VERO BEACH — Jury selection begins Monday in the DUI trial of Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird and prosecutors will get to use key evidence the defense wanted excluded.

County Judge David Morgan refused defense attorney Bobby Guttridge’s request Wednesday to toss out the May 16 arrest, which the attorney said was based on an invalid stop. (more…)

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.
(more…)

Laurel wilt, a deadly and triumphant foe of millions of large redbay laurels, avocados and related trees, has arrived in St. Lucie and Martin counties, agricultural inspectors say.

Once a tree is infected, there is no cure and it dies in a matter of weeks, said the state’s leading expert, Bud Mayfield, an entomologist with the state Department of Agricultural and Consumer Affairs’ Division of Forestry. Prevention is considered nearly impossible, he said, because only one fungicide can treat it and the process is lengthy.

The disease, caused by a fungus carried on the ambrosia flying beetle that seeks out laurel and related species, entered the United States in 2003. It arrived from southeastern Asia at a Georgia port.

It leapfrogged its way south, reaching Indian River County in 2006.

In April, it was detected in St. Lucie County and confirmed in Martin County on June 30.

In Indian River county, Brian Combs, certified arborist and general manager of Bug Master in Vero Beach, said it took the disease about a year to kill 99 percent of the redbays and other trees susceptible to the wilt at Sebastian Inlet State Park. It has already spread to back yards. The cost to prevent it with fungicide runs about $250 and up per tree, he said. (more…)

STUART — A group of residents suing Martin County because they contend the extension of airport runways at Witham Field has damaged their property values will have to wait until December to find out how the trial will be handled.

Attorneys for the group have filed motions asking they be allowed to file a class-action suit, a request opposed by Martin County, which operates Witham Field. (more…)

STUART — The swimming pool at Martin County High will remain open another year, the Martin County Commission and Martin County School Board agreed Tuesday.

The pool is used by hundreds of high school, club and adult swimmers.

The Martin County Commission voted during a joint meeting between the School Board and Stuart Commission Tuesday to pay $113,000 to keep the swimming pool at Martin County High School open to the public for another year while a new $9 million-plus Aquatics Complex is developed.
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INDIANTOWN — Wildfires had consumed more than 2,000 acres in Martin County by Tuesday morning, and firefighters were working to contain the fires that were burning for a third day, officials said.

There were as many as 10 fires that firefighters had to contend with late Monday and overnight, according to Melissa Yunas, spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry.

Three single-engine air tankers were called in late Monday to battle the main fire that threatened the Indianwood mobile home community, according to Melissa Yunas, spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry.
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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…)

STUART — The city of Stuart continued Monday to close in on the purchase of Arthur’s Dockside Waterfront Restaurant property adjacent to City Hall with commissioners authorizing just more than $4 million for the deal.

“We’re 98 percent of the way there at this point in time,” said Stuart City Manager Dan Hudson. “There’s only about one other item to nail down.”

Since agreeing to the purchase in December, the city has been negotiating with lien and mortgage holders on the property to arrive at a final price.
(more…)

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Like we need something right now to take another “bite” out of our wallets: Termites reportedly are swarming earlier this year than usual.
Jim Pond, manager of the Terminix pest control company in Port St. Lucie, said he started getting reports of termite swarms “a couple of weeks ago, and they’ve been coming in pretty consistently since then from as far north as Vero Beach down to Stuart.”
Anita Neal, director of the St. Lucie County Extension Service office in Fort Pierce, said no termites have been brought into her office so far this year, but that’s no reason to think Pond is just trying to drum up business.
“It’s a little early and the conditions aren’t quite right,” Neal said, “but it’s possible people are seeing swarms. Termites tend to swarm, or go into their reproductive stage, in the spring when the weather gets warmer and more humid. April and May are the peak months, but it can be as early as January.”
(more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Lennar Homes, Inc. was granted a three-year development agreement Tuesday to put 325 homes on about 156 acres at the southeast corner of Silver Oaks Drive and Tilton Road in a move that drew heavy criticism from those living near the land.
County commissioners ultimately decided 4-1 that the proposal is about as good as they could get and decided this is not a precedent that could give developers expectations to extend other projects. The applicant agreed during the meeting to accept three years instead of five years to develop the project.
“I am not convinced you’re going to get a much better development on this property,” said Commissioner Chris Craft, who voted for the project along with Commissioners Doug Coward, Chris Dzadovsky and Paula Lewis. (more…)