VERO BEACH — A 26-year-old woman who was speeding and weaving out of traffic on Interstate 95 is guilty of vehicular homicide of two motorcyclists she hit along the roadway.

A jury deliberated for a hour Wednesday afternoon before finding Dominique Brice, of Miami, guilty of killing the motorcyclists parked along the northbound lanes on Feb. 29, 2008, near the juncture of Indian River and St. Lucie counties. (more…)

Ongoing construction on Interstate 95 in St. Lucie County and construction of a truck weighing station on I-95 in Martin County will impact traffic this week.

In St. Lucie County, one lane will be closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Friday alternately northbound and southbound between Becker Road and Gatlin Boulevard, and between State Road 70 and Midway Road.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — A man accused of shooting a pickup truck on Interstate 95 — killing a German shepherd puppy inside — faces a felony charge in a case that remains under investigation, according to a police spokesman and a report obtained Thursday.

Andy Phillips, 22, is accused of firing two shots around 1:45 a.m. Tuesday at a Toyota Tundra pickup with two people and the puppy inside as it headed south on I-95 near Southwest Becker Road.

The victims, Laritza Y. Fontela, 19, and 20-year-old Yosdany Rodriguez, are from Miami, and Fontela said they were in Port St. Lucie visiting relatives. The assailants reportedly continued south in a Toyota 4Runner after the shooting. (more…)

Henry Froats

Henry Froats, 30, told a Florida Highway Patrol trooper late Wednesday night he had been robbed on the side of Interstate 95 as he was fixing a flat tire shortly before 9:30 p.m.

Froats, who works a jewelry store, told the trooper a man in a blue vehicle pulled up behind him and robbed him at gun-point, taking off with a half-million dollars in jewelry and his cell phone.

Martin County Sheriff’s investigators checked Froats’s trunk and found a suitcase with a computer case that contained diamonds, a cell phone and a cell phone’s memory chip, according to a sheriff’s report.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — A 32-year-old mother was arrested Tuesday after police allegedly found 60 marijuana plants growing in two bedrooms of a home near Gatlin Boulevard and Interstate 95, according to an arrest affidavit released Wednesday.

Yanery Leon, of Davie, faces felony charges of possession of more than 20 grams of cannabis and cultivation of cannabis after police searched the $293,000 home in the 1800 block of Southwest Michelangelo Avenue.

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Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials have identified the man who was shot by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper as 32-year-old Carlos Javier Perez Alonso.

The trooper shot Perez Alonso after he carjacked a Sebastian resident Kerrie Johnson at a Hess gas station on Okeechobee Road in Fort Pierce at about 3 p.m., running over her leg in the process, authorities said.

Perez Alonso then fled to Interstate 95, where Fort Pierce police chased him as he sped north, police said. After crossing into Indian River County, he pulled into the median and ran off on foot.

It was then that the trooper shot him in the stomach area, said Richard Piccininni, lead agent in charge of the FDLE field office in Fort Pierce.

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A few years ago, the well of state incentives for new businesses was deep.

Port St. Lucie got a big bucketful: $32 million to lure the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies and $60 million for a local branch of Oregon’s Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute.

But the supply has since been drained by budget cuts and a constricting economy. So Port St. Lucie is drilling for new sources of cash - and it’s not looking in the usual places.

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By MICHAEL LaFORGIA

A man died and a woman was badly hurt in a single-car crash on Interstate 95 near Palm City on Saturday morning, authorities said.
Nicholas F. LaMaina, 77, was killed while riding in a 2007 Cadillac Seville driven by Carolyn LaMaina, 65, according to a Florida Highway Patrol bulletin circulated this morning.
About 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the LaMainas, who lived in Boynton Beach, were driving north on Interstate 95 near mile marker 106 when Carolyn LaMaina apparently lost control of the Cadillac, the bulletin said.
The car veered off the roadway and hit a stand of trees before rolling over.

Nicholas LaMaina, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, died during the crash.

Carolyn LaMaina, who was wearing a seatbelt, was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in serious condition, the bulletin said.

Click here to sign Nicholas LaMaina’s guestbook.