FORT PIERCE — On a morning just over seven years ago, Joan Loughman was on the phone with her twin sister when she ended their call abruptly.

“She said, ‘I have to go, someone’s at the door,’” Assistant State Attorney Lynne Park told a group of jurors today.

Park said it was the last time anyone heard from Loughman before she was found bludgeoned to death and stripped of her jewelry inside her father’s house on Hutchinson Island south of Fort Pierce.

A jury in 2005 determined that Loughman’s death came at the hands of Michael Andrew Gosciminski, who wound up on Death Row for the crime. But a state court’s ruling last year overturning his conviction has led to a second trial, which began Friday, two days after the seventh anniversary of Loughman’s murder.

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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

The Florida Supreme Court today upheld the death penalty for the man who killed a Fort Pierce Tribune newspaper carrier four years ago.

Steven Hayward was convicted of robbing and murdering Daniel DeStefano, 32, of Port St. Lucie at a convenience store while DeStefano dropped off newspapers along his business route.

DNA samples taken from Hayward’s blood-soaked jeans contributed to his conviction.
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FORT PIERCE — After Julia Rolon-Estrada died of a gunshot wound to the artery in her leg on July 26, 2006, she was wrapped in a blue tarp and again in a green blanket before being buried in the yard of her Port St. Lucie home, near a rear sliding glass door.

A dog trained to find cadavers helped authorities locate the newly tilled grave, which was covered with a wooden pallet holding 20 mulch bags stacked on top.

Rolon-Estrada’s jailed husband, 43-year-old Albert Estrada, state prosecutors say, is the man guilty of killing his wife and high-school sweatheart, who had walked out on him the night before she died at age 39.
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FORT PIERCE — About 6 p.m. Tuesday, the U.S. Marshall Fugitive Task Force arrested David Jerome Brown, 48, of the 500 block of North 27th Street in connection with a Monday night attack on a woman and shooting of her son.

Brown was apprehended at the corner of North 27th Street and Avenue G without incident, said Fort Pierce Detective Ben Thayer.

The male victim was shot in the genitals and his mother pistol whipped Monday night in a suspected domestic-related incident before the attacker fled in a pickup truck, according to a police report released Tuesday and a sergeant.
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OKEECHOBEE COUNTY — The death of a 49-year-old woman found by family members appears to be a homicide, and a sheriff’s spokesman Wednesday said a neighbor has been taken into custody.

Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office deputies went Tuesday night to an address in the 2700 block of Northeast 11th Court and met with Roberta “Bobbie” Elizabeth Christensen’s son and daughter-in-law.

They reported coming to the residence in the Pine Ridge Park subdivision to see Christensen, a waitress at Golden Corral, and finding her dead inside.

A preliminary examination indicated the death was “most likely the result of a homicide,” a release states.

“The nature of the injury appears to be from a sharp instrument,” the release states.

A neighbor in his 20s was taken into custody Wednesday and Detective Ted Van Deman, sheriff’s public information officer, said he will be charged in connection with the death.

“We’re confident we have the right person in custody,” Van Deman said.

Sheriff’s detectives are interviewing others to determine whether anyone else could have played a role in the death.

The Sheriff’s Office declined to reveal a possible motive and also declined to provide further details about Christensen’s injuries.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

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…)

STUART — After one hour of deliberation Thursday afternoon, a Martin County jury found Eric Lashawn Wiley guilty of second-degree murder in the Jan. 11, 2008, shooting death of 19-year-old Levi Dwight Starks in Stuart.

Wiley and his sister’s boyfriend were struggling over a gun after an alleged domestic dispute when the gun discharged and the .40-caliber bullet struck Starks in the chest.

In addition to second-degree murder, Wiley, 39, also was found guilty on aggravated assault and aggravated battery charges, and could face up to life in prison. (more…)

STUART — A trial began this morning in the case of a 39-year-old man accused in the January 2008 shooting death of a 19-year-old church drummer who was a bystander during a fight.

Eric Lashawn Wiley could face life in prison if convicted on murder charges in connection with the death of Levi “Dwight” Starks.

Starks, 19, was a bystander while Wiley fought with another man, Aaron Stoudemire. Starks died shortly after the gun went off and hit him in the chest.

Wiley later called police and turned himself in. He told them he fought with Stoudemire, his sister’s boyfriend, because Stoudemire was beating his sister, who was pregnant at the time.
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STUART — A Martin County grand jury on Wednesday returned first-degree murder and robbery indictments against two Stuart residents accused in the April 5 beating death of Keith A. Hall, who died three days after being attacked.

Charged are James Louis LaForteza, 29, and Kobi Anderson, 15, who authorities say beat Hall into unconsciousness to steal $40 he’d shown the man and teen in an attempt to buy drugs. (more…)