FORT PIERCE — The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office has released the names of two more people who detectives say were involved with a marijuana and cocaine distribution ring, including the brother and mother of a man already charged with being one of the ring’s leaders.

On Saturday, deputies arrested Victor Tapia, 27, of the 1700 block of Angle Road in Fort Pierce and Michael Clifford, 33, of the 4800 block of North U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce on charges of felony marijuana possession with intent to sell, felony marijuana possession, felony criminal intent to solicit or conspire and misdemeanor possession or use of narcotic equipment. (more…)

VERO BEACH — A 26-year-old woman who was speeding and weaving out of traffic on Interstate 95 is guilty of vehicular homicide of two motorcyclists she hit along the roadway.

A jury deliberated for a hour Wednesday afternoon before finding Dominique Brice, of Miami, guilty of killing the motorcyclists parked along the northbound lanes on Feb. 29, 2008, near the juncture of Indian River and St. Lucie counties. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — After Julia Rolon-Estrada died of a gunshot wound to the artery in her leg on July 26, 2006, she was wrapped in a blue tarp and again in a green blanket before being buried in the yard of her Port St. Lucie home, near a rear sliding glass door.

A dog trained to find cadavers helped authorities locate the newly tilled grave, which was covered with a wooden pallet holding 20 mulch bags stacked on top.

Rolon-Estrada’s jailed husband, 43-year-old Albert Estrada, state prosecutors say, is the man guilty of killing his wife and high-school sweatheart, who had walked out on him the night before she died at age 39.
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STUART — Three people were attacked by a swarm of bees on Monday that came from a hive about the size of a car engine.

“I have never experienced anything like this before in my life,” said Kendall Todd, owner of Affordable Pressure Cleaning in Palm City.

Todd and his brother were pressure cleaning Becky Engebretsen’s driveway in the 1800 block of Northwest River Point Drive, when they first started noticing some bees. After spraying the bees with water, more continued to show up until finally they were forced to take off on foot.
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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Two of the youngest people to dial 911 this month were given a citizens award by Sheriff Deryl Loar for composure under pressure.

Amanda Reynolds, 8, and her brother Zachary, 7, of Indialantic were visiting their grandmother, Beverly Ferguson, of Vero Beach on July 1 when the 71-year-old was struck by a dizzy spell, she said. (more…)

Samuel Jenkins

On Friday night police received an anonymous call that a man was swinging a bat at a woman on Lennard Road. When officers arrived, they couldn’t find either person.

The next day, police were called to St. Lucie Medical Center, where a 22-year-old woman told investigators her younger brother, Samuel Jenkins, had hit her with a bat the night before.

The woman reported she and her brother were at a home in the 1600 block of Lennard when she blamed Jenkins, 19, for breaking her cell phone. Jenkins became upset, she said, retrieved the bat and struck her several times. He later left with other relatives, she said.

According to doctors, the woman suffered no broken bones and was discharged from the hospital the same day she came in.

Jenkins was arrested Saturday and on Monday afternoon was being held in the St. Lucie County jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.