By Will Greenlee

FORT PIERCE — Serious crimes investigated by Fort Pierce police dropped about 11 percent last year when compared to 2008, continuing an overall trend that began years ago, police stated this week.

The total number of crimes in the categories of homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft and motor vehicle theft investigated by police in 2009 dropped to 3,027 from 3,413 the year before.

Crimes in all categories other than homicide and larceny/theft dropped, with a particularly large decrease coming in the number of robberies, which went from 234 in 2008 to 134 last year.

Other categories with sizable decreases were rapes, which decreased to 47 last year from 69 in 2008, and aggravated assaults, which went from 484 in 2008 to 330 last year.

Homicides, however, doubled from the four in 2008 to eight last year. The number of incidents in the category of larceny/theft also increased, going from 1,628 to 1,653.

According to a release, crime in Fort Pierce peaked in 1985 and generally has been decreasing since then.

By Lamaur Stancil

MARTIN COUNTY — A teenaged boy removed from physical education class at South Fork High School was accused of burglarizing a home and bringing a stolen gun to campus Monday, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.

Christopher Scales, 17, was charged with armed burglary, grand theft and possession of a firearm on school property.

Christopher Scales

A school resource deputy at South Fork confronted Scales in the gym, the Sheriff’s Office said. The deputy found a backpack that had the stolen weapon from the Indiantown burglary, he said.

Scales was being held at the Juvenile Justice Center in Fort Pierce.

Okeechobee sheriff's deputies found more than 22 pounds of methamphetamines after conducting a traffic stop on Monday.

Rafaela Huerta-Aranda, 47, was arrested after members of the Okeechobee County Narcotics Task Force discovered 22.7 pounds of methamphetamines in her 2002 GMC Yukon. According to an Okeechobeee sheriff’s release, Huerta-Aranda’s vehicle was pulled over after she failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Northeast 5th Street and Highway 441 North.

Rafaela Huerta-Aranda

The drugs were wrapped in plastic, grease, and carbon paper in an attempt to hide the odor, the release stated. The estimated street value is $408,600. Huerta-Aranda’s bond was set at $2 million.

PORT ST. LUCIE — The body of a 40-year-old man believed to have left his home in January wearing boxer shorts and a lightweight sweatshirt may have been found Sunday afternoon in a drainage canal, a police spokesman said Monday.

Police suspect that a “badly decomposed” body is that of Nicholas Edward Halliday. The body was found Sunday afternoon in a canal behind the Windy Pines Estates community by two people walking a dog, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 20-year-old Port St. Lucie man is accused of punching a pregnant woman in the face early Sunday, according to the Port St. Lucie Police Department arrest affidavit.

Kenchavious L. Jones of the 600 block of Southwest Todd Avenue was arrested before 8 a.m. Sunday and charged with aggravated battery. Deputies were dispatched to a dispute and found the woman, who was eight months pregnant, had locked herself in the bathroom.

Jones was intoxicated, according to the affidavit. The woman said they were in a verbal argument about a purse, and he punched her in the face with a closed fist.

He said they were in a verbal argument when she fell and hit her face with an unknown object, according to the affidavit.

Jones remained in the St. Lucie County jail Sunday with a $50,000 bail.

On February 13, Kelly Black of Stuart turned 24. On March 13, she celebrated the anniversary of that milestone with an arrest for her involvement in a home invasion robbery that resulted in her reported accomplice being shot in the hip by the homeowner.

Black is currently in custody with no bond on charges of accessory to occupied burglary while armed and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division. She was found in a green 2000 Dodge Neon, near the home of Maureen and Charles Cassidy.

Maureen Cassidy told detectives that she was awakened by a noise and, upon investigating it, saw a male intruder. She then returned to her bedroom and woke her husband, who retrieved his Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun, stood in the doorway and announced to the intruder that he was armed. But when the man kept coming, Cassidy told police that her husband fired once, striking the intruder in the hip area. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A known gang member accused in connection with a violent confrontation last month at the Minsky gym faces several charges, according to records released Wednesday.

James Palmer, 20, was identified in a police investigation as one of several people involved in the attack in which he and others approached a pickup truck with five people inside and smashed windows. At least some of the vehicle’s occupants were hit with a pipe and/or a stick.

The attack apparently happened after the pickup truck drove off and got stuck.

At least one of the truck occupants said Palmer, also referred to as “PJ/OG,” jumped in the truck bed and broke the rear glass with a stick. He threw a pipe through the window, hitting this occupant in the back of the head. Palmer then is accused of trying to enter the broken window and pull that person from the vehicle.

Two of the other attackers reportedly smashed the driver’s window with a pipe. These other attackers also tried to pull the driver out of the truck as they hit him with a stick.

One of the truck occupants told investigators he’d gotten in a fight with Palmer last summer.

Allegations also were made that at least one of the assailants pulled a gun during the incident.

The assailants fled when someone yelled “cops.”

Palmer, of the 3200 block of Southwest Ronlea Court, and two others involved in the incident were identified in records as “known gang members within our city.”

Palmer faces charges including two counts of burglary of a conveyance with assault or battery, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery and criminal mischief.

It wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday whether any of the other alleged attackers have been arrested.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

Law enforcement agencies in nine counties, including the Treasure Coast, spent seven hours Tuesday night making “surprise” contact with gang members and violent felons to see whether they were complying with their probation requirements, a Wednesday news release states.

Weapons and drugs were seized and arrests were made during the initiative that began at 5 p.m., according to a state Department of Corrections release.

The operation was conducted by the Community Justice Coalition, which is made up of law enforcement organizations from Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties.

Known gang members were a focus of the sweep, with officials looking for evidence of “continued gang activity or continued contact with gang associates,” the release states. Probationers with a violent history also were contacted.

Those determined to have violated terms of their probation were arrested, though a total number of arrests wasn’t immediately available. Drugs and weapons also were seized.

PORT ST. LUCIE — The acts that led to Melanie Henningsen’s death stemmed from “drug trafficking,” though police don’t know what, if any, involvement she had in the illegal activity, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Emergency officials were called early Sunday morning by Henningsen’s boyfriend, Jose Ortiz, who found Henningsen with a fatal gunshot wound at their home in the 6100 block of Northwest Duke Circle, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman.

Those were among the new details in the case released Tuesday by police as their investigation of the city’s first homicide of the year continues. (more…)

By Will Greenlee

PORT ST. LUCIE — The acts that led to Melanie Henningsen’s death stemmed from “drug trafficking,” though police don’t know what, if any, involvement she had in the illegal activity, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Emergency officials were called early Sunday morning by Henningsen’s boyfriend, Jose Ortiz, who found Henningsen with a fatal gunshot wound at their home in the 6100 block of Northwest Duke Circle, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman.

Those were among the new details in the case released Tuesday by police as their investigation of the city’s first homicide of the year continues.

Henningsen, 26, told an officer at the scene and her 25-year-old boyfriend that two men, each with a dark complexion, broke into the house and shot her, Nichols said.

Henningsen was taken to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, where she died. It is unclear where her two children were at the time.
(more…)