STUART — A Palm City man authorities say killed his father and then buried the body in the family’s back yard has been indicted by a Martin grand jury on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.

The grand jury returned the indictment against Tyson Larimer Chaffin late Wednesday after spending the day hearing evidence presented by Assistant State Attorneys Erin Kirkwood and Bernie Romero.

Chaffin, 26, who is being held without bail at the Martin County jail, is accused of shooting to death his 54-year-old father, Charles Franklin Chaffin. Authorities found his body buried behind his Palm City Farms home on Wisteria Way, near the entrance to Florida’s Turnpike on Martin Downs Boulevard,

A murder investigation was launched by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office after the suspect’s 23-year-old girlfriend, Keisha Stamper committed suicide and her grandmother in Kentucky told deputies she killed herself because she was upset about the murder.

Authorities believe Chaffin shot and killed his father Aug. 1, but the body wasn’t discovered until Aug. 13.

When confronted, Chaffin told detectives he shot his father in the forehead with a .44 caliber handgun during a domestic dispute when he was attempting to remove his belongings from the home, according to arrest reports.

Chaffin said the day before the murder, he’d told his father Stamper had threatened to call police with information that the elder Chaffin was growing marijuana at the home.

On Aug. 1, as Chaffin attempted to get his belongings, he said he saw his father was angry, carrying a handgun and tearing apart the siding on an outside wall near his room.

As a dispute between the two men escalated, according to Chaffin’s statements to authorities, he became fearful for his life and grabbed his gun and fired, striking his father in the head.

He said he then panicked and used a wheelbarrow to carry the body to the back of the property, where he buried Charles Chaffin. After that, he planted three trees over the area.
Melissa E. Holsman, TCPalm.com

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — St. Lucie County Health Department officials confirmed Thursday the county’s first death from H1N1 flu, commonly called the swine flu.

Jason Christopher Schenck, 23, of Port St. Lucie, died Tuesday at St. Lucie Medical Center from the H1N1 virus, his family said.

“He had more friends than I knew he had, and he was just a good kid. He was a good all around kid. He was very polite,” father Clifford Schenck said. “They’re (Jason’s friends) calling me and telling me that Jason was the only one they could talk to and they know he would listen.”

Schenck suffered from asthma his entire life, Clifford Schenck said. And that condition along with several bouts of pneumonia left scars on the young man’s lungs and made him susceptible to the virus, his father said.

Clifford Schenck said his son, who had been in the hospital since Aug. 15, became ill after attending a concert with friends in West Palm Beach. None of his friends have reported feeling sick, his father said.

“When we took him in on the 15th, when he got admitted, his fingers were turning purple and his toes from lack of oxygen,” Clifford Schenck said. “I don’t care if you’re 23 or 70 years old, you don’t need to go out with this because it eats you up.”

The public shouldn’t panic with the county’s first death from the swine flu but practice good hygiene skills, said Arlease Hall, St. Lucie County Health Department spokeswoman.

“It’s imperative that if you sneeze or cough, to do so in your sleeve and not in your hands,” she said. “Wash your hands, and if you are sick, please, just stay home.”

Known as swine flu, H1N1 is a unique strain of the influenza virus that emerged this spring first in Mexico and now is widespread throughout the United States.

“I can tell you, if someone has flu symptoms, it is almost certainly H1N1,” said Karlette Peck, epidemiologist for the St. Lucie County Health Department.

Symptoms include fever, chills, aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fatigue.

People most at-risk: pregnant women, infants and children and those with chronic health conditions, including morbid obesity.

People born before 1957 seem to have some immunity to the H1N1 strain.

Like any flu virus, H1N1 is spread person-to-person through droplets.

Staff writer Hillary Copsey and WPTV contributed to this report.

By Keona Gardner, TCPalm.com

PORT ST. LUCIE — Alfredo Felipe opened his new barber shop in Port St. Lucie because he liked the hometown feel of the community.

Felipe, 33, never thought that a month after his grand opening, an odd theft would occur at his business, Fredo’s Barbershop Hair Trends International, 698 Southwest Port St. Lucie Blvd.

Felipe said his homemade, 7-foot barber pole, made out of Styrofoam, mesh, stucco and some light metal materials, was stolen between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. Friday at his shop.
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VERO BEACH — County Administrator Joe Baird was a victim of police “rush to judgment,” his defense attorney said in the opening arguments of his DUI case Tuesday.

