How does a former federal prosecutor end up accused of stabbing a man in the midst of a rush-hour traffic crash?
A court paper filed last week in the case of Patrick Scruggs offers new details about the bizarre chain of events that unfolded the morning of Sept. 26, 2023, on the Howard Frankland Bridge.
The paper appears to lay the groundwork for what could be a defense focused on the actions and credibility of the man who was stabbed, Blake Sharp, and how Scruggs responded to what seemed to be an impaired driver.
Scruggs, 40, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa, is charged with aggravated battery and other crimes related to the stabbing.
His attorneys, Lee Pearlman and John Nohlgren, filed the paper in an effort to get the state to turn over additional material about Sharp.
They allege that Sharp was trying to flee the scene of the crash, that he was intoxicated and that he knew he had multiple arrest warrants. They also highlighted his status as a confidential informant for law enforcement, suggesting that he may have been given favorable treatment.
Sharp, 36, has since been sentenced to prison for a probation violation in a Hernando County case. He testified in a pretrial deposition while jailed there last August.
He denied that he was trying to flee from the crash when he collided with Scruggs’ car.
“I would never flee the scene of an accident or anything like that,” he said, according to a transcript of his deposition. “It’s not in my nature. I’ve been in other accidents. I, you know, stay. You don’t leave. It would make things 100 times worse.”
The paper summarizes the events leading to the stabbing.
A couple, Ahmed Gahaf and his wife, Itifak Almontaser, were driving west along the bridge that morning when they came up behind a car stopped in the middle of traffic. As Gahaf drove around the car, he could see Sharp in the driver’s seat.
He was described as being “slumped over” the steering wheel. Gahaf pulled in front of Sharp’s car and got out to see what was wrong. He walked up and banged on the driver’s side window, but Sharp showed no response, according to the court paper. Gahaf then walked back to his car to get a tool to break the window.
As he walked away, Sharp awoke and quickly accelerated his car, according to the court paper. He crashed into the back of Gahaf’s car, pushing the vehicle farther along the bridge as Gahaf’s wife sat inside.
Sharp then backed up and moved forward again, veering into the far left lane to get around Gahaf’s car, the court paper states.
It was at that moment that Scruggs drove past. Sharp’s car collided with his. The two vehicles became stuck together, and the momentum from the collision carried them both forward and to the right before they struck Gahaf’s car again. Sharp’s car ended up wedged between the other two, according to the court paper.
Gahaf called 911, reporting an impaired driver on the bridge.
Scruggs got out of his car. In his hand was a pocketknife. He yelled for Sharp to step out, but he didn’t move.
Scruggs pulled the door handle, but it was locked. He then used the back end of the pocketknife to shatter the window. Sharp, according to the court paper, still refused to get out or turn off the car’s engine.
As Scruggs reached in to try to unlock the door from the inside, Sharp “fought back,” the court paper says. The two men grappled with each other. Sharp “attempted to accelerate his vehicle forward as if to push through the two vehicles blocking his path,” the document says.
It was then that Scruggs began stabbing Sharp with the pocketknife.
Not long thereafter, a St. Petersburg police officer arrived and ordered Scruggs to back away. He did as he was told.
A video taken by a passing motorist, which later spread widely on social media, showed Scruggs, clad in sandals, shorts and a T-shirt, thrusting the knife toward Sharp’s arm as it jutted out the driver’s side window.
Body camera footage from arriving officers showed Scruggs being taken into custody. He was respectful and compliant. An officer fastened a tourniquet around Sharp’s arm as he moaned in pain. Blood marked the cement.
Sharp, in his pretrial testimony, said he had an uneasy feeling that morning that something bad was going to happen. He kissed his wife goodbye three times before he left home. He took his children to school, then headed to Pinellas County for work.
Sharp said he had no memory of the crash.
“I guess I fainted, passed out, something like that,” he said. “The medical report said my blood sugar was off the charts. So I’ve had a diabetic issue in the past. I think it might have been something like that. And when I came to, my window shattered and Mr. Scruggs started stabbing me.”
The defense attorneys, though, cited medical records showing that Sharp’s blood sugar was at normal levels when he arrived at the hospital that day. Paramedics did not give him anything to lower his blood sugar. An emergency room physician who treated Sharp likewise testified there was no indication that he suffered a diabetic episode, according to the court record.
He wasn’t tested for drugs, but Sharp denied taking any that day, according to court records.
Scruggs’ defense attorneys noted two prior encounters Sharp had with law enforcement where he likewise claimed to have high blood sugar, but officers believed he was under the influence of drugs.
Not long before the stabbing, Sharp said he’d called Carlos Cruz, an investigator with the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office. Sharp admitted he’d worked with Cruz as a confidential informant, according to his testimony.
“I aided them in busting a lot of fentanyl dealers,” he testified.
He called Cruz, he said, because he wanted to let Cruz know he would turn himself in for his warrants.
Scruggs’ attorneys asked if Sharp was hoping that Cruz could “make things happen” to get him out of trouble.
“No,” he said. “I was going to turn myself in. But I had a relationship with him. So I would, you know, turn myself in to him.”
Scruggs’ case is scheduled for trial in February.