By Tyler Treadway

FORT PIERCE — Circuit Judge James McCann called the scene “pretty grotesque”: dead and malnourished dogs and a black wolf as well as other animals in filthy conditions at the home of Michele Edna Nunziata in the 900 block of North Kings Highway in northern St. Lucie County.

Charged with 10 misdemeanor counts of unlawful confinement of animals, six felony counts of cruelty to animals and one misdemeanor count of possessing wildlife without a permit, Nunziata pleaded no contest Monday to one count each of cruelty and unlawful confinement.

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By Will Greenlee

PORT ST. LUCIE — Police on Monday identified the 26-year-old woman who died after being found shot early Sunday morning in her home as Melanie J. Henningsen.

Henningsen, a New York native, was found in a single-story home in the 6100 block of Northwest Duke Circle with a gunshot wound to the torso, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman. She was taken to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, where she died of a gunshot wound.

Nichols described suspects in the incident as men with a dark complexion, declining to elaborate any further.

“This house was specifically targeted,” Nichols said. “They were there for a certain reason and there for certain items, but at this time we’re not disclosing what those items would be.”

Nichols said forced entry was made to the rear of the home, which is situated between a vacant lot and another home.
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Law enforcement officials Monday are searching for two suspects in an early morning burglary or attempted burglary of a Radio Shack in St. Lucie West, a Port St. Lucie police spokesman said.

About 5:10 a.m., police were dispatched to the business in St. Lucie West after a burglar alarm went off, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman.

Two people fled north on Interstate 95, exiting onto Midway Road,

They apparently bailed out of their vehicle in the area of Glades Cut-Off Road, east of I-95. Police and St. Lucie County Sheriff’s officials had 16 units on the scene, including canine units and a helicopter, to search for the suspects, spokesman Mark Weinberg said.

By Will Greenlee, tcpalm.com

STUART — All 139 charges filed against an attorney’s legal assistant arrested in June 2008 on suspicion of stealing from her boss were dropped Monday, according to the Martin County Clerk of Court Web site.

Port St. Lucie resident Wandalyn Jackson of Port St. Lucie was arrested by Stuart Police Department detectives on suspicion of writing herself more than 50 checks totaling more than $15,000 from her employer’s probate law firm in Stuart. The case was scheduled to go to trial Monday.

The 139 counts against Jackson were a combination of charges of grand theft, petit theft, forgery and uttering, or using, a forged document.

Alvin Tumblin is shown during opening statements in his first-degree murder, death penalty trial in January of 2007.

FORT PIERCE — The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a new trial for convicted murderer Alwin Tumblin and threw out the death sentence he received for the 2004 shooting death of Fort Pierce auto shop owner Jimmy Johns.

In a 25-page order, the high court ruled that in June 2007 Tumblin was denied a fair trial when a judge improperly allowed St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Lt. Dennis Smith to testify about the truthfulness of a state witness.

The jury that convicted Tumblin in June 2007 voted 12-0 to recommend he be put to death, the punishment imposed by Circuit Judge James McCann. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A 48-year-old woman accused of stealing an American flag and using it as a blanket after getting “drunk and high” faces desecrating flag and larceny charges, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday.

Tammy Miller

An officer was dispatched about 7:20 a.m. to the 2500 block of South 13th Street, and spoke with a man who brought the officer to the spot on his porch “that used to house a 24-hour lighted American flag.” The man said he heard dogs barking around 3 a.m., but thought little of it until he went out to his front porch.

Police checked a neighboring home. At the top of the driveway, the officer noticed an American flag wrapped around a sleeping woman identified as Miller.

Asked if the flag was hers, Miller said, “No, I took it off of the porch across the street.”

Miller said she’d gotten “drunk and high” the night before and didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know how to get home, so she took the flag and used it as a blanket.

Miller left footprints on the flag and also caused fraying on an edge.

JENSEN BEACH — Florida Highway Patrol investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying a hit-and-run vehicle involved in a fatal, early morning Jan. 31 crash, the FHP stated in a Wednesday release.

James Dennis Coutu, 43, was riding a motorcycle north about 2:15 a.m. on U.S. 1 south of Jensen Beach Boulevard. Coutu’s Kawasaki motorcycle struck the back of a vehicle traveling ahead of him, and he was thrown from the motorcycle.

A dark colored sedan hit Coutu, of Port St. Lucie, as he was in the roadway before the sedan turned east on Jensen Beach Boulevard.

A white van passed through the scene seconds later.

FHP investigators ask that anyone with information about the hit-and-run vehicle and witnesses to the crash to call Corporal P.J. Wyatt at (772) 468-3967 ext. 216 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS.

By Lamaur Stancil

PORT ST. LUCIE — Police said girls walking home from school last week reported a couple of incidents of indecent exposure or suspicious behavior in the same vicinity.

All of the incidents happened within a half-mile radius between 3 and 3:45 p.m. each day, police said. On Feb. 3, two middle school-aged girls told Port St. Lucie Police they were approached by a man who made a lewd comment to them after asking for directions. The incident happened at Southwest Vendome Street and Southwest South Globe Avenue.

Two incidents of indecent exposure happened on Feb. 5, girls told police. In one case, a 12-year-old girl said she had been dropped off by her school bus when a man in a car got her attention in the 3600 block of Southwest Carmody Street. The man, who was nude, opened his vehicle door and pointed to his genitals, according to the police report. Another 12-year-old girl reported the same occurrence in the 3500 block of Carmody.

The girls described the suspect as a heavyset black male with short black hair, a goatee and gold caps on his teeth. The suspect drove a taupe colored, four-door Lincoln, the girls told police.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Joseph Norkus at (772) 879-3341.

Call it the luck of the Irish or perhaps a community banding together to keep an annual tradition alive.

The city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which draws between 10,000 and 15,000 participants, will go on, after all.

Parade organizer Judith Williams, chairwoman of the Friendly Sons and Daughters of Ireland, said thanks to Shindig Irish Restaurant & Pub on Port St. Lucie Boulevard and Joe Capra of Stuart-based Captec Engineering, the club will be able to come up with the $9,300 needed to cover the cost of city services.

The two businesses are contributing $4,000 each toward the fees, the business owners said. The remainder of the money is being raised through donations from the Lion’s Club and other organizations, Williams said.

“I feel absolutely wonderful,” she said Thursday. “It’s a family day, and I’m just so pleased that people are willing to come together as a community to celebrate in difficult times.”
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PORT ST. LUCIE — A 6-year-old Port St. Lucie girl being disruptive at school first was handcuffed to bring her under control, according to a St. Lucie County sheriffs report. A few days later, after another disruption, she was sent to a mental facility, the report said.

The girl’s mother, Kathy Franklin, however, disputes the report. She said her daughter didn’t need to be handcuffed or sent to the adult mental health facility.

“These people are going to the extreme,” Franklin said.

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