Boyfriend charged with killing woman and two children in Lutz

By: Dave Balut

Tampa, Fl. – Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies today charged a man with three counts of first degree murder in connection with the gruesome killings of a 26-year-old woman, her 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter at their home in Lutz.

Deputies say 35-year-old Edward Allen Covington was released from a hospital today and talked to investigators about his role in the killings on Mother's Day.

Covington was Lisa Freiberg's boyfriend and had lived with her and her two children at their home on Mobile Villa Drive.

Deputies say he was found hiding in a closet with clothes over him when deputies discovered the three bodies Monday morning.

Covington said nothing to reporters on his way out of the sheriff's criminal investigations office on Falkenburg Road late Wednesday afternoon.

Sheriff's deputies say there is plenty of evidence to connect Covington to the murders.

"Well there was a substantial amount of physical evidence linking Mr. Covington to the three deaths as well as an admission on his part regarding his involvement in the deaths of the three victims," said HCSO Chief Jose Docobo.

Docobo says Covington would not tell them why the victims were murdered. But Docobo says Covington told them how he killed each of the victims, and in which order. Docobo would not share that information with reporters.

A sheriff's report released Wednesday afternoon says the suspect admitted to choking, beating, stabbing, dismembering and mutilating the victims as well as the victims' dog.

Covington was a former corrections officer with the State of Florida until 2006. He was arrested for animal cruelty in 2005 for killing three of his family's cats during a split from his wife.

His father Ronnie, a Hillsborough County Sheriff's detention deputy, told Tampa police back then his son suffers from manic depression and bipolar disorder.

We asked a psychiatrist and an attorney if someone with bipolar disorder would be capable of killing and mutilating three family members.

“That would not be your typical bipolar person but if they were out of touch with reality, possible. But probably more was going on," said Dr. Mary Stedman, a psychiatrist with extensive experience in dealing with bipolar disorder.

["I'm sure he understands what is right and what is wrong. The question is though are there times in his day that suffers from that Bipolar that gets him to do something that he might know is wrong but yet can't stop himself from doing," said Jeff Brown, a criminal defense attorney.

Brown says bipolar disorder is not a criminal defense, like insanity, but it can help with mitigation so someone with bipolar disorder might receive a lesser sentence.