Back in 2007, a Manatee County Sheriff’s deputy arrested John Bennett on a DUI charge, claiming that Bennett showed signs of impairment like slurred speech and failure to perform roadside sobriety tests after being pulled over on his motorcycle.

Bennett disputes that version of the account, saying he spoke clearly, balanced well on one foot and walked a straight line that night. The entire event was captured by a squad car video camera, but the deputy inadvertently erased the video while trying to convert it to DVD before the case could come to trial.

A Manatee County trial judge eventually dismissed the case because of the lost evidence. Two years of appeals over the dismissal followed. Last week, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the case be remanded to the trial court. Bennett will have to once again fight the DUI charge in county court. (more…)

The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for the ringleader of a mass killing over an Xbox video game system.

The court ruled Wednesday that Troy Victorino’s individual claims of error in the 2004 case were without merit and that he was properly convicted of six counts of first-degree murder for killing six people in a Deltona vacant house.

Victorino and a co-defendant had moved into the vacant house without the knowledge or permission of the owner, the grandmother of one of Victorino’s victims, Erin Belanger. Victorino believed Belanger took some of his property, including an Xbox video game system, from the house. This started a feud which escalated to the murders of six people, all of whom were beaten to death with baseball bats and cut post-mortem. (more…)

Heather Dison of Zephyrhills pleaded guilty last week in Pasco Circuit Court to DUI manslaughter and eight related charges. She faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced on December 22nd. Until then, Dison waits in the Land O’ Lakes Jail.

Dison faced the charges for causing a three-car crash in June 2007 just north of Dade City. The wreck killed one man and injured four other people. Law enforcement said Dison drove her pickup north in the southbound lanes of U.S. 301 and hit a southbound car. The 23-year-old driver of that car was killed and his passenger was injured.

A third car struck a ladder that had fallen from Dison’s truck onto the road, sending that vehicle into a utility pole, injuring the driver and one of his passengers.

Prosecutors alleged that Dison had a blood-alcohol level of 0.251 percent and had been driving 70 mph in a 55 mph zone, in addition to driving the wrong way. Florida law presumes a driver intoxicated at a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent.

A story in this weekend’s St. Peterburg Times publicly acknowledged some problems currently experienced by Hernando County’s prosecutors due to the reputation of a local law enforcement officer. Shawn Terry, currently a Brooksville police officer, has been in law enforcement for ten years, first as a sheriff’s deputy in Pasco and Hernando counties. Complaints, investigations and reprimands have apparently made many prosecutions in which he is involved difficult for the state.

The Times article claims that prosecutors say they handle his cases with extra caution. Some defense attorneys have questioned his integrity in jury trials. The question for the Brooksville police department and Hernando prosecutors is whether Terry’s credibility has been so compromised as to make his involvement in cases an irreparable hindrance to conviction.

The PD apparently doesn’t think so. In October, Chief George Turner promoted Terry to detective, calling him a “fine officer.”

“His reputation is for not being totally truthful in his statements, either blatantly fabricating or not being forthcoming,” said lawyer Peyton Hyslop to the newspaper. (more…)

Late one night in May 2008, someone murdered Angela Burgess at Lake Maggiore in St. Petersburg. Burgess was killed when nine bursts from an AK-47 rifle were fired into a car in which she was sleeping.

Deangelo Q. Hutchinson was charged with Burgess’ murder. A jury failed to agree on a verdict this week and Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Cynthia Newton declared a mistrial. Hutchinson will be tried again. (more…)

Former Hillsborough Circuit Judge Thomas Stringer was sentenced in Tampa’s federal court last week for bank fraud. Stringer pleaded guilty to the charge in July and was sentenced to one year of supervised release.

Stringer, who also served as a Court of Appeal judge, reportedly engaged in a scheme to defraud a bank related to a mortgage loan. According to court documents, Stringer falsified his mortgage application for a home in Hawaii by claiming that he had borrowed none of his down payment, when in fact he had borrowed funds from a third party. (more…)

Earlier this week, Hillsborough Circuit Judge sentenced 39-year-old Roger Lee Yeager to 15 years in prison for the vehicular homicide of Vertis Ryan in February 2007.  Prosecutors say that Yeager slammed into a car and killed the 83-year-old Ryan as he slowed from racing another vehicle at more than 100 mph.

Michael Anthony Smith, the man Yeager was racing, pleaded guilty to related charges and is now serving three years in prison.

Law enforcement said Yeager was racing at more than 100 mph just moments before crash and had slowed to 63 mph at the time of impact. The collision occurred in a 45 mph zone.

The judge sentenced Yeager to the 15-year maximum for vehicular homicide and five years of probation for reckless driving with serious bodily injury, followed by an additional year of probation for unlawful racing. He was convicted last month after a jury trial.

Yeager also had his Florida driver’s license revoked for the rest of his life.

Thomas Corbin of St. Petersburg has been charged with DUI manslaughter and DUI causing serious bodily injury, relating to a wreck at a traffic light in September of this year.

Law enforcement says that Corbin drove his Toyota pickup into the back of a Nissan, stopped at Gulf to Bay Boulevard and Hampton Road at about midnight on September 24.

All three occupants of the Nissan were seriously injured. Maxwell Limonick, a backseat passenger, died from his injuries about a week later. The other two occupants of the Nissan received non-life-threatening injuries.

Corbin’s blood alcohol level was .20, more than double the legal limit of .08, according to police. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the DUI manslaughter charge. The DUI causing serious bodily injury charge can carry up to five years in prison.

Richard Thomas of Lakeland, FL pleaded guilty this week to a federal charge of possession of steroids with intent to distribute. Thomas claims he sold steroids to professional athletes including members of the Washington Capitols hockey team and the Washington Nationals baseball team.

Thomas faces up to five years in prison for the charge.

Prosecutors say that Thomas had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of anabolic steroids in his home last spring when law enforcement set up a sting. Federal agents intercepted a suspicious package in Philadelphia in May. The package was from Slovakia and addressed to “Mahlon” Thomas in Lakeland.

Agents placed a beacon on the package to alert them if it was opened. The alert was triggered within five minutes of delivery to Thomas’ home. Thomas was the only person at the home. Detectives searched the home and found large quantities of steroids, firearms, packaging labels, blister packs full of Valium, a digital scale and books about steroids among other things.

Thomas ultimately told investigators that he bought steroids from China, Russia, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries and that he was the biggest steroid provider in Central Florida. Thomas claims to have sold the drugs primarily to professional athletes.