According to an arrest report, Karolyn Gail Minor, 28, of the 500 block of Northwest Waverly Circle, left her 7-year-old and 18-month-old children at home alone about 10 hours — from about midnight Wednesday to about 10 a.m. Thursday — while she went out. She went first to a bar and later to spend the night at the home of a friend whose name she “could not or would not give” to an officer, the report stated.

A neighbor told police she saw the 7-year-old waving from the Minor home about 8 a.m. Thursday and then alone in the home’s driveway about 25 minutes later.

The boy told the neighbor his mother had been “kidnapped,” and the neighbor called Minor’s brother, who came to the scene and called police, the report stated.

When Minor arrived about 10 a.m. Thursday, she told police she had left the children in the care of a friend, police said. But the friend told police she left Minor’s home shortly after 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, while Minor was still at the house. The friend’s sister confirmed the friend’s story, according to the report.

Minor was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail on a child neglect charge. The children were put in the custody of their father, Minor’s estranged husband.

Tom Nichols, the Port St. Lucie Police Department public information officer, confirmed the decision but declined to explain Shinnamon’s reasoning.

“We’re just saying we’re not going after the parents to recoup the expenses and leaving it at that,” Nichols said.

Nor is the department going to calculate how much money was spent on the wild-goose chase. “To do that,” Nichols said, “would just cost more money.”

Dozens of law enforcement officers scrambled Wednesday morning and worked several hours to look for the reportedly missing girl. In addition to officers from the Port St. Lucie, they included about 20 deputies, detectives and a helicopter crew from the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office; about 15 Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputies and three detectives; 20 Fort Pierce Police Department officers; 15 canine units from throughout the southeastern United States who happened to be training in Stuart; and officers from the Stuart Police Department.

The two boys, whose names were not released but were said to be 8 to 10 years old, told police they saw two Hispanic men grab a girl and put her in their van about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday as the vehicle passed the bus stop at Southeast Pinero and Midtown roads near Port St. Lucie Boulevard in central Port St. Lucie.

The boys later admitted they made up the story, basing it on a television show they had seen.

Each boy received a misdemeanor notice for filing a false police report and were released to their parents.

By Tyler Treadway, TCPalm.com

Lehoter Pleshett St. Aime, 35, of the 4700 block of 40th Avenue, Vero Beach, was charged with child abuse and aggravated assault. She posted $5,000 bail Thursday at the Indian River County Jail.

The incident began about 4 p.m. Wednesday at St. Aime’s home, according to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office. The boy told deputies St. Aime was upset with him for arriving home from school on a different bus. The age of the boy was not given on the heavily redacted arrest form released by deputies.

She began striking the boy with the cord, the arrest affidavit said. He ran to his second floor bedroom, escaped through a window and went to a nearby home for help, the affidavit said.

The woman at the home planned to take the boy to Sebastian River Medical Center to have his wounds treated, they told the Sheriff’s Office. However, St. Aime got into her car and rammed into the other woman’s Grand Marquis as it traveled east on 45th Street near Old Dixie Highway, the affidavit said.

A deputy stopped the Grand Marquis in the 9900 block of U.S. 1 at 8:18 p.m. and learned what had happened. The boy was treated by paramedics but was not hospitalized. The arrest form did not say who took custody of the boy.

By Lamaur Stancil, TCPalm.com

Justin Dabelow, 23, of the 1300 block of 16th Court Southwest, Vero Beach, posted $7,000 bail Wednesday at the Indian River County Jail. He was charged with cruelty to animals, disposal of bodies of dead animals and abandonment of an animal.

Dabelow told the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 7 he was at his home and removing his girlfriend’s Yorkshire terrier from its crate when it bit him on his hand. He punched the dog and it went unconscious.

Later, he and his girlfriend checked on the dog and found it was dead, according to an incident report. Dabelow took the dog’s body and tossed it into the woods behind his home, the report states.

By Lamaur Stancil, TCPalm.com

The city has put together a proposed $51.8 million deal, in addition to a $20 million state incentive package, to build a movie and video game animation and military simulation studio on 15 acres within Tradition.

City Manager Don Cooper said Thursday the agreement requires Wyndcrest DD Florida Inc. to reimburse the city for the entire financing, except for a $10 million cash grant from developers, through a 20-year annual lease.

The deal between Wyndcrest DD Florida Inc., now being tabbed as an expansion of California-based Digital Domain, will go before the city council for conceptual approval during its 7 p.m. meeting Monday at City Hall. The first public hearing of an ordinance approving a lease agreement is expected to go before the council Dec. 7 with finalization expected in January. Construction of the studio could begin in March or earlier.

