PORT SALERNO _ Detectives with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division are investigating a multiple stabbing that occurred on Monday night.

According to a sheriff’s office release, two men, Denny Evangelista and Robert Ruiz, traveled to a residence in the 5000 block of Primose Avenue at approximately 9:30 p.m. While at the residence, an altercation occurred between Evangelista, Ruiz and an unknown man, the release said.

Evangelista was stabbed once in the chest and Ruiz was stabbed multiple times in the abdomen. Evangelista and Ruiz left the residence on Primose and returned to Ruiz’s home on Isabelita Avenue and called for law enforcement and emergency medical response. Evangelista was transported by air to St. Mary’s Hospital. Ruiz was transported by ambulance to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center.

The suspect fled the scene. He is described as being approximately 28-30 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 180 pounds, with a muscular build and shaved head. He was last seen wearing an orange shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective M. Flynn at (772) 220-7169, or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS (8477).

Martin County sheriff’s deputies today arrested a man who they say shot was an extremely sore loser after a card game this weekend.

Leon Barnett

Thorne was playing cards with a group of people including Barnett and his brother, 19-year-old Leaustin Barnett, at Leaustin Bartnett’s home in the 5700 block of Colee Avenue. Thorne won several hundreds dollars from the other players, with Leon Barnett losing the most money.

According to the report Thorne told deputies that Leon Barnett became agitated so he went outside to leave. Both Barnett’s came outside and Leon Barnett threatened Thorne with a gun, demanding his money back. Thorne asked Leaustin Barnett to take the gun away from his brother and Leaustin Barnett said he didn’t want to get involved, according to the report.

Thorne threw some money at Leon Barnett and ran away, calling his brother, Michael Morris, to come pick him up, according to the report. As Morris pulled up at the corner of Southeast Mercedes Avenue and Southeast Dell Street to pick up Thorne, both Barnetts approached the car and stole Thorne’s cell phone, money and keys.

Thorne told deputies he ran away on foot and saw both Barnetts shooting at his brother’s car and himself. Thorne was hit in the leg as he ran away, according to the report. Leaustin Bartnett was arrested shortly after the incident but Leon Barnett was not located until today.

Leaustin Barnett

Anyone with information on the incident can call Det. Bill Jones at 772-220-7060 or Treasure Coast CrimeStoppers at 800-273-8477.

PORT SALERNO - He remembered the flames billowing from the second floor. And his neighbor screaming, “My wife! My wife!”.

Two days after a fire blazed in a corner unit of a waterside condo building on Manatee Lane, a resident there recalled the panic and pain that night..

About 2:40 a.m. Saturday, Martin County firefighters arrived at the 4600 block of Manatee to battle the blaze that killed a woman..

She was upstairs when the fire broke out, remembered the neighbor, who declined to give his name. Her husband was on the ground floor, trying to put out the flames with a garden hose. It was not enough, the man said.

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Detectives with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit in partnership with the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco conducted an undercover operation on Thursday, when they checked 17 convenience stores throughout Martin County to see if they sold alcohol to minors.

One-hundred percent compliance was reported on that date. No sales were made to the concerned citizen volunteer that worked with detectives.

This operation was the second conducted in the past thirty days. Two arrests were previously made on May 7, 2009. These operations continue year-round.

PORT SALERNO — Ann Gunsolus can’t bear the thought of losing her home, even though it’s a makeshift campsite in a privately owned woods a stone’s throw from U.S. 1.

“Cry: That’s what I do so far is cry,” Gunsolus said, while thinking about where she will go when the authorities evict the homeless people from the woods. “When you have nothing, there’s not much you can do.”

Gunsolus and more than a dozen other homeless men and women fear sheriff’s deputies will roust them as soon as Thursday from the patchwork of tents and tarps they call home. (more…)

In these tight times, pay cuts and layoffs are affecting all ranks of school district employees from office staff to administrators.

But during the 2007-08 fiscal year, more than 61 Treasure Coast school district administrators earned more than $100,000. Now, some of these top earners are bracing for budget cuts.

Treasure Coast school superintendents made top dollar with Indian River County Schools Superintendent Harry La Cava taking home the biggest paycheck at $192,750.

However, for the 2009-10 fiscal year, La Cava is volunteering to take a 10 percent cut from his base salary, which equals about $17,500.

“If everybody is taking some kind of hit, we’re right in the mix of it,” La Cava said.

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The Treasure Coast court system has 42 judges, prosecutors, investigators, public defenders and administrators who are paid more than $100,000 per year.

Circuit judges, who preside over major criminal and civil cases, are paid $145,080 per year under a state salary scale that went into effect Oct. 1, 2006. That makes Florida’s circuit judges the 11th highest paid trial judges in the nation, according to a 2008 survey by the National Center for State Courts.

But the pay of Florida’s circuit judges would slide down to 17th place nationwide if the state government enacts a Senate bill calling for all state employees earning more than $100,000 per year to take a 5 percent pay cut. (more…)