August 31, 2011
by
K. McKinney
Alexander Cote Ferre was tried this week in Tampa for the 2010 death of Danitza Fonseca. Fonseca was hacked to death with a machete. Ferre was charged with second-degree murder. On Wednesday, after two days of trial, a Hillsborough County...
[Read More]
August 26, 2011
by
K. McKinney
The capital murder trial of Derral Wayne Hodgkins continued in Pasco County on Friday. Prosecutors presented DNA evidence to the jury that they argue proves Hodgkins killed Teresa Lodge in her Land O’Lakes apartment in September 2006. Hodgkins wasn’t charged...
[Read More]
August 25, 2011
by
K. McKinney
In a murder trial in Pasco County this week, prosecutors told jurors that Teresa Lodge scratched the person who attacked and killed her in Land O’Lakes in September 2006. A year later, law enforcement decided that DNA evidence contained in...
[Read More]
August 23, 2011
by
K. McKinney
The national story of the West Memphis 3 this week is too interesting to ignore. Three young men – Jessie Misskelley, Jr., Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols – convicted in 1994 of killing three 8-year-olds in Arkansas were released from...
[Read More]
Locations: Tennessee
Criminal Charges:
Felonies,
Violent Crimes
August 22, 2011
by
K. McKinney
Jon Jerald Hammill of St. Petersburg pleaded guilty in a Tampa federal court earlier this month to bankruptcy fraud. According to court documents, Hammill failed to disclose any investment or employment with a company named Botfly, LLC when he filed...
[Read More]
August 14, 2011
by
K. McKinney
Defense attorneys for Edward Covington were in court in Tampa last week, presenting evidence to a judge to prove that Covington did not intend to harm his girlfriend and her children on Mother’s Day 2008, when they were killed. Covington...
[Read More]
August 14, 2011
by
K. McKinney
Prosecutors in Hillsborough County officially notified the court and Julie Schenecker’s public defender this week that they will seek the death penalty in Schenecker’s murder trial. Schenecker is accused of killing her two teenage children last January. The filing is...
[Read More]
August 6, 2011
by
K. McKinney
Many Tampa Bay drug cases are now in question after a federal judge ruled a Florida drug law unconstitutional. Many area defense attorneys have already filed motions to dismiss some pending drug cases, citing the new ruling. U.S. District Judge...
[Read More]