RIKKI KLAUS

PORT ST. LUCIE — This story starts at a home about a half-mile from the intersection of Village Green Drive and Walton Road in Port St. Lucie. But the big discovery takes place smack dab in the middle of the busy intersection.

Lots of people drive by every day, but someone unlikely showed up in the intersection Thursday. It was 3-year-old Jatayven Jean.

A few people noticed Jatayven and scooped him up. They took him to a fire station on the corner and told authorities what they’d just seen.

When police caught up with Jatayven’s mom, Janine Francois, 20, she explained she was tired from waking up at 4 a.m., so she was taking a nap.

“You should always keep your child in your eyesight,” said grandmother and Port St. Lucie resident Patricia Clark.

Jatayven’s dad, Kelly Jean, 27, says he left their apartment to hang out with a friend. He told police he turned on the TV to keep his son busy. At the police department, Jean admitted he’d been smoking marijuana, police said.

“You have to have a license to go fishing, but anybody can have kids. It doesn’t make sense,” said Don Smith, a Port St. Lucie grandfather.

Both parents are charged with child neglect for parenting strategies that landed their son at a dangerous crossroads.

A guardian is now taking care of the child.

Thomas Jeffrey Roberts (SLCSO)

By Will Greenlee

Thomas Roberts, who was arrested Tuesday in connection with the weekend deaths of a man and his common-law wife, told police he went in the couple’s home with others to steal the woman’s purse because he knew “that was where she kept her drugs,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained Wednesday.

Roberts, 27, told Port St. Lucie police he has a “prescription drug problem and that he injected OxyContin,” Roberts’ arrest affidavit states. OxyContin is a powerful painkiller.

Roberts said they went in the home of Frank Houck, 51, and his 58-year-old common-law wife, Irene Reiss, “to steal money, as well.” Roberts said one person — a woman — stayed in the vehicle, while Roberts and a man and a woman went inside through a rear sliding door.

Irene Reiss

Frank Houck

“(The woman) was used to carry the purse out of the home to avoid suspicion,” the affidavit states.

Roberts named one of the people he came to the home with as the person who shot Houck and Reiss, who were discovered dead about 3 p.m. Sunday in their home in the 300 block of Northeast Solida Circle. Roberts’ listed address is just two homes away on Northeast Solida Circle.

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By Elliott Jones

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Jayme Beall says her 9-year-old son’s cursing at her set her off, according to a sheriff’s arrest report.

The 30-year-old woman ordered her 9- and 13-year-old sons out of their home at 7 p.m. Monday and give them backpacks she stuffed with clothing.

Unknown to her, they somehow fled to their great grandmother’s house in Boynton Beach.

When Beal went outside, she couldn’t find the boys and called 911, 20 minutes after telling them to leave their home in the Pineview Mobile Home Park in the 3200 block of South U.S. 1.

The Sheriff’s Office brought in search dogs and air surveillance. Neither youth could be found in the neighborhood or adjoining woods.

Investigators quoted her as saying she had no idea where they went because she has no relatives in the area. Until recently they had lived in Port St. Lucie, where her older son had tried to run away.

She described the middle school student as having a history of acting violently toward her.

Five hours after the 911 call, investigators found the boys in Boynton Beach. Deputies charged her with a felony charge of child abuse and took her to the St. Lucie County Jail.

Previous story:
Missing St. Lucie County brothers found unharmed in Palm Beach County

By Jim Mayfield

FORT PIERCE — Geoffrey Brock Walter’s defense team maintained poor business skills and undercapitalized companies kept Walter from donating money he raised on the Treasure Coast to underprivileged kids; Tuesday a Fort Pierce jury decided the reason was fraud.

After a weeklong trial, jurors took two hours to convict Walter on one count of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years. Walter’s sentencing will be set pending a pre-sentence investigation.

Prosecutors presented evidence showing Walter and Timothy Cozart Stiers, who still faces trial on similar charges, brought in more than $130,000 from hundreds of Treasure Coast residents between late 2008 and 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Steve McCulloch, director of marine mammal research for Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, walks by the 25-foot-long dead humpback whale at the Fort Pierce Inlet on Tuesday. Photo by Eric Hasert, TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS

By Elliott Jones

FORT PIERCE — Results of a necropsy from a humpback whale that died overnight Monday won’t be known for several weeks, marine conservation officials said Tuesday.

The 28-foot-long juvenile whale beached in the shallows at the inlet and officials had to wait for the tide to rise to help in moving the animal to Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, where construction equipment was used to pull it onto a beach, said Blair Mase, a federal marine mammal stranding coordinator.

“Something must have been wrong for it to come to shore,” Mase said. “It was thin and in poor body condition.”

Crews from the institute and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute conducted the necropsy outside, which isn’t unusual when considering the mammal’s size of 5,000 to 6,000 pounds, said Megan Stolen, research biologist with Hubbs Sea World Research Institute, a nonprofit arm of Sea World.

After the necropsy Tuesday, crews towed the carcass out to sea for disposal, Mase said.

Despite its weight, Stolen said the whale was “emaciated” and should have weighed double that amount.

“It was definitely a very sick whale,” Stolen said. “Its stomach was virtually empty.” Read the rest of this entry »

Steve McCulloch, the director of marine mammal research for Harbor Branch, walks by the 25 ft long dead humpback whale at the Fort Pierce Inlet Tuesday morning. (Eric Hasert/TCPalm)

By Elliott Jones

FORT PIERCE — Marine conservation officials are preparing to perform an outdoor autopsy on a 25-foot-long juvenile humpback whale that died overnight in the Fort Pierce Inlet.

The animal is beached in the shallows at the inlet and the officials are waiting for the tide to rise to help in moving the animal to the Fort Pierce Inlet State Park where construction equipment will be used to pull it onto a beach, said Blair Mase, a federal marine mammal stranding coordinator.

Then up to 20 people from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and a Sea World nonprofit group will spend several hours probing the animal to find what happened.

“Something must have been wrong for it to come to shore,” she said. “It was thin and in poor body condition.”

In Florida, the humpback whales that die usually are juveniles. Five have died along Florida’s coastline in the past five years, she said.

The whale at the Fort Pierce Inlet was alive when fisherman Vince Randolph reported finding it in the middle of the night. He and friends were flounder gigging at 10:30 p.m. on Monday in the area of Dynamite Point when they spotted something large sticking out of the water.

“We were freaking when we realized it was a whale and it was alive” in about five feet of water, Randolph said.

They alerted a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official in a passing boat and wildlife officials were called in.

But the animal expired.

“It is not common to have a fresh specimen,” Mase said. “We should be able to learn a lot from it.”

When the examination is done, the carcass is to be towed out to sea for disposal, she said.

During this time of year, humpback whales migrate southward in the ocean off Florida. The whales are a dark gray color and have large white fins.

Thomas Jeffrey Roberts (SLCSO)

By Will Greenlee

PORT ST. LUCIE — Port St. Lucie Police arrested a 27-year-old man in connection with the weekend deaths of a man and his common-law wife in their home on Northeast Solida Circle, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

Thomas Jeffery Roberts was booked in the St. Lucie County Jail at 2:16 a.m. Tuesday on two counts of first-degree felony murder and a single count of home invasion robbery following the deaths of Frank Houck, 51, and 58-year-old Irene Reiss, according to Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman, and the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office website.

He was held Tuesday morning without bail.

The bodies of Houck and Reiss were discovered about 3 p.m. Sunday in their home in the 300 block of Northeast Solida Circle.

According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, Roberts also has a listed address in the 300 block of Northeast Solida Circle.

Roberts has been arrested more than a dozen times since October 2002 on charges including larceny, criminal mischief, resisting an officer, marijuana possession, possession and/or use of drug equipment, probation violation, battery, larceny, failure to appear and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, FDLE records show.

Neighbors Monday spoke about suspected criminal activity linked to Houck and Reiss. Houck was released from state prison last year, Reiss has an arrest history and Houck’s two sons are in the St. Lucie County Jail.

Port St. Lucie Police declined to release an arrest affidavit for Roberts on Tuesday morning, saying the information would be made available later in the day.

A sheriff’s spokesman, at the request of Port St. Lucie Police, also declined Tuesday morning to release a copy of Roberts’ arrest affidavit. He said the Port St. Lucie Police would release the report later Tuesday, fulfilling the Sheriff’s Office obligation to release the arrest affidavit in a reasonable amount of time, per the state’s public record laws.

This story will be updated when further information is available.

Previous stories:
Two dead in Port St. Lucie home have past arrests
Police identify two adults found dead in Port St. Lucie home

Frank Houck

PORT ST. LUCIE — Port St. Lucie Police on Monday identified the two people found dead Sunday in their home on Northeast Solida Circle as Frank Houck and his common law wife, Irene Reiss and relealed the couple has a criminal past.

Read the original story: Police identify two adults found dead in Port St. Lucie home

The bodies of Houck, 51, and 58-year-old Reiss, were discovered about 3 p.m. Sunday by police in their home in the 300 block of Northeast Solida Circle.

Police have not disclosed how they died or whether their deaths were the result of foul play, but said the investigation continues.

Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman, said he thought there’s a “high confidence level … that this case will be solved.”

Neighbors on Monday spoke of what they thought was criminal activity, possibly relating to drugs, at the home. Houck was released from state prison in February 2011, according to the state Department of Corrections website.

Irene Reiss

“It’s been a problem in the neighborhood for a while,” said Colleen Carr, 42, who said she knew Houck and Reiss for more than a decade. “I’ve known their sons. I’ve watched their boys grow up. Their boys are in jail — Frank and Jesse.”

Frank Charles Houck, 25, was booked into the St. Lucie Co. Jail in January 2011. His charges relate to theft, dealing in stolen property, giving false ownership or identification information to a second hand dealer and violation of probation, according to records accessed via the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office website. Jesse Houck, 24, was booked into the jail in December 2010. He faces more than a dozen charges.

Carr said Reiss “had a good heart” and “was a nice lady.”

“When she drove by she’d wave. She came over and asked me to help her fix her washing machine one day and we had coffee and we talked,” Carr said.

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Two missing St. Lucie County brothers have been found unharmed in Palm Beach County, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office said Monday night.

Brothers Matthew and Christopher Storiale, ages 8 and 13, were reported missing after their mother said that they ran away from home around 7 p.m. Monday. The brothers reside at the Pine Key Mobile Home Park in the 3200 block of South U.S. 1, south of Fort Pierce.

But the boys were located late Monday night in Boynton Beach, a sheriff’s office news release said. It was not immediately clear how, or why, the brothers traveled to Boynton Beach.

On Monday evening, St. Lucie deputies searched the area near the boys’ home with patrol units, K-9 teams and the sheriff’s helicopter.

“Fortunately, no harm came to the two boys,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken J. Mascara said in a prepared statement.

Note: Matthew Storiale (pictured on the left) and Christopher Storiale (pictured on the right) were found unharmed in Palm Beach County Monday night. The youngest child in the photo was not missing.

Moses Jackson, 22, and Shareka Key, 25, are accused of child neglect.

By Elliott Jones

FORT PIERCE — The discovery of human bites on an infant girl has led to the arrest of the 25-year-old mother and her 22-year-old boyfriend, according to arrest records.

Shareka Key and Moses Jackson, both of the 5000 block of Sanibel Avenue, were jailed on Thursday on charges of felony child neglect.

Florida Department of Children and Families intervened and put the child in the custody of the child’s father and his mother.

According to reports, the father’s mother first discovered the bite marks after Key dropped the child off. The mother called 911 and the child was taken to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center where a medical exam found three human bite marks including a large one on the child’s right cheek. The others were on her back and a leg.

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