A federal judge in Tampa has ordered John Nicholas Coors of Bradenton held without bail after Coors was arrested for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plan. The FBI initiated an investigation into Coors in March 2009, after Coors’ father contacted authorities about his son. He told them his son was trained in “special forces” tactics and considered himself a mercenary, according to a government affidavit.

Court documents indicate that Coors had a bucket of pure nitric acid and bomb-making books, including the “Anarchist Cookbook.” He also had 5-gallon buckets of chemicals on his mother’s porch.

In August 2009, a former acquaintance of Coors warned FBI agents that Coors was going to “do something foolish,” according to a law enforcement affidavit. Authorities then set up a sting, which culminated last weekend when Coors allegedly tried to detonate an improvised explosives device he had placed in a victim’s car. (more…)

Joseph Lee Musson of Hudson was sentenced this week to 25 years in federal prison in relation to a murder-for-hire scheme he was involved in last year. Musson pleaded guilty in January to three charges: using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire, carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Instead, he was sentenced to five years, ten years and twenty years – the first and third sentences to run consecutively to each other and concurrently to the second – for a total of 25 years. Musson was sentenced as an Armed Career Criminal because of his four prior convictions for sale of cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana.

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office arrested Musson in July 2009 on drug charges after he sold 100 MDMA (ecstasy) pills to Robert Shane Ballard, a confidential informant. Musson learned Ballard’s identity and planned to have him killed. (more…)

Peter Porcelli, a former Pinellas County telemarketer, pleaded guilty last week in a Tampa federal courtroom to mail fraud. Porcelli is already serving 13 years in federal prison on fraud charges related to a credit card scheme. He now faces up to 20 additional years in federal prison. (more…)

Linda Kay Courtright of North Port pleaded guilty earlier this month in a Tampa federal court to distributing oxycodone, the use of which resulted in the 2009 death of Nicholas Block. Courtright faces a minimum mandatory term of 20 years in federal prison and up to life for that charge. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors have agreed not to pursue any additional federal charges against Courtright in the relevant incident.

According to the plea agreement, the North Port Police Department and emergency services responded to a motel room on June 19, 2009. The room was occupied by Courtright, her husband, Billy Jack Courtright, her 15-year-old son, Nicholas Block, and the Courtrights’ three other children, ages 10, 9, and 7. Nicholas was discovered dead on one of the hotel beds. (more…)

Clearwater police went to a local bar on a tip looking for Brian Ferry earlier this week with a warrant for his arrest. Ferry had failed to appear at a court date for driving without a license. Officers say Ferry took off from the bar in his pickup before he could be arrested. A police spokeswoman indicated that the officers did not pursue when Ferry fled at a high rate of speed.

Two miles away, Ferry reportedly ran a red light and hit a Yellow Cab. The cab driver was killed in the collision. Ferry was arrested on charges of vehicular homicide, fleeing and eluding resulting in a death, driving with a suspended or revoked license resulting in a death, and the original warrant for failure to appear on the suspended license charge.

Investigators now await results from blood tests to determine if Ferry will face DUI manslaughter charges. Ferry has four prior DUI convictions. (more…)

Prosecutors in Hillsborough County announced this week that they will seek the death penalty for Andre Watkins, who is accused of killing a 19-year-old woman and wounding two others in a Tampa shooting rampage in February. Watkins is charged with first-degree murder, armed carjacking, armed kidnapping and three counts of attempted murder. He is being held without bail.

Law enforcement claims that Watkins carjacked a car at a convenience store at Linebaugh Avenue and Plantation Boulevard on February 12. He then allegedly went on a shooting spree, fatally shooting Alyssa Marie Aracich as she sat in a car, then driving on and shooting Ariel Love at a home and shooting Akbar Alwani at a gas station. Authorities say he shot at another man, who was not wounded. He was ultimately arrested at about 1 a.m. the next day when deputies surrounded him as he pumped gas at a Marathon station in Plant City. (more…)

Five Tampa Bay-area pharmacists have been charged with defrauding the federal government and stealing from Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare, the military insurance program, by submitting fraudulent reimbursement requests for prescriptions never filled.

Federal prosecutors allege Jatin Patel submitted false reimbursement requests from his pharmacy in Clearwater and that two other pharmacists, Rajnish Mehta and Satender Singh, provided him with forged prescriptions to support the claims.

Patel later told investigators that he submitted those claims for $260,000 and split the money with Mehta and Singh.

A regional Medicare fraud task force, the pharmacists are accused of stealing more than $1.5 million by submitting hundreds of false prescription claims between 2006 and 2008. (more…)