17 homicides reported on Treasure Coast in ‘08
January 2nd, 2009 by Ana X. CeronOnce it was a sword. Gunshots rang death on several occasions. And three times a young life ended during the care of a parent.
The list of homicides for Martin and St. Lucie counties totaled 17 in 2008. Victims were as old as 71 and as young as 6 weeks.
Among the most shocking were those involving children.
Nineteen-year-old Eric Fletcher told Port St. Lucie Police in July that he shook his 6-week-old daughter, Jocelyn, before she stopped breathing.
Fletcher told authorities that he accidentally dropped his daughter, whom he was caring for alone while his girlfriend, the baby’s mother, was at work. But doctors at the hospital said the infant’s injuries were consistent with shaken-baby syndrome.
“I don’t like hearing her cry so I’ll do whatever I can to make her stop,” Fletcher said of his daughter during an interview with detectives. Autopsy reports later confirmed what doctors believed.
In August, St. Lucie sheriff’s investigators said Casey Gross, 21, beat his 2-month-old son, Brogan, on the right side of his head at their triplex northwest of Fort Pierce.
About a week before his death, Brogan received some shots and his doctor had warned that these could make the boy feverish and fussy.
And then a mother was accused of killing her child.
On Christmas morning, Eryn Allegra told Port St. Lucie police she had given her 8-year-old son, Tristan, eight Advil pills before he fell asleep at a Holiday Inn room. Then a few hours before sunrise, she said, Allegra took a hotel pillow and suffocated him.
According to police, the 31-year-old mother had wanted to also kill herself, but couldn’t because the razor blades she had were dull.
She said she had been planning to kill herself and Tristan for months because she had been having financial problems.
Despite the three incidents in a single year on the Treasure Coast, cases of a parent accused of killing a child are rare.
“There is no excuse for their actions,” Port St. Lucie police spokesman Sgt. Robert Vega said. “It’s a shame that some people aren’t aware of all the recourses out there that they could turn to during times when they feel overwhelmed.”
Fletcher may soon serve as a cautionary tale. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges and received a four-year, three-month prison sentence December.
In addition, Fletcher will have to serve 10 years on probation and complete 200 hours of community service by speaking at high schools and working with the Department of Children and Families to talk to young parents.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office worked two homicides last year, including a deputy-involving shooting.
Sheriff’s deputy Jason Howard stopped a pickup in the parking lot of the Treasure Coast Square mall on June 1 after he suspected that driver Francisco Pablo was intoxicated.
The routine traffic stop turned deadly when Pablo, his brother, Miguel, and passenger Jose Sebastian Francisco allegedly beat Howard, who then used his gun to defend himself. He shot 21-year-old Miguel Pablo, who died at the scene.
The next month a grand jury found that Howard was justified in the shooting.
In Stuart, the most gruesome case involved a 48-year-old man whose body was found at a Palm Beach County landfill on April 24.
Days before, Gerald Jensen had been stabbed with a sword by Christopher Tomlinson after he and his girlfriend, Nicole Claire Thornhill, plotted to kill him, Stuart police said. They disposed of his body by throwing it into a Dumpster at their apartment complex, according to police.
Thornhill told investigators she wanted her stepfather dead because he mistreated her mother.
The couple were indicted on first-degree murder charges, two counts each of first-degree attempted murder and poisoning for allegedly trying to poison Thornhill’s mother, Kristan Jensen.
Staff writer Ragel Thys contributed to this story.
2008 homicides in the Treasure Coast
Fort Pierce Police Department
Miguel Perez, 23: Found shot and dead in front of 108 South 24th St. on Feb. 3.
Marvin Jacobs, 42: Died of natural causes during a confrontation with his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend on Feb. 26 at the man’s apartment at 606 S. Fifth St.
Jeanette Anderson, 71: Allegedly killed by her adopted son, 18-year-old Antwan Anderson, whom police say bludgeoned her with a mason hammer at their home at 3001 Avenue F on April 21. Anderson faces a first-degree murder charge.
Euthan Groves, 70: Found dead at his home at 2511 block of Avenue J on Aug. 9.
Isaac Collins, 31: Shot by Glen Hendrick during what police said was a break-in at Hendrick’s home at 1222 Raymond Ave. on Nov. 6.
Cleveland Stevens, 29: Found shot and dead in a vacant lot at 500 N.20th St.on Nov. 6.
St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office
Jennifer Mae Alvarez, 24: Found dead on a north St. Lucie County canal bank on Jan. 9. Investigators said she was stabbed by her husband, Christopher Alvarez, now 37, on New Year’s Eve.
Christopher Sule, 31: Stabbed by Anusha Bissoon, 28, during a road rage incident Aug. 10. Prosecutors later cleared Bissoon of any criminal wrongdoing after she said she acted in self-defense.
Lloyd Allen, 36: Found shot and killed outside his home at 2807 Kingsley Drive on Aug. 16.
Brogan Gross, 2 months: Was allegedly struck in the head by his father, Casey Gross, 21, at their apartment at 5004 La Salle St. on Aug. 25.
Port St. Lucie Police Department
Jocelyn Marie Fletcher, 6 weeks: Died at her family’s apartment at 411 S.E. Walton Lakes Blvd. on July 6, four days after her father, Eric Fletcher, shook her to death. Fletcher, 21, was sentenced to 51 months in prison after pleading guilty.
Andres Sierra-Valerio, 22: Was fatally shot, police say, by Eric Ruiz, 26, who worked with Wilking Sauveur, 21, to murderthe man during an Aug. 14 drug deal at a vacant house at 2030 S.E. Watercrest St. Both face first-degree murder charges.
Tristan Allegra, 8: Died Christmas between 3 and 4 a.m. at the Holiday Inn on U.S. 1. His mother, Eryn Allegra, 31, told police she wanted to kill him, then herself, because she was struggling with financial problems.
Martin County Sheriff’s Office
Patrick Ferguson, 44: Died from an April 3 stabbing at Washington Street and Williams Drive. Darryl Dolphus, 41, told investigators Ferguson attacked him during a card game and Dolphus used a steak knife in self-defense. Dolphus never faced charges.
Miguel Pablo, 21: Fatally shot by Martin County sheriff’s deputy Jason Howard after a June 1 traffic stop outside the Treasure Coast Square mall turned violent. A grand jury later found that Howard, 28, was justified in the shooting.
Stuart Police Department
Levi Starks, 19: Was reportedly accidentally shot and killed by Eric Wiley, now 38, outside a duplex at 1623 S.E. Dixie Highway on Jan. 11.
Gerald Jensen: Stabbed to death on April 21 at his apartment at 1193 S.E. Astorwood Lane allegedly by Christopher Tomlinson, now 25, who police said plotted with his girlfriend, Nicole Thornhill, 19.
Tags: Allegra, Casey Gross, Eric Fletcher, Gerald Jensen, Jason Howard, Robert Vega
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2008 homicides
