By JOSH POLTILOVE
jpoltilove@tampatrib.com
Four days before a hearing about the roughly $18,000 he owed his ex-wife in child support, Robert Cecil Laird jumped to his death from the Sunshine Skyway bridge.
Police on Tuesday still were trying to identify a body found in a burning car on the bridge near where Laird jumped Monday. Authorities say Laird, 38, drove the car to the bridge.
Police also say that a homicide occurred at the Lakeland home of his ex-wife, Sheryl Lynn Laird, but have not released additional details or said whether it was her body found in the car's trunk.
Sheryl Laird's mother, in tears, said Tuesday that she was too upset to talk.
The Lairds' eight-year marriage ended in divorce in October 2006, records show. They have a 7-year-old daughter.
In April 2006, Hillsborough County deputies charged Robert Laird with misdemeanor battery and violating a domestic violence injunction. He was accused of throwing the unidentified contents of a cup in Sheryl Laird's face when she arrived at his Brandon residence to pick up their daughter.
The case was not prosecuted.
Robert Laird had verbally abused his ex-wife and showed up in places where he wasn't wanted, said lawyer Kim Kaszuba, who represented Sheryl Laird.
When the couple divorced, Sheryl Laird wanted to ensure the shared custody exchange of their daughter was done in a public place, Kaszuba said.
Robert Laird was ordered to pay monthly child support of $792.65.
In August, Sheryl Laird filed a motion for civil contempt and sanctions, saying her ex-husband willfully had violated court orders and owed nearly $18,000 in child support.
A hearing is slated for Friday.
Friend and former co-worker Doug Streeter said he chatted online with Sheryl Laird about three weeks ago.
More than once, Sheryl Laird mentioned being afraid of her ex-husband, Streeter said.
"She also talked about how he would degrade her, make her feel, you know, much less than what she really and truly was, and she had fought back," Streeter said.
Streeter said Sheryl Laird worked about 19 years for The Flyer, an advertising newspaper now based in Brandon. He said her daughter was her life.
"She was probably, if there can be a proudest mom around, Sheryl was it," he said.
She was rising above her challenges with her ex-husband and going back to school to upgrade her skills as a graphic artist, Streeter said.
Robert Laird's body was retrieved Monday afternoon from Tampa Bay by three people in an 18-foot fishing boat.
As firefighters were extinguishing the car fire on the bridge, they received several reports that a man had jumped from the bridge. A Florida Highway Patrol trooper also saw the man jump.
A cell phone photograph taken by a motorist shows the vehicle on fire in the breakdown lane and an unidentified man standing nearby.
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