The deal includes:

$20 million in bond allocations from the federal government under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the construction of a 150,000-square-foot studio jointly bonded by the city and St. Lucie County;

$10 million in cash from two South Florida developers that was initially earmarked to pay for the construction of a second Interstate 95 interchange at Open View Drive between Becker Road and Gatlin Boulevard.

$8 million in industrial development bond money to purchase equipment jointly bonded by the city and county;

$3.8 million in industrial development bond money for workforce development, training and operations jointly bonded by the city and county;

15 acres, a land swap between the city and Tradition developer Core Communities, valued at $10 million; tax abatements from the city and county should the studio become taxable during the lease;

Property tax and impact fee incentives.

As part of the agreement, Wyndcrest must create up to 500 jobs at an average salary of $64,233 by 2014 or the company will have to pay money back to the city in order to get title to the building when it’s paid off.

It’s unclear what Wyndcrest’s lease payments will be until the city works through the financing, Cooper said, but the payments will be equal to cover insurance and the annual debt service.

The $51.8 million total is considerably higher than what has been publicly discussed. Cooper said the figure is a number generated by the state.

“The state requires a sizable match from any local jurisdiction,” he said. “We have been more conservative than the state has in terms of giving money to (Wyndcrest). The state pays all of their money by the time 250 jobs are created. We don’t give all of ours until 500 jobs are created.”

Wyndcrest DD Florida Inc. is now the parent company of Digital Domain of Venice, Calif., rather than the two companies being independent of one another. Hobe Sound-based Wyndcrest Holdings is the parent company of Wyndcrest DD Florida and Digital Domain.

Digital Domain, created in 1993, has won numerous awards for its work, including the 2008 Academy Award for Special Effects in the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, in pushing for the state to rescind its grant, has argued that the Wyndcrest proposal should be considered a risky start up rather than a spin-off of Digital Domain.

Digital Domain also has created special effects for movies “Transformers,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Apollo 13,” and “2012,” which is out in theaters now.

Wyndcrest considered several other areas around the state, including Sarasota, before choosing Port St. Lucie.

John Textor, chairman of Digital Domain and Wyndcrest, said Thursday he’s been impressed with Port St. Lucie’s ability to secure large economic development deals.

He said the company already has hired 10 people and is looking at occupying just under 15,000 square feet of temporary space in Tradition until the permanent building is constructed. He said he expects to sign a lease agreement for the space in coming days contingent on the city approving its permanent location.

Textor, a Jupiter Island resident, said he’s hired two people from Port St. Lucie, one from Martin County and others from out of the area. He’s also looking to hire a woman from Orlando, who works for numerous California studios out of her home, as the company’s head recruiter.

“Early on in the studio you have to have industry specific people, which we expected would be by-and-large from out of the area,” Textor said. “But our lead finance person is from Port St. Lucie. I never thought it likely that our head recruiter would be Florida-based. I think we’re pleasantly surprised by how much Florida talent there is.”

Textor has received an abundance of criticism from taxpayers and some lawmakers over local and state incentives being given to Wyndcrest.

However, Larry Pelton, the president of the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County, who’s played a major role in structuring the deal, said under the agreement every expense is being paid for by Wyndcrest, with the exception of the $10 million from developers.

“This is not a grant for John Textor,” Pelton said. “This is an expansion of Digital Domain. There won’t be any cash out from the city.”

Pelton contends the federal bond money allocated for the construction of the studio won’t, in any way, impact the city’s credit rating. He said the bonds were specifically set up by the federal government so that for-profit companies could take advantage of tax-exempt bonds.

“Financing is being done through the lease, so that they will own the building in 20 years or sooner if they want to pay off the bonds,” Pelton said.

According to the agreement, if Wyndcrest defaults or fails, the city can’t seek damages from Textor, individually, its partners and shareholders, Wyndcrest’s parent company or any of its subsidiaries.

“There’s no personal guarantees in this,” Cooper said.

Should Wyndcrest fail, the land and the building would revert back to the city.

“The building and the land is the tangible asset,” Cooper said.

Textor said the structure of the bonds was intelligently put together to “put the burden on us. The recourse of the bond holders is to the property as collateral not to the city.

“The project is on the hook, the city is not on the hook,” he said. “To provide this attractive of an incentive package without drawing money away from other essential services is pretty unique. These were difficult deals to get done because the sources of capital were competitive.”

Other regional incentive packages

Scripps Florida

Jupiter

$600 million

State and Palm Beach County: $300 million incentive packages. Approved in 2003.

