The daily newspaper continues its pursuit of the Public Defender today with two stories. The one that interested me was Henry “Cab” Tice claiming that an assistant public defender, Barry McCleary, had suggested over drinks that Tice flee the country rather than face his trial for felony racketeering.
Tice is the used car dealer who owed the late Bud Billings for 30-40 cars that went missing from the lot Tice owned. He was a self-described father figure to Patrick Gonzalez, the Gulf Breeze marital art instructor convicted for killing Billings and his wife Melanie. When arrested for the murders, Gonzalez claimed that Tice had approached him to kill Bud Billings, according to court documents.
Tice was never arrested for any connection with the murders, but he was arrested last year for racketeering after a joint investigation by State Attorney’s Office and Escambia County Sheriff’s Office revealed that, from 2005-2008, Tice sold vehicles at his Hispanic-American Auto Sales without paying the floor planner (Bud Billings). The amount lost was allegedly more than $310,000.
WEAR TV’s Dan Thomas interviewed Tice in August 2009 about the Billings case and the missing cars.
“I have never re-titled any cars,†Tice said on camera. “I will say that Bud Billings/Worldco was a floor-planner. By this I mean, they provided financing for used car inventory. Any time any used car dealer goes out of business, he goes out of business owing the floor-planner for cars.â€
McCleary was in private practice before going to work for the public defender after James Owens was elected in 2008. He is a former sales manager for Pensacola Chrysler-Plymouth. After graduating from law school, McCleary represented several clients with ties to Car City, including Billings, Tice and Gonzalez. He was Tice’s attorney for his divorce.
When I was reporting on the Billings case, McCleary defended Tice to me and said that he didn’t believe Tice would have harmed Bud or Melanie.
It’s ironic that Tice would hurt his former friend, McCleary, who was representing him in the racketeering case. However, there are others who have similar tales of how Tice turned on them also. They have shared with me that Tice’s word is worthless.