JENSEN BEACH — Martin County sheriff’s deputies arrested a 47-year-old man after he attacked a bartender Wednesday at Harper’s Pub because he thought he spiked his drink, according to a report.

Deputies arrested Matthew Way, of the 2100 block of Northeast Poinciana Lane, after he confronted the bartender, according to the report.

The report gave this account:

The bartender was trying to walk by Way while trying to get supplies out of a side closet. Way accused the bartender of spiking his drink a few weeks ago.

As the bartender tried walking away, Way punched him and they both got entangled in a fight on the floor. The bartender got on top of Way and waited for deputies to arrive.

Deputies charged Way with battery and disorderly conduct and transported him to Martin County Jail.
By TCPalm Staff

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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PORT ST. LUCIE — A man is accused of sexually assaulting a teen after she told her father the man had touched her inappropriately.

The 13-year-old girl told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s investigators that on April 19 she and a friend spent the night watching movies with 38-year-old Carl Holler Jr. at a Port St. Lucie home as they all drank beer and margaritas.

The girl fell asleep and woke up to find Holler touching her, according to a sheriff’s report.

The girl reported the incident to her parents and her father contacted authorities.

When questioned, Holler denied touching the girl but said it was possible he might have drank too much that night and was not able to recall all that happened.

Holler faces a felony charge of sexual assault.

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…)

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…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — State health officials suspect a Port St. Lucie child’s death this month was from the flu virus.

However, the cause of death can not be confirmed until St. Lucie County Health Department officials receive an autopsy report from the Medical Examiner’s Office, said Arlease Hall, St. Lucie County Health Department spokeswoman.

On Wednesday, Florida Today reported the flu virus arrived late in state and had claimed the life of a Port St. Lucie child, bringing the nation’s total pediatric deaths to five for this flu season.

Although the flu is not a reportable disease, the state monitors its activity through sentinel physicians and the reports of emergency room physicians, according to Florida Today. (more…)

FELLSMERE — Visitors to the 18th annual Frog Leg Festival will, for the first time on city property, be able to drink a beer with their food.

And the festival organizers will be able to collect the additional proceeds in their ongoing mission to boost the efforts of recreational agencies.

“I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘I’d like to come out (to the festival), but I’d want to have a beer with my frog legs or gator tail,’ ” festival President Maggie Sammons said Thursday. (more…)

Kenneth Atkins

A jury convicted Kenneth Atkins of raping the 15-year-old girl in 2004, and a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Both Atkins, who was 16 at the time, and another man, Martin Lyke, were charged as adults. Lyke told police they raped the girl, Atkins said the sex was consented.

An appeals court in 2006 overturned Atkins’ conviction, ruling that the judge presiding over his first trial should not have allowed prosecutors to let jurors hear a recorded conversation between the then 15-year-old rape victim and her friend after the alleged rape.

In the first day of Atkins second trial today, his attorney Jerome Stone argued that the teens had consensual sex after drinking heavily at the party.

The alleged victim, now an adult, was tearful at times on the witness stand as she recounted the night she said Atkins and Lyke lured her to the pool area of the apartment complex and took turns raping her.

Lyke pleaded no contest to the rape charges and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004. According to Department of corrections records, he was released last month.

The holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest on the nation’s roadways and also one of the most dangerous, due to a high incidence of alcohol-related traffic crashes.

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is joining with other national, state and local highway safety and law enforcement officials to remind everyone this holiday season to always designate a sober driver before each holiday party or event involving alcohol.

“The holiday season is supposed to be a time for family, friends, and festive celebrations, but it is unfortunately also a time when we see a tragic jump in the number of alcohol-related highway fatalities each year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s” said Lt. Mike Ewing, supervisor of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Unit. “That’s why we are out early reminding everyone this holiday season, if you catch a buzz, catch a ride.” (more…)