Posted on 05/20/2005 2:20:51 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
After a Tampa man dies, his wife, embroiled in a dispute involving him and his daughter, is in jail after burying him without permission.
TAMPA - Two months ago, Ralph Hamilton pleaded with a Hillsborough County judge to save him from his wife of 22 years.
He said Carolyn had pumped him full of anti-anxiety, pain and heart medications. He said that she had discontinued his dialysis treatments against his will and that he had shrunk from 232 to 164 pounds, unable to walk or eat without help.
He said she cut him off from the outside world - "I was a prisoner" - and tried to turn him over to hospice to die.
"My wife is trying to kill me against my will," Hamilton wrote in a March request for a domestic violence injunction. "I am afraid of my wife and I do not yet have the strength to defend myself against her, either physically or mentally. My wife is hell bent on trying to kill me."
Carolyn Hamilton, 60, did not kill her husband. He died Sunday, at 69, after a fall that led to bleeding in his brain. He had been living with a sister in Temple Terrace.
But she did bury him. Without permission.
Authorities said Hamilton ordered workers to dig a grave for her husband Monday morning in a graveyard off Providence Road in Brandon. They said she returned later, removed a locked gate from its hinges and had him buried.
Officials never gave permission for her to conduct a burial, according to sheriff's reports. And she never presented a death certificate, a permit for burial or proof of ownership of the plot, valued at $800, authorities said.
"He was buried like a dog," said his daughter, Alicia Martinez. "There's not a marker; there's not one flower. For him to be thrown in the ground like that, I can't even tell you."
On Thursday, Hamilton was arrested and charged with trespassing and theft, ensuring that the bizarre family feud that had poisoned Ralph Hamilton's last days would follow him into his (unauthorized) grave.
* * *
The battle had been short, but ugly.
In early February, after learning that her father had not been taking dialysis, Alicia Martinez filed an emergency motion asking for guardianship of him.
She said that her stepmother had overmedicated her father, refused to follow his doctors' instructions and rejected attempts by his daughters and sisters to reach him. She wrote that Carolyn Hamilton was "deliberately killing" her father and that if he continued without dialysis treatments that he "will surely die."
The court awarded Martinez, 34, guardianship.
Carolyn Hamilton fought back, trying to get the decision overturned. She said her stepdaughter was trying to keep Ralph Hamilton from his "wife of 22 plus years" and had directed all his mail - including Social Security checks - to her address.
"The guardian is seemingly more concerned with (Ralph's) financial affairs than his health problems," Carolyn Hamilton wrote.
A judge disagreed.
Somewhere along the way, the Florida Department of Children and Families explored the case. Several subpoenas were issued to DCF employees, requesting "all records relating to your investigation of abuse allegations" concerning Ralph Hamilton.
By March 24, Ralph Hamilton drew up a list of nine people who were not to "visit with, see, or otherwise have any contact at all" with him. The first name on the list was his wife, followed by her children and various friends.
The same day, after a hospital visit from her that he said was unwelcome and unnerving, Ralph Hamilton filed his request for an injunction. He wrote that the confrontation left him "so upset that I had to be medicated" and that it "severely set me back mentally and psychologically in my recovery from her attempts to kill me."
A judge ordered Carolyn Hamilton to stay 500 feet away from her husband. A month later, he filed for divorce. He asked the court to award him their home and all the furnishings and appliances. He even asked for alimony.
He wouldn't live to see the outcome.
Earlier this month, his daughter said, he slipped off a bed, hit his head and never recovered from the internal bleeding. He died Sunday.
Despite his best efforts, he died a married man.
* * *
He knew a thing or two about death.
Hamilton spent 40 years in the funeral business. Born in Gibsonton and a graduate of Brandon High School, he went to mortuary school in Dallas and never strayed from that profession.
He married Carolyn in 1983 - his second marriage, her third, records show - and together they ran the Hamilton Funeral Home, later renamed Riverview Equities Inc. The early part of her marriage passed quietly, until she was arrested in 1996 and charged with stealing from a cemetery association where she served as treasurer.
Authorities said she forged 79 checks over 8 months - many written to Ralph Hamilton - and pocketed $40,000 from the Orange Hill Cemetery Association. They also said she fired the ground crew and hired her husband as groundskeeper.
She later pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $25,000 restitution and serve 15 years' probation.
The mortuary business plugged along, but not without hitches. They refinanced their home to pay for business expenses, court records show.
Federal records show the Internal Revenue Service issued tax liens against the business, sometimes for as much as $33,000. As late as February, the couple owed more than $6,000 to the agency.
But their struggles at work pale in comparison to the feud that has wrecked the family in recent months. While judges ruled against Carolyn Hamilton and her husband's children fought to keep her away from him, the story isn't entirely one sided.
Mixed amid the court documents is a codicil to Ralph Hamilton's last will and testament, dated in December 2004 and signed by him, that berates his daughters for never accepting his wife, who "has been there for me through thick and thin."
He wrote that their love had no bounds and, "To this day she is there for me, every minute of the day." In addressing his daughters, he also wrote, "You have embarrassed me. ... The hurt and pain pain you have caused is totally uncalled for."
Martinez called the document a fraud.
"I showed that to my father, and his exact words were, "She's a sick, sick b----,' " she said. "He hated her in the end."
Everett Swilley, 79, of Riverview, who has known the Hamiltons for decades, sides with Carolyn, calling her an "upstanding person." in a family squabble.
"There ain't two finer people in this world than them two people," Swilley said of the couple. "Them girls of his are raising so much ruckus. It's heartbreaking to see Carolyn in the condition she's in. She's holding up a lot better than I would.
"That woman is doing everything she can to make things right," Swilley said, "and those daughters are trying to cut her throat every time she turns around."
For what it's worth, Swilley's name was on the list of people Ralph Hamilton forbid to visit.
* * *
Carolyn Hamilton remained in jail late Thursday evening without bail. She isn't invited to a memorial service her husband's family has planned for tonight. Martinez said she doesn't care what happens to her former stepmother. "Whatever she deserves, it will come her way," she said.
Martinez wants her father exhumed, to make sure his body was embalmed, dressed properly and clean-shaven. She wants a proper Masonic funeral.
"I haven't been able to grieve," she said. "I'd like to know my father's in there. To have closure, I need to know my father was respected."
Times staff writers Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler and Jeff Testerman and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
You might want to do a little more research. From what I had found out he was very sick before he died. He even stated she tried to kill him!
You need to research before you post.(1) His wife got an invalid POA in 2004. (2) She registered his funeral home just in his name only in Dec.2004 (3)She put in for a new funeral home(DISTINCTIVE) in 2004 (which she will never get).(4)She took him off dialysis and put him on hospice without his consent over the phone on a weekend with a doctor who is also in trouble.(5)Her supporters are all either carnies or criminals and one preacher who was fired from a church last year for stealing food and money that was meant for the needy. (6) after 7 days he was rescued by his daughters who got a court order to become his guardian. (7) When he was picked up he was hours from death and weighed 164 lbs (down from 230).(8) When he came around mentally he said that his prayers had been answered and that he tried to tell visitors what was happening to him but that he was so weak that he could not speak. (9) He filed for a restraining order and divorce from his wife.(10) he told us about other things that went on that has investigators interviewing other people. (11) believe me at least 3-4 people are under investigation. (12) this lady will get at least 15 years in prison for what she did.
Earlier this month, his daughter said, he slipped off a bed, hit his head and never recovered from the internal bleeding. He died Sunday.
HHHmmmm.....
What a sad situation.
HHHmmmm.....
HHHmmmm.....
I hope you are right she should get life! She took his life! He would have never got that sick if she would have took proper care of him If you ask me she wanted him dead!
Like I told you before do some more research!
HHHmmmm.....
Since this happened in Florida can she still vote his absentee ballot?
Convicted felons cannot vote in Florida. It is a 3 rd degree felony if they do. They are checking now to see if she voted in the last election.
There you go. I figured early on you had a personal interest in this story.
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