LARGO — It took a Pinellas County jury less than two hours Friday to decide that Thomas Hampton Frederick was guilty of first degree murder in the July 2012 stabbing death of Adrianne Robert.

Jurors rejected the defense’s argument that Frederick, 25, stabbed Robert, a Greene native who moved to Clearwater, Fla., in self defense after the two had consensual sex and she attacked him.

Prosecutor Noelle Festa said Frederick, who had been at the Diamond Dolls strip club for eight hours, watched the 29-year-old graphic designer get drunk. After walking her home and having sex with her, he stabbed her and left her to die in the bathroom of her Clearwater townhouse, Festa said.

Robert was not a threat, she said, as Robert had been throwing up in a toilet.

In her closing argument, public defender Lori Mahin tried once again to show Frederick was acting in self defense, saying Robert was taller and outweighed him.

She said Frederick was cooperative with detectives and distraught after the murder.

“He was young. He was immature,” she said. “But just because somebody is young and immature and scared and defensive, it doesn’t mean that he therefore committed the murder.”

Frederick was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: