GUILTY FL - Leonard 'Rudi' Houda, 63, dies in acid attack, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, July 2000

[mysteriew]

The star witness in an acid attack that killed a resort manager was held in contempt of court Monday for refusing to testify in a retrial. But the prosecutor's case isn't ruined because the judge ruled he could read the man's prior testimony to jurors.

At the same time, a mistrial was narrowly escaped after another witness, now also charged with contempt, turned to the jury when lawyers were talking to the judge and mouthed the word "guilty."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...2aug02,0,1716860.story?coll=sfla-news-broward

 

[OkieGranny]

From September 2000:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2000-09-04/news/0009040063_1_souter-acid-broward-sheriff-s-office

The manager of Souter's Resort, Houda was often seen about town, walking his miniature schnauzer named Schatzi... In July, "Rudi" Houda, 63, died after a man ran up to him in a Publix parking lot and threw an Igloo cooler full of acid over him. He was burned over 66 percent of his body... Someone targeted Houda. Someone wanted him dead or maimed. But who?

Long before the murder, odd things were happening at the oceanfront resort Houda tended... beginning in May 1999 and ending in November, someone dumped motor oil into the kidney-shaped swimming pool, causing thousands of dollars in damage... bushes were destroyed with a gasoline-smelling chemical...

"There was some weird stuff going on over there," said Marilyn Seed, secretary of the resort's governing Southern Seas Condominium Association.

From July 2005:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2005-07-26/news/0507250329_1_acid-walter-dendy-souter-s

Walter Dendy, 70, and Neal Bross, 50, were previously convicted of killing a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea resort manager in 2000 by dousing him with acid because of a feud over oceanfront property. The sulfuric acid melted through the body of 63-year-old Leonard "Rudi" Houda...

Dendy made incriminating statements to police and was sentenced to life in prison in 2003 for ordering the hit. Bross confessed to throwing the acid, saying he thought he would only maim Houda, and got 15 years for third-degree murder...

Emilio Charafardin, 53, a schizophrenic man who did odd jobs and claimed to be a massage therapist... pleaded guilty to his role in the crime and is serving a 25-year prison sentence.