JENSEN BEACH — Martin County Sheriff’s detectives are investigating what led to the stabbing of Jensen Beach man early this morning.

Shortly after 3 a.m. deputies arrived at the Stuart Pointe apartment complex off U.S. 1 and found 24-year-old Reginald Mitchell bleeding from under his left arm.

Mitchell told investigators he was stabbed by an unknown man outside his apartment.

Mitchell’s 22-year-old girlfriend said Mitchell had left the apartment shortly before his attack, then returned a short while later, bleeding. Mitchell had also run into two men’s apartment after his stabbing and asking them to call 911, the men reported.

Mitchell was taken to Lawnwood Trauma Center for treatment. He didn’t appear to sustain any life-threatening injuries, according to sheriff’s officials.

James Burgos

South Fork High School’s Reserve Officer Training Corps. teacher notified Martin County Sheriff’s deputies that two air rifles were missing from the school’s ROTC armory.

When questioned by a Martin County Sheriff’s deputy on Monday, cadet James R. Burgos admitting at first to taking only one air rifle, according to a sheriff’s report.

After other cadets told investigators that Burgos had also taken the other rifle, Burgos confessed of the second theft, deputies said.
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INDIANTOWN — A 14-year-old boy is accused of animal cruelty after his dog was dragged by a vehicle the boy had left him tied to, sheriff’s deputies say.

An officer with the Martin County Sheriff’s animal control unit spotted the injured dog Sunday morning by Mac’s Grocery in the Booker Park area.

A sheriff’s deputy recalled seeing the dog, uninjured, the day before, tied to a vehicle parked outside the teen’s home.

After interviewing the boy and his parents, the deputy learned the boy had left the dog tethered to the vehicle.

Later that day, the teen’s father gave a family member permission to borrow the vehicle and the relative drove away without realizing the dog had been tied to the vehicle. Several relatives use the same vehicle, the family said.

The dog was dragged nearly 530 yards before it was able to break free, deputies estimated.
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A Martin County toddler was taken to the hospital over the weekend after he fell from a second-story window.

Christopher Otto said his 3-year-old son, Brandon, was released from St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach on Sunday, just a day after the boy fell from his bedroom window.

“It was miraculous … that he walked away without even a concussion,” Otto said on Monday.

Otto was in another room tending to his other son shortly after 3 p.m. when Brandon pried off the safety locks of his windows and toppled down.

Children in the boy’s neighborhood said they saw the toddler toss some of his toys out the window before he climbed out and fell.

Otto said his son just got excited when he saw the children in the street below.

“He probably thought he was Spider Man,” he said.

STUART — A recently married couple reported roughly $5,000 in cash gifts stolen from their vehicle over the weekend.

The Port St. Lucie couple told Martin County Sheriff’s deputies that they were outside the Knights of Columbus facility on Gaines Avenue late Saturday night, loading up wedding gifts and cards into a Ford pickup.

At some point someone stole a bag containing more than 100 cards that was left on the front seat. The couple said the truck’s door was left open as they loaded the vehicle and at times left it unattended.

The cards were estimated to be worth about $5,000, according to a sheriff’s report.

Two Jensen Beach teens face burglary and theft charges after they told police they had been trolling for unlocked vehicles to break into.

The 16-year-olds were spotted early Wednesday morning in the area of Northeast Ivy Lane wearing black and carrying a back pack, Martin County Sheriff’s investigators said.

The pair cooperated with detectives, riding around in Jensen Park Estates with detectives to show them the vehicles they had burglarized over the past three nights, according to sheriff’s reports.

Items recovered include: stereo faceplates, knives, cellular phone chargers, weather receiver, 9mm magazine with ammunition, GPS unit, depth finder, boat radio, and currency.

STUART — A teen faces a grand theft charge after allegedly admitting he stole his high school’s yearbooks and sold some of them.

Martin County High School Assistant Principal Jack Valerio told Martin County sheriff’s deputies that eight of the yearbooks had been stolen out of the gym’s concession stand area earlier this month.

The 17-year-old boy told Valerio that he was the one who had taken the books – valued at $85 each – and sold a couple of them, according to a sheriff’s report. The teen agreed to return the books back to the school.

Valerio contact sheriff’s officials and the teen was charged with grand theft.

Graham Widmann

Graham D. Widmann was booked into the St. Lucie County jail last week and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

A Martin County Sheriff’s detective conducting an online investigation found that someone in Widmann’s home in the 100 block of Celestia Court had downloaded child pornography.

When questioned last month by St. Lucie County Sheriff’s investigators, Widmann, 26, admitted to downloading the movies and storing them in computer hard drives, according to a sheriff’s report.

Widmann faces a felony charge of possessing at least 10 images of child pornography.

Christopher Reber

Christopher Reber, 23, was arrested last Wednesday on those charges after his release from St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Martin County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Rhonda Irons said.

Reber was shot when he broke into Joe Russo and Linda Schultz’s house the morning of April 16, sheriff’s investigators say.

That morning Reber entered the home in the 1500 block of Southwest Crossing Circle after shooting into a sliding glass door, then headed to an upstairs bedroom where Schultz was waiting with a handgun, according to sheriff’s reports.

Schultz told deputies she shot at Reber three times, striking him in the torso.

Reber then fled in his mother’s black Ford Contour and drove to her condo in the 1200 block of Southeast Parkview Place.

The mother told detectives her son took a shower and asked her to take him to the Suburban Lodge Extended Stay Hotel on U.S. 1 in Stuart.
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Nilima Vyas

Wyn Loucke

Arrests were made at two local stores: Mapp Road Texaco in Palm City, where 50-year-old clerk Wyn Loucke sold alcohol to a 17-year-old resident, and A-1 Discount Beverage on Monterey Road in Stuart, where clerk Nilima Vyas sold beer to a teen, according to investigators.

No sales were made at the other locations to the concerned citizen volunteer that worked with detectives.

These operations continue year-round.