Bobby Guttridge told jurors when Baird stepped out of his Jeep when it was stopped May 16, Baird was wearing a flowered Hawaiian lei around his neck. Because of that, police “never gave Baird the benefit of doubt.”

Baird was arrested after attending a community fundraiser in Wabasso at which Guttridge said Baird had two beers. But Assistant State Attorney David Dodd told jurors Baird failed all of the police roadside sobriety tests. Baird couldn’t stand on one leg, walk a straight line, count backwards or follow the movement of a pen with his eyes.

Guttridge blamed that on Baird having physical problems, including vertigo.

Dodd also said an officer found an alcoholic beverage spilled on the floorboard of Baird’s Jeep.

Prosecutors Tuesday morning are putting the arresting police officers on the stand to testify. Vero Beach Police Lt. Matt Harrelson is first. He stopped Baird at 10:26 p.m. May 16 near the Miracle Mile Plaza on 21st Street.

Harrelson testified he could smell alcohol when he was within 6 feet of Baird. Because of Baird’s appearance, he called in a DUI investigator.

By Elliott Jones

PORT ST. LUCIE — A teen girl was struck by a pick-up truck Monday morning while she was at her bus stop, though the girl’s injuries were very minor, a St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman said.

The girl was at Northwest Bayshore Boulevard and Northwest Rainbow Street, Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said. Fire district crews responded just before 6:30 a.m., but were called off.

Nick Perslin, 37, said his 17-year-old son was driving the Toyota pick-up. Perslin said his son was on his way to pick up a friend to go to St. Lucie West Centennial High School at the time.
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STUART — Described as a loving father and caring person, Jerome Hutchinson was found early Monday morning face down on the sidewalk leading to his East Stuart residence.

The 24-year-old man had been shot in the chest, the second to die in an exceptionally violent weekend in Stuart. The first was Michael Morrison, 43, found early Saturday morning on his back next to his Jeep at The Crossings at Indian Run Apartments less than four miles away.

Morrison also had been shot in the chest, but police haven’t found a nexus between the two killings, police spokesman Sgt. Marty Jacobson said Monday.
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HOBE SOUND — Before Harrison Ford donned a brown leather hat and whip, Kenneth E. Douglas’s two sons knew their father as the real-life Indiana Jones.

But Douglas, who was befriended by a rocket scientist, served as a police chief in tribal Liberia and had his plane attacked by a South American anaconda, was more than just a thrill-seeker.

Douglas also had the amicable Forrest Gump-like knack for running into and befriending some of the world’s most influential people across all walks of life. (more…)

VERO BEACH — The first Treasure Coast drug dealer convicted of murder in a drug overdose death case got sentenced to 30 years in state prison Thursday, the maximum penalty.

Drug dealer William McCartney III, 23, will serve up to 30 years in state prison, Circuit Judge Robert Hawley ruled Thursday. McCartney was sentenced as a habitual offender, making it harder for him to earn parole.

Hawley ordered him to 30 years in jail for third-degree murder, 30 years for selling two capsules of methadone and 10 years for selling a number of pills of Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication.

But all the sentences will run at the same time, totaling 30 years. (more…)

John Christopher Woods is hoping his photos and additional information about his birth parents he has been able to extract from the Florida Department of Children and Families will trigger memories in someone on the Treasure Coast, maybe even his mother or siblings.

Woods, born Jan. 16, 1961, at Martin Memorial Hospital, said he feels he is creeping closer to identifying and perhaps meeting his birth mother, but her name and location are still elusive. His mother was 24 when she gave birth to him and then gave him up for adoption. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A father at a house where 10 children were suspected of living in filth pleaded no contest Monday to a child neglect charge.

Rupert Anthony Thompson, 32, father of some of the children and stepfather of others, was arrested in October 2008 after authorities say they found feces, flies, roaches, trash, dirty diapers, rotting food, urine and exposed electrical outlets in the house in the 1100 block of Jasmine Avenue. The children ranged in age from 4 months to 12 years.

As part of a plea agreement, the State Attorney’s Office will recommend Thompson receive two years of probation when he’s sentenced by Circuit Judge Larry Schack. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 19.

Staff report