks for suspected theft.
    But Elwell determined Stano had been in Daytona Beach on September 6, 1973.
    “How do you come to be down in this area and away from your residence in Pennsylvania?” asked the attorney.
    Stano answered casually. “I took a week’s vacation by myself back in 1973 to come down and stay with a friend of mine, who at that time lived at Henderson’s Imperial Beach Motel on South Atlantic Avenue in Daytona Beach.”
    “Who was your friend that either lived there or owned that establishment?”
    “It was Sammy Henderson.”
    Elwell inquired how old this Sammy Henderson was at that time, and Stano stated he was in his late teens. Henderson was about a year and a half younger than Stano, having been born in 1953. Stano proceeded to explain that he had originally met the teen when he had lived in the Daytona Beach area while he attended seventh and eighth grades at Seabreeze Junior High School and lived with his grandparents. “I would spend a weekend at his parents’ motel and then he would come over the following weekend and spend the weekend with my grandparents and I at 46 Country Club Drive.”
    “On September 6, were you with him during the course of that day?” The attorney meant Henderson.
    “Yes, I was.”
    “Do you recall if you were [also] staying at Henderson’s Imperial Motel?”
    Stano stated that he had, and that Sammy’s parents, June and Chuck Henderson, 17 were the owners of the motel.
    When the attorney asked Stano about the sequence of events that took place on the day in question, the defendant relayed that he and Sammy were just “moping around” and doing some chores for the Hendersons during the first part of the day.
    “Then we decided that we were going out that evening, just have a night out on the town.”
    “Did you drive down, did you have a car available?” the attorney wanted to know.
    “Yes I did, a 1973 Plymouth Duster with a 6 cylinder engine, with an AM-FM stereo player in it, with Craig or slider disk mags and Rickey Thompson’s gator hijack.”
    “All right,” Elwell cut in. It was more information than he had solicited, as if the car were now the crux of the deposition.
    Stano stated, however, that he and Henderson went out riding in Sammy’s car, which was a 1973 Pontiac convertible. They went to the Holly Hill Shopping Plaza to look for a pair of matching chrome mirrors for Stano’s car, and not finding anything he liked, they decided to return later and check out a couple of other places.
    “Did you make any purchases while you were in the Holly Hill Shopping Center?” Elwell asked.
    “Only at the Pantry Pride there and that was for a six-pack of beer.”
    It was 4:30 in the afternoon, both the attorney and his subject concurred. And when Elwell asked Stano where the two went from the shopping center, he answered:
    “We started to drive out and encountered a young lady who had car troubles.”
    Stano added that he believed she was at the Hancock Fabric Shop in the Holly Hill Plaza. He also remembered that the girl’s car was a blue 1973 Plymouth Duster.
    “How did you remember or know that?” Elwell inquired.
    “Because it was similar to mine. Because I had a blue Duster with a white vinyl roof before I got my green one in Pennsylvania.”
    “Do you know a lot about cars?” asked the attorney, who had been advised that Stano did know his vehicles. He often remembered those details better than any other kind. 18
    “Yes.”
    “Can you describe what [the girl] looked like?” Elwell asked.
    “Oh, I say about 5’ 5” or 5’ 8” or somewhere between there. Shoulder length hair.”
    “About that time you were about twenty-two,” Elwell pointed out. “Did she look older or younger than you?”
    “Uh, I’m not too hot on girls’ ages, so give or take a couple of years. I would say younger than I was. I would say late teens or