Required new jobs: 545, initially by the end of 2010

Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies

Port St. Lucie

$90 million

The package includes $32 million from the state, a $40 million city-financed facility, $10 million from St. Lucie County, 20 acres of donated land at Tradition and $6.5 million in-kind from FAU. Approved in 2006.

Required new jobs: 189 by 2017.

Max Planck

Jupiter

$181 million

Palm Beach County is providing $87 million, along with $94 million from the state, to open a research institute for the Munich, Germany-based Max Planck Society next to Scripps. Approved in 2007.

Required new jobs: 135 by June 2016.

VGTI Florida

Port St. Lucie

$60 million.

$60 million in state grants over four years. Port St. Lucie is spending $53 million on previously planned roads, water and sewer lines and other infrastructure improvements. Developers in the recently annexed southwestern section of the city will pay for the work through a $155 million special assessment district. Approved in 2008.

Required new jobs: 200 by 2018.

Piper Aircraft Inc.

Vero Beach

$32 million

$20 million from the state and $12 million from the county. Approved in 2008.

Required new jobs: The contract appears to have been extended. Terms of the deal state Piper must have a local work force of 1,185 by Dec. 31, 2009, reaching 1,417 by December 2012 and maintain that level through 2015. In September 2008, executives said Piper employed about 1,200 workers. Since then, an estimated 500 employees have been laid off.

By Alexi Howk and Jim Turner, TCPalm.com

Gentleman John Clark, 35, of Milton, in the northwest corner of Florida, was arrested Thursday night and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 51-year-old Ronnie Cartee, whose body was found about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday outside of Pappy’s Lounge in the 6900 block of Okeechobee Road.

Cartee, who had no known local address, was the sixth homicide victim in the city this year. An autopsy was performed Wednesday.

Clark is being held in the St. Lucie County Jail.

According to a Fort Pierce Police Department report, police found Cartee “unconscious (and) unresponsive” with Clark kneeling beside him and holding Cartee’s head while another man stood at Cartee’s side and a woman stood at Cartee’s feet

Clark reportedly asked police, “Is he breathing? Am I holding a dead guy?”

According to the report, Clark told one officer he was hitchhiking north from Miami, was smoking cigarettes for about 45 minutes and found Cartee’s body. He reportedly told another officer he had been at a nearby restaurant.

An employee of the restaurant reported to police that Clark told her and other workers he had just broken a man’s jaw, adding, “If a bunch of cops show, tell the cops I’ve been in here all night drinking coffee.”

An autopsy found Cartee had sustained several blows to the head, and had broken facial bones including a broken jaw and bruises on his chest. A nearby vodka bottle stained with blood collected by police could have caused the injuries, according to the autopsy.

As Clark was arrested, police reported finding blood on his clothes and large scars on his chest and arm.

Roberto Alberto Cepero

Sonia Del Risco Polls

Roberto Alberto Cepero, 48, of Port St. Lucie, stood quietly, his head bowed slightly, as Circuit Judge Larry Schack sentenced him to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to traffic in marijuana, 30 years for trafficking in more than 25 pounds of marijuana and 15 years for racketeering. Schack allowed the two 30-year terms to be served concurrently, but ordered the 15-year term to be served consecutively, making a total of 45 years behind bars.

Sonia Del Risco Polls, 42, Cepero’s girlfriend, was sentenced to seven years in prison: five for manufacture of marijuana and two for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.

A jury found the couple guilty of the charges Oct. 1. Polls was acquitted of a racketeering charge.

Authorities said Cepero oversaw an extensive marijuana growing business and Polls was responsible for teaching “farmers” at several grow houses Cepero controlled how to cultivate marijuana.

The case began after officers from numerous local and state agencies raided several Port St. Lucie grow houses and found plants being cultivated under meticulous conditions in brightly lit, climate controlled rooms that had been sealed tight to avoid detection.

“There’s no question this was a serious operation,” said Schack, who presided over the two-week trial.

Noting that Cepero had organized a structure to minimize the risk of detection and used threats and violence to keep underlings in line, Schack called him “the Don Corleone of the Port St. Lucie marijuana grow house operations,” a reference to the head of the organized crime family in The Godfather books and movies.

Cepero did not address the court; but Polls testified she had “found God” in the two years since her arrest, asking for mercy and a sentence of probation rather than incarceration.

“If you see this face again in trouble with the law,” she told Schack, “never let me out; you can give me life (in prison).”

Authorities said Cepero used his family’s construction business, Global Homes Inc., as a front for the marijuana operation. Both he and Polls also had been charged with mortgage fraud in connection with buying one of the grow houses, but the charges were dropped.

