Man Acquitted of Most Charges in Murder Case

One of three men charged in the double-murder case dubbed “Nightmare on Orange Grove” is expected to be released from jail this week after being acquitted of all charges against him except receiving stolen property.

After deliberating for two days, a jury Friday found Derek Jerome Bloodworth not guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of arson and one count each of burglary and robbery.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 15 and faces a maximum prison term of three years on the charge of receiving stolen property. Because of time already served, Bloodworth is expected to be freed in the next few days, said his attorney, Richard Millard.

Bloodworth has been in custody since the day after the January, 1989, arson deaths of Sylvia Carruth, 45, and her husband, Lee Gottstein, 57. The couple, along with a woman who survived, had been bound with electrical tape and stuffed in a closet, their heads covered by pillowcases. They were then doused with gasoline and set afire in their Spanish colonial four-plex on South Orange Grove Avenue in the Mid-City area.

The survivor, a 35-year-old former secretary who has not been named because she allegedly was raped, testified in earlier proceedings that Gottstein ran a thriving rock cocaine business at the dwelling and at another site.

The woman testified that she was a $400-a-week drug messenger in the operation. She suffered burns over 80% of her body and also was shot, but managed to flee the burning building.

Bloodworth was arrested the next morning after he was found sleeping in a garage two blocks from the murder scene. Jewelry from the apartment was found in his pocket.

The two other defendants in the case, Lonnie Lewis, 30, and Jerome Martin, 23, are scheduled to stand trial in January.