PORT ST. LUCIE — A man who reportedly “escaped” from a hospital told police he went in a house to get a drink of water, later noting he took a cold shower and grabbed some items from the residence, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday.

Justino Cruz, 27, went to jail on felony burglary and misdemeanor petit theft charges following the alleged Monday night incident on Southeast Berkshire Boulevard.

While the victims were telling police their home wasn’t as they left it, Cruz, of the 1500 block of Southeast Royal Green Circle, walked out of the backyard, according to a report.
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A young man was found shot to death face down on the sidewalk leading to his Stuart apartment overnight.

Stuart police report they were called at about 12:03 a.m. to 931 Nassau Ave. for reports of shots fired in the area. They found 24-year-old Jerome Hutchinson sprawled on the sidewalk with a gunshot to the chest. He died there, police report.

Witnesses said they heard three gun shots and saw three or four men run from the scene. Those witnesses said they men then jumped into a silver Ford Escort with tinted windows and “some type of black stripe designs down the sides of the car” and sped away, police reported.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Mike Gerwan at 772-220-3918 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273-8477.

A man was killed after he rolled a sports car on Interstate 95 in St. Lucie County on Saturday morning, authorities said.

Kenneth A. McClinton, 67, of Jensen Beach was heading northbound in a 1999 Ford Mustang Cobra about 11:15 a.m. but failed to negotiate a curve on the interstate north of West Angle Road, according to a bulletin circulated this morning by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The Mustang left the roadway, collided with a metal guardrail on the western side of the interstate and then rolled several times.

McClinton died on the road.

The crash remained under investigation on Sunday, the bulletin said.

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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Note to teens facing a potential prison term: don’t use your MySpace page to post photos of police officers and wish “AIDS and genocide to all law enforcement.”

That’s what Stuart resident Jesse Alan Walker, 19, did while awaiting a June trial in which a jury convicted him of robbery with a firearm related to a 2008 home invasion armed robbery. At trial, he was accused of planning the robbery with two then-20-year-old co-defendants, who once played football for Jensen Beach High School.

“I hate the (expletive) police,” Walker posted on MySpace last December, along with photos of Stuart Police officers and derogatory comments.
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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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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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STUART — Elise Schifano adopted 3-year-old Rudy in January and says the miniature collie has been part of the family ever since.

Sixteen days ago, though, when Schifano was taking Rudy to the vet, she opened the car door and he made his get-away.

He has been missing ever since.
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VERO BEACH — An autopsy is scheduled Friday for a 5-month old male infant found dead inside a hot SUV Thursday evening, said Vero Beach Police spokesman John Morrison.

Gannon Werking died Thursday after his mother Stephanie Werking of Sebastian left him inside a parked vehicle, according to a police department news release.

About 5 p.m. Thursday, a passerby called 911 when he saw a woman “screaming hysterically” in the parking lot of First United Bank at 17th Street and Indian River Boulevard, Morrison said.

“The child was obviously deceased at the scene,” he said, adding the cardiopulmonary resuscitation was not performed on the infant. (more…)

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The attorney for County Administrator Joe Baird says the police traffic stop that led to Baird’s arrest on DUI and speeding charges was illegal.

And on Wednesday, attorney Bobby Guttridge plans to ask County Judge David Morgan to throw out the case, according to court documents. (more…)