Tyler Treadway, TCPalm.com

Authorities suspect William Beck, 54, used a .32-caliber gun to shoot his wife Jacqueline Beck, 54, twice - once in the face and once in the chest - before killing himself inside his home in the 8400 block of Fort Walton Boulevard shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The couple were married but not living together.

According to detectives, Jacqueline Beck came to William Beck’s home at his request. She told detectives she intended to tell her husband she wanted a divorce.

Following a physical altercation, William Beck shot his wife and then shot himself in the head, deputies said..

Jacqueline Beck went outside and screamed for help, deputies said. A St. Lucie County sheriff’s detective who lives nearby heard the screams, ran to the house and found Jacqueline Beck lying on the front porch of the home. The detective radioed for help, went inside and found William Beck lying on the living room floor. St. Lucie County Fire-Rescue workers pronounced him dead at the scene.

Detectives found the gun underneath William Beck’s body.

County Fire-Rescue workers took Jacqueline Beck to the emergency room of Lawnwood Regional Medical Center and Heart Institute, Fort Pierce, where she was being treated Wednesday night.

WPTV reporter Carolyn Scofield contributed to this report.
Keona Gardner, TCPalm.com

Shortly after 7:30 a.m., dozens of law enforcement officers descended on central Port St. Lucie after the boys, acquaintances who ride the same school bus, concocted the abduction report, said Officer Tom Nichols, Port St. Lucie Police spokesman. The incident unfolded over several hours, generating national media attention and escalating into an Amber Alert issued just before 11 a.m.

“There were a lot of wasted resources (Wednesday) due to this,” Nichols said. “However, the Port St. Lucie Police will continue to investigate these types of incidents aggressively.”

The boys, whose names or school were not released but are around 8 or 10 years old, were at their bus stop at Southeast Pinero and Southeast Midtown roads near Port St. Lucie Boulevard when they saw a “suspicious” van passing. From there, they began fabricating the story, Nichols said.

The boasting and storytelling continued on the school bus. The school bus driver overheard the conversation and reported it to St. Lucie County school security officials.

They told police when the van passed them, men jumped out and snatched the girl - who kicked and screamed during the incident.

“After interviewing the boys for quite a few hours, they have recanted their story and said it was made up,” Nichols said about noon. “The only validity to it was there was an actual white van on Midtown (Road) here, everything after it about the girl bring abducted is in fact a hoax.”

The boys each received a misdemeanor notice to appear for filing a false police report and were released to their parents, rather than taken to the St. Lucie Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Pierce.

Nichols said the majority of his agency’s detectives and all available road patrol officers worked the case.

Officers knocked on doors of all homes in the area, and calls were placed to residents via an automated reverse calling system.

The Amber Alert had said the child might be in the company of two Hispanic males, about 20 to 30 years old with dark hair, both wearing blue or black T-shirts. It said they were thought to have been involved in the abduction and might be traveling in a white, possibly newer model panel van with T-style brushed aluminum rims.

White vans were being stopped in hopes of finding the girl. Police checked all sex offenders and/or predators in the area, later expanding the search throughout the city and in parts of unincorporated St. Lucie County.

Port St. Lucie police were joined by dozens of investigators from other agencies.

The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office had about 20 deputies and detectives and a helicopter respond to the scene for hours, while about 15 Martin County Sheriff’s Office investigators watched access points from Port St. Lucie into Martin County. Three Martin sheriff’s detectives also went to Port St. Lucie to help.

Twenty Fort Pierce police officers looked for the van for several hours and the agency’s SWAT team was on standby.

Fifteen canine units from the southeastern United States that were training in Martin County also came to help. Further, all Stuart Police officers on duty looked for the white van.

Nichols did not have an estimate of the cost of the search and said no decisions have been made as to whether to pursue billing the parents of the boys for any or all associated with the incident.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

William Beck, 54, of Fort Pierce, shot his wife Jacqueline Beck, 54, twice and then turn his .32-caliber automatic pistol on himself. William Beck, who shot in himself in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene, while his wife was critically injured, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken J. Mascara said in a statement. She was transported to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, where she was being treated tonight.

The incident occurred shortly after 5 p.m. in the 3400 block of Fort Walton Avenue, Mascara said. William Beck and Jacqueline Beck were married but not living together.

According to detectives, Jacqueline Beck went to William Beck’s home at his request. She told detectives she intended to tell her husband she wanted a divorce.

Following a physical altercation, William Beck shot his wife once in the face and once in the chest and then turned the gun on himself. She ran outside and screamed for help, and a detective who lives nearby found her lying on the front porch of the house.

Detectives found the gun underneath William Beck’s body.