Troopers discovered Caryn Schonscheck slumped over in her parked car over the weekend in a parking lot off U.S. 19. The motor was still running and troopers reported that Schonscheck was lethargic and incoherent.

A trooper discovered five prescription medication bottles in Schonscheck’s purse, one of which had her husband’s name on it. She apparently had valid prescriptions for all of the drugs, except 52 tablets of hydrocodone and six Valium pills. She advised law enforcement that she had multiple back surgeries, necessitating the prescriptions.

The trooper’s report lists Schonscheck’s occupation as an investigator with the State’s Attorney’s Office. Someone in the Pasco-Pinellas judicial circuit, thought, denied that she has ever worked there.

Schonscheck was charged with driving under the influence, trafficking hydrocodone and possession of a controlled substance without prescription for Valium pills. (more…)

A Sarasota County hair stylist spent Christmas day in jail after being charged with DUI. Lynn Marie Peirce allegedly drove into another car, and then fled the scene of the accident.

Law enforcement says that Peirce ran a stop sign, crashed into another car, then left the scene and drove to her own house. Officers found her there, sitting in her car in front of her house. According to the officers, she appeared intoxicated.

Peirce told officers she was just coming home from work, but she apparently left seven hours before the collision. Her driver’s license had expired in 1998. She then failed a sobriety test. (more…)

Brooksville resident Joshua Langley pleaded guilty this week to second-degree murder with a firearm, robbery with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Langley has been in and out of Florida prisons on other charges over the years and was most recently was released in November 2005. Just over a year later, Langley’s friend Jac’Quez Jones was shot in the head in the backyard of a local home.

Langley was ultimately charged with the first-degree murder of Jones. Prosecutors intended to seek the death penalty. Langley’s attorneys argued that he was mentally ill and he was eventually ruled incompetent to stand trial. (more…)

Tampa’s U.S. Attorney unsealed an indictment earlier this month which charges a Colombian national, Javier Fernando Saavedra-Escobar, with conspiracy to transport cocaine by sea, knowing and intending that the cocaine would be unlawfully imported into the United States. There are a total of four counts in the indictment and, if convicted, Saavedra-Escobar faces a mandatory minimum term of ten years in federal prison and up to life imprisonment.

Saavedra-Escobar was recently arrested in Madrid, Spain by the Spanish National Fugitive Squad. He was in possession of cocaine at the time of his arrest, according to law enforcement. Several kilograms of cocaine were later found in his residence in Madrid. He is being held in Spain, pending extradition. (more…)

Anthony Green, a St. Petersburg city police officer, was arrested last week by colleagues for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident. A police spokesman said that Green was off-duty on Friday night when he allegedly hit two cars in separate incidents on Fourth Street.

Police received a report shortly after 10 p.m., indicating that there had been a hit-and-run collision at 38th Avenue North and Fourth Street. Several teens were in that car, which was stopped at a red light, and one of them got the license plate number of the other car as it reversed away from the crash and pulled around the teens’ car to drive away. (more…)

A Pasco County jury deliberated for almost 10 hours after listening to several days of testimony in the capital murder trial of John Ditullio Jr. They were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, even after being sent back to the jury room earlier by the judge to keep trying. They reached an impasse – 10 jurors voting “not guilty” and 2 jurors holding out for a guilty verdict.

The judge declared a mistrial. Ditullio remains charged with capital murder and attempted murder. He faces the death penalty if convicted. Ditullio is represented by Tampa Bay area capital murder defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand and his associate Jervis Wise.

• WTSP.com: December 12th Update: Jury deadlocks in tattooed neo-Nazi’s Murder Trial

Jury deadlocks in tattooed neo-Nazi’s murder trial (view on WTSP.com)

“I’m disappointed, but at the same time we’ll come back and do it again,” Brunvand told the media. “Hopefully, this time it’ll be 12-0, and they’ll recognize that he’s innocent of this charge.” (more…)

Tampa Bay area capital murder defense attorney Jervis Wise – a Bjorn E. Brunvand, P.A. associate – examined John Ditullio in a Pasco County court yesterday. Ditullio took the stand in his own defense in the first degree murder trial stemming from a 2006 stabbing.

Last week, Brunvand won a ruling which allows three of Ditullio’s tattoos to be covered by make-up for the trial.

Ditullio took the stand for two and a half hours and denied responsibility for the killings, implicating an associate. The case is expected to wrap up and go to the jury for a verdict Friday.

Press coverage of the case continues. This segment appeared on the local Fox news after Ditullio’s testimony:

A circuit judge in Pasco County granted defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand’s motion to have his client’s tattoos covered during a murder trial scheduled to begin Monday. A makeup artist will apply makeup to cover several potentially offensive tattoos on the face and neck of murder defendant John Allen Ditullio, Jr. before each day of the trial.

Ditullio is charged with first degree murder and attempted murder in the 2006 killing of Kristopher King and assault on Patricia Wells. Ditullio has been incarcerated since his 2006 arrest and is facing the death penalty if convicted.

At the time of his 2006 arrest, Ditullio had several tattoos including small crosses under both eyes. These pre-existing tattoos will not be covered up. During his incarceration pending trial, Ditullio acquired several additional tattoos. These include a long tattoo which resembles barbed wire down one side of his face, a swastika on his neck and the expletive “f— you” on the other side. (more…)