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Theresa Caputo of Stuart, in black, hugs another woman Wednesday at the scene of a memorial that was built along Cove Road near Stuart. Caputo, a mother of three, said her children all knew and grew up with those killed. (DEBORAH SILVER/Treasure Coast Newspapers)

A few teenagers in board shorts and T-shirts lifted their sunglasses just long enough to wipe away their tears and hug one another in the grass along Cove Road Wednesday afternoon as they stood above a swelling memorial site.

Amid her tears, a mother bent down, reached through the letters, flowers and mementos and clutched a golf ball in her hand.

Angela Coady said she knew one of her son Nick’s friends had put it there intending for it to stay, but when she saw it she decided she had to take it with her.

“The last time I saw him he was going to play golf. He was happy as a lark,” she said. “The next time I saw him, he was dead.”

Nick Coady, 18, and his friends — Christopher Harold Briglio, 18, and Connor William Graver, 16, — were all killed early Tuesday when the Jeep Grand Cherokee that Coady was driving slammed into the back of a John Deere truck and overturned.

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If there was fun to be had, Nick Coady, Chris Briglio and Connor Graver were likely involved.

They were the ones to call if you wanted to know where the party was or if you were looking for something to do, even on an otherwise boring summer night in Martin County. Once they got everyone to play musical chairs. Often, they were together.

Christopher Briglio

Connor Graver

Nicholas Coady

“Those guys, you couldn’t help but have fun around them. They always lived life to the fullest,” said James Young, 18, a classmate at South Fork High School in Stuart.

So there was laughter mixed in with the tears Tuesday as their former classmates and friends at South Fork gathered near the spot along Cove Road, south of Stuart, where the three lost their lives in what authorities are calling an alcohol-related crash.

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Nick, 18, of Stuart, Chris, 18, of Tequesta, and Connor, 16, of Hobe Sound, died at about 2 a.m. Tuesday after the SUV they were in slammed head-on into a John Deere front-end loader at a construction site at Cove Road and U.S. 1, said Lt. Chris Cribbs of the Florida Highway Patrol.

Chris and Connor, who friends say were “inseparable,” died at the scene. Neither were wearing seat belts, according to the police report. Nick, the driver, died later at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. He was wearing a seat belt.

Investigators also suspect Nick was speeding. The speed limit on Cove Road is 35 mph.

The driver of the John Deere, Pedro Perez-Espinosa, 25, of Okeechobee wasn’t hurt.

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Nicholas Coady
Christopher Briglio
Connor Graver

Construction crews were widening the road and installing drainage or sewage pipe at that intersection when the SUV, traveling eastbound, approached, Cribbs said. The loader had just dumped some dirt by the roadside and was backing off the road when the SUV struck. It hit the loader’s bucket, flipping the SUV, according to the police report. The crash destroyed the SUV.

There wasn’t much light in the area, he said, but crews said the front-end loader itself was well lit.

The crash closed Cove Road for hours as emergency workers cleared the wreckage.

A woman who answered the door at Nick’s house Tuesday said he was an “angel,” but said the family didn’t want to discuss the crash.

Chris’ grandmother, Helen Nekola, said the Briglios’ family members were gathering in Tequesta to mourn.

“He was a wonderful boy,” Nekola said by phone from Bethpage, N.Y. “We’re just trying to get around this.”

Classmates, who gathered at the site after the wreckage had been cleared, built a makeshift memorial for the trio. They left flowers, a football, a polo shirt and letters. They scrawled messages across a large poster as they might have a yearbook, covering it with signatures by mid-afternoon. And they talked about their friends. (more…)

VERO BEACH — The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles upheld its suspension of County Administrator Joe Baird’s driving license for refusing to take a Breathalyzer test May 16, a state official said Monday.

Vero Beach Police charged Baird with DUI and cited him for speeding. The cases are scheduled to come up for court review on July 22 in Indian River County Court.

Under state law, Baird’s license was automatically suspended for refusing to take a roadside breath test for alcohol. His attorney, Bobby Guttridge, appealed the ruling, saying Baird wasn’t properly advised of the penalties for refusing the test.
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VERO BEACH — A 25-year-old man rolled his father’s BMW into the Indian River Lagoon and then jumped 60 feet into the water from the Merrill Barber Bridge — all as a lark, police say.

Charges haven’t been filed in the 2:30 a.m. Monday incident. But George Peniston of the 100 block of Terrapin Point could face legal consequences, said police spokesman Officer John Morrison.

Jumping off a bridge could be considered disorderly conduct punishable by six months in jail.
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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.

VERO BEACH — The private defense attorney for Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird said Thursday he plans to enter a not-guilty plea to the driving while intoxicated charge Baird was arrested on Saturday night in Vero Beach.

Baird was driving from a Youth Guidance Volunteer Program fundraiser near Wabasso and “many people who saw him there say they don’t believe he was impaired at all,” said attorney Bobby Guttridge. “They spoke with him and interacted with him.”

Vero Beach Police allege Baird was speeding — doing 43 mph in a 30 mph zone — in his private car and crossed a centerline before an officer stopped him at 10:26 p.m. on 21st Street, according to police reports.
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VERO BEACH — Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird refused to take a Breathalyzer test but failed most of the sobriety exercises he performed Saturday when he was charged with driving under the influence, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday.

While Baird faces some legal consequences for the charge, county officials said the matter wouldn’t have professional ramifications.
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VERO BEACH — Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird was charged with driving under the influence Saturday night.

“I would like to apologize to the public and (Indian River County) commissioners and I will continue to work hard for the county,” Baird said Sunday. “This is a personal matter and I plan to handle it personally.” (more…)

Nilima Vyas

Wyn Loucke

Arrests were made at two local stores: Mapp Road Texaco in Palm City, where 50-year-old clerk Wyn Loucke sold alcohol to a 17-year-old resident, and A-1 Discount Beverage on Monterey Road in Stuart, where clerk Nilima Vyas sold beer to a teen, according to investigators.

No sales were made at the other locations to the concerned citizen volunteer that worked with detectives.

These operations continue year-round.

VIERA — For five years, the Palm Bay couple considered Gary Sebastian, the father of their 14-year-old daughter’s best friend, a close acquaintance, trusted to protect their child during the girls’ weekend sleepovers or to hang out at their home during get-togethers.

So, they were stunned when they discovered last summer that 41-year-old Sebastian had been sending their daughter inappropriate text messages, mailed her a package filled with sex-related items and provided her with alcohol on at least one occasion.

And they weren’t satisfied Wednesday when a judge sentenced the former Palm Bay firefighter to three and a half years in prison and five years of sex offender probation. (more…)