FORT PIERCE — About 6 p.m. Tuesday, the U.S. Marshall Fugitive Task Force arrested David Jerome Brown, 48, of the 500 block of North 27th Street in connection with a Monday night attack on a woman and shooting of her son.

Brown was apprehended at the corner of North 27th Street and Avenue G without incident, said Fort Pierce Detective Ben Thayer.

The male victim was shot in the genitals and his mother pistol whipped Monday night in a suspected domestic-related incident before the attacker fled in a pickup truck, according to a police report released Tuesday and a sergeant.
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FORT PIERCE — A man who police have said could be responsible for 20 burglaries or attempted burglaries of occupied homes since March was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

Police, with the help of a U.S. Marshals Service task force, apprehended Derrick L. Hickman, 33, for whom investigators obtained an arrest warrant in connection with a May attempted burglary in the 1600 block of Havana Avenue.

Investigators suspect Hickman could be responsible for 19 other burglaries or attempted burglaries, Fort Pierce police Sgt. Dennis McWilliams has said.
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STUART — Nine years ago, a drunk Donald Flewellen drove a stolen van across the center line, causing a collision that killed two people and left illegal Guatemalan immigrant Luis Jimenez permanently brain damaged.

Less than four months after his December release from prison for two counts of DUI manslaughter, authorities say Flewellen, 52, was behind the wheel of a borrowed car and caused a hit-and-run crash with property damage in Fort Pierce.

Already charged with two counts of violating his supervised release, court papers show when Flewellen returns to court Aug. 17, he’ll face additional charges of leaving the scene of a crash with property damage and driving on a revoked driver’s license related to an April 5 traffic collision.
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FORT PIERCE — A 14-year-old boy who police say fled from officers, brandished a gun and barricaded himself inside a home Monday afternoon surrendered after a few hours, officials said.

Patrick Casimir of 1105 North 29th Street was arrested just before 5 p.m. after he walked out of the house in the 3000 block of Avenue L with his hands raised, according to Sgt. Dennis McWilliams. No one was injured, and no shots were fired.

Casimir was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, armed burglary and two counts of resisting arrest without violence, officials said.
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Mario Andres

Oscar Jimenez

Witnesses reported seeing the two men breaking into the Heritage Ridge Pro Shop in the Heritage Ridge Golf Club in Hobe Sound on Friday night.

Oscar F. Jimenez, 18, grabbed two bank bags from behind the counter, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s report.

Mario J. Andres, 24, told investigators he took clothes that he “really liked.”

Nearly two hours after the theft, Jimenez was spotted walking on U.S. 1. Sheriff’s deputies handcuffed him and found the cash inside his jean pockets and wallet, the report states. He was shocked twice with a Taser as deputies tried to restrain him, investigators said.

Andres, a former employee of the golf club, was stopped by two golfers as he ran from the shop.

Deputies said $595 was taken from the shop.

Both men face charges of burglary and grand theft.

PORT ST. LUCIE — About 20 Koi fish were reported stolen from a man’s back yard pond on Sunday.

The man told police he had gone into his yard on Dragon Street that morning and noticed that at least 20 of the fish were missing from his pond.

The man said the fish had a total value of about $600.

He also said he had had other Koi fish stolen before, about two months ago. He said that at that time, the thief shot out one of his spotlights.

John Santilli

According to the woman, she had been involved with 47-year-old John Santilli for two and a half years before ending the relationship two months ago.

The woman told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies that she moved and asked Santilli not to contact her but she had received several phone calls and notes from him. She has also had several UPS packages stolen and her television cable cut off, according to a sheriff’s report.

On Monday the woman said her cable had been cut off again. She told investigators Santilli admitted he had cut it and to fix it would need to enter her apartment.

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Brandon Murray

Brandon L. Murray, 18, was arrested by police after a resident in the 1700 block of Southeast Aires Lane reported seeing a man climbing out a bedroom window Wednesday afternoon.

Police used a description of the burglar to search for the man, which was later identified as Murray.

Murray told police he broke into the Aires house and also another home in the 100 block of Southwest Parish Terrace while the homeowner, an 86-year-old woman, was outside.

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STUART — A man accused of using a shotgun to blast his way into a Palm City home about 9 a.m. last Thursday, only to be shot three times himself, is expected to be charged with attempted murder and armed burglary.

Rhonda Irons, Martin County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said Monday that investigators are still probing the circumstances under which Christopher Reber, 23, of Stuart, is suspected of shooting his way into the home where Joe Russo and Linda Schultz live.

Schultz, 40, was home alone when Reber blew out the glass doors on the rear of her Lake Village home, reports said. She was slightly injured but grabbed a .40-caliber handgun and fired back at him, hitting him three times.
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Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing

A jury has sentenced Ricardo Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya to death for killing the Escobedo family of four along Florida’s Turnpike in St. Lucie County.

The federal death penalty is different from the state of Florida’s death sentence in many ways.

Only 51 inmates are on federal Death Row in Terre Haute, Ind. Florida houses 392. Crimes punishable by the federal death penalty include genocide, killing witnesses, in a trial, terrorism and murder committed as part of a drug enterprise.

Florida has executed 67 men and women since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. The feds have executed three men since Congress reinstated it in 1988. Some of the more famous of those executed were Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of sabotage for selling atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

Here’s some of those executed since 1927:

James Horace Alderman

1927: James Horace Alderman, known as “King of the Rumrunners,” was intercepted by a Coast Guard vessel 30 miles off Florida’s coast. His boat was laden with alcohol during the era of Prohibition. As Alderman boarded the vessel, he pulled out his pistol. When two Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service agent rushed him, he shot them all dead. Later, his execution was scheduled for the Broward County Jail, but the county wanted it to occur on federal property. So a makeshift gallows was erected at the Coast Guard hangar.

“When this is read I will have passed over the brink of eternity into the Great Beyond. “I would like to state through the medium of The Miami Herald that I am feeling fine, physically, mentally and spiritually. With the wonderful comfort and strength that I received from Jesus Christ, I am assured that when tomorrow comes I will go with smiles of comfort on my face. … “As I sit here in my cell I can look back and see just what caused me to be where I am today. Drunkenness first starts a young man to gambling — and swearing grows on him — and from that step he becomes hardened in his heart in envy and hatred toward mankind. Then, as he grows up, he becomes what you would call educated to crime. Bootlegging and smuggling is the next step. And there are other angles of downfall that lead to the devil. “The money I made neither did me nor my dear family any good. We thought it did, but no. You can see what it has done — a death sentence by hanging — and a broken-hearted family.”

Read the 1929 Time magazine account of his hanging, here. (more…)