STUART — Police are looking for a suspect in an armed robbery that took place overnight.

A 31-year-old woman reported being robbed at gun-point at 1:25 a.m. in the parking lot of Harbor Breeze Apartments in the 1200 block of Palm Beach Road.

The woman told police she was leaving a friend’s apartment along with another friend when a man approached her while she was sitting in her car preparing to leave. The suspect brandished a dark semi-automatic handgun and told her to give him her purse, she said.

The suspect was tall, thin, wearing dark pants, and covered his face and head with a dark shirt.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to contact the Stuart Police Department at (772) 220-3906 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS.

FORT PIERCE — Raybin J. Williams said he had to do what he had to do for gas money to make it back home.

That, police said, apparently included robbing a Waffle House with another man Monday and taking a couple of shots at someone who fired at him.

In the end, Williams, 24, and 22-year-old Corey Cooper, were arrested following the 3:10 a.m. stick-up of the Okeechobee Road eatery, according to records and a police spokeswoman.
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JENSEN BEACH — Detectives arrested a woman accused of attacking and robbing an elderly woman outside a Jensen Beach restaurant Saturday afternoon, according to documents released Monday.

Kristen Beth Swift, 23, of the 2300 block of Northeast Indian River Drive, has been charged with robbery by sudden snatching and battery on a person over 65 years of age.

The incident took place in the 3400 block of Northwest U.S. 1 at 2:40 p.m., just after the 82-year-old woman had parked her car in a handicap space at Olive Garden. Swift pulled up behind the woman’s car and asked her for directions to Indian River Drive, the affidavit says.
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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…)

Derick Culberson

Derick Culberson, 22, called 911 on Friday to report that he had been robbed at Jock Leighton Park by two men wearing black shirts who fled in a Chevy Impala, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s report. Twelve units – including supervisors, road patrol and K-9 – rushed to look for the suspects.

When Culberson was found, he was sitting on the ground by his pick-up, his hands and feet bound with zip ties, deputies said.

Inside his truck, investigators found a bundle of the same zip ties that had been on Culberson, the report states.

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PALM CITY – The other two times that someone broke into the house on Crossing Circle, nobody was home.

But Thursday was different. Linda Schultz was there, and so was her handgun.

Schultz called 911 shortly before 9 a.m. to report that a man had broken into her home in the 1500 block of Southwest Crossing Circle. She told them she thought she shot him, Martin County Sheriff’s officials said.

Christopher Reber

When Lake Village resident Linda Smyth rushed over to her neighbor after hearing gunshots, Schultz was bleeding from the neck, dialing 911.

“I’m proud of her,” Smyth said hours later. “I think it takes a lot of wherewithal to be able to be aware of your circumstances and fight back like that. A lot of people would be afraid to defend themselves.”

Schultz, 47, was transported to St. Mary’s Medical Center for her injuries. So was robbery suspect Christopher B. Reber, 23, who was in serious condition, sheriff’s spokeswoman Rhonda Irons said.

Charges against Reber are pending, Irons said. In the meantime, he is under custody on a St. Lucie County warrant regarding a forgery case.

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Keith Hall

The man and teen accused of kicking and punching him to unconsciousness Sunday night now face murder charges.

Keith A. Hall, 38, had been kicked and punched unconscious during a Sunday night robbery. He died at Martin Memorial Hospital on Wednesday after being removed from life support shortly before 5:20 p.m., police spokesman Sgt. Marty Jacobson said.

Hall was robbed outside the Right Way convenience store in the 1800 block of Palm Beach Road at 9:35 p.m.

Kobe Anderson

James LaForteza

Hall had been trying to buy drugs when he was robbed and beaten, police said. Sunday was also the day Hall had been released after being incarcerated for the past year on marijuana possession charges, according to state Department of Corrections records.

Keith Hall

STUART — The man who was kicked and punched until he was unconscious during a Sunday night robbery has been identified by police as Martin County resident Keith A. Hall.

Hall, 38, remains on life support in an area hospital, Stuart police spokesman Sgt. Marty Jacobson said.

Hall was robbed outside the Right Way convenience store in the 1800 block of Palm Beach Road at 9:35 p.m.

Witnesses reported to police that Stuart residents James Louis LaForteza, 29, and Kobe Anderson, 15, had beaten the man into unconscious, according to police reports. Both were arrested early Monday morning and now face robbery and attempted murder charges.

James LaForteza

Kobe Anderson

Anyone with additional information about this case is asked to contact Det. Jeff Kittredge at (772) 220-3906.

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…)

FORT PIERCE — Police have arrested a 19-year-old Vero Beach man they say stole the vehicle suspected to have been used in the murder of 18-year-old Demetrius Wells on Saturday.

Schneider Joseph

The 2006 Mazda had been reported missing to Port St. Lucie police on Thursday, but it wasn’t until Saturday that Fort Pierce investigators learned that it had actually been carjacked, McWilliams said. Police recovered the car on Monday in the 2200 block of Metzger Road.

On Wednesday, police arrested Schneider Joseph, 19, on charges of armed carjacking, robbery with a firearm and possession of a weapon by a delinquent. Joseph, who police say is a member of a gang, has not been accused of killing Wells.

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