WHAT HEELS: Wedding Crashers
On November 8, 2009, Markeith Brown and Tasha Johnson stood on a gazebo at The Rusty Pelican overlooking Old Tampa Bay and plighted their troth. It was an elegant wedding, complete with a horse and carriage. But during the reception, one of the guests took exception to the groom throwing dollar bills onto the dance floor for kids to snatch up and made a point of telling him it was tacky.
They exchanged words and then fisticuffs, and before long as many as 40 people on the bride’s side and the groom’s side were brawling - first at the reception hall and then at a nearby Residence Inn, where several members of the wedding party, including the groom's father, Andrew Thompson, and the groom's grandmother, Mary Wright, were staying.
At some point, one or more guests called in reinforcements. Malcolm Hepburn, Sandra Dean and her boyfriend - none of whom had attended the wedding or reception - rushed over, reports WTSP (Channel 10-Tampa Bay, FL):
Sandra Dean is accused of putting the groom's 74 year old grandmother, Mary Wright in a choke hold. Dean was arrested later in the week. She's charged with battery on a person older than 65, driving with a revoked license and obstructing an officer without violence. …
Malcolm Hepburn who wasn't a wedding guest showed up and started beating up the groom's father in the hotel parking lot according to police. They say Hepburn threw Andrew Thompson to the ground and kicked him in the face and ribs. …
Tampa police arrested Hepburn who they say was armed with a stolen gun.
The St. Petersburg Times reports that a jury convicted Dean of battery on a person older than 65 - her fifth felony conviction - and that Hepburn is facing trial on charges of felony battery, carrying a concealed firearm, grand theft of a firearm and felon in possession of a firearm. During Dean’s trial, the groom’s homies sat on the left side of the courtroom and the bride’s peeps sat on the right side with both groups separated by six deputies “just in case it happened again.”
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