When Dennis Mitchell called 911 Sunday, he said he molested a teenaged girl, was locked in a bedroom and wanted to shoot himself.

But 15 minutes later, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said a dispatcher persuaded Mitchell to drop the gun and walk out of his home to surrender to deputies. Sheriff Deryl Loar credited Pam Metzdorf, a 21-year veteran 911 operator, with bringing the emergency to a peaceful resolution.

Mitchell’s wife was at the home with her three children when he locked himself in the room about 5 p.m. Sunday.

“Please get the kids away from the house,” Mitchell, 32, told Metzdorf toward the beginning of the 15-minute call, which was released Tuesday by the Sheriff’s Office. “I don’t want them to see this. Right now, I do want to hurt myself.”

Metzdorf said her training prepared her to stay calm and persuade Mitchell to surrender.

“Don’t make it worse by pulling that trigger,” Metzdorf said during the call. “Your children have to live there. Do you want this to be their last moment with their dad?”

For much of the call, Mitchell sobbed.

“When he started to break down, I felt I could have lost him,” Metzdorf said. “But I wasn’t scared. I knew when he promised to put the gun down” the situation was defused.

Mitchell was apprehended by deputies when he stepped out of his home and charged with four counts of sexual battery. The girl told detectives the abuse started in August 2008 and continued through last month, according to his arrest affidavit.

FORT PIERCE — Homicide victim Sharpkina Yolanda Woods was four weeks pregnant when she was fatally shot over the weekend along with her boyfriend, Travis John Lattimore, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said Wednesday.

In a morning briefing, Mascara said Lattimore, who had a murder warrant stemming from a Feb. 8 killing in Miami, and Woods were shot to death inside a green 2004 Ford Expedition that Woods usually drove.

“We really want the community’s help in identifying where that (SUV) was Saturday night, Sunday morning,” Mascara said.

The bodies of Lattimore, 21, and his 35-year-old girlfriend were found about 2 p.m. Sunday behind an abandoned home on Coronado Avenue.

The SUV, which belonged to Woods’ mother, was recovered in the 100 block of North 28th Street. Investigators don’t know where the SUV was at the time of the killings.

Mascara said Woods’ pregnancy won’t result in an additional criminal charge because the fetus wasn’t 26 weeks old.

In the Feb. 8 Miami homicide, Lattimore reportedly rode a purple mountain bike up to Erick Johnson at about 11:30 a.m. A Miami police detective has described the two as “associates in the narcotics trade.” Lattimore pulled a pistol and shot Johnson eight times, according to Mascara and records.

Woods, a mother of five, and Lattimore reportedly moved to Fort Pierce about five months ago.

“Their family says that they both left Miami to move away from the violence there,” Mascara said.

Lattimore had been arrested more than 15 times since 2002 in the Miami-Dade County area. Woods wasn’t working, and Mascara did not know their source of income.

He declined to detail the evidence found in the SUV that led investigators to believe the vehicle is where the killings took place. The SUV was shown to media members, and what appeared to be blood was seen on a seat and running board.

Woods’ mother, Vera Woods, has said she didn’t want Lattimore hanging around Sharpkina Woods or her children. She thought they began dating in June or July.

Jimmy Ware, one of Sharpkina Woods’ two siblings, said he talked to his sister about 5 p.m. Saturday. She was on her way to her uncle’s birthday barbecue in Hollywood. Lattimore was with her, Ware said.

They both apparently went back to Fort Pierce after that, Ware said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS.

STUART — Authorities are looking for a man who stole more than $6,000 in cash and checks from a convenience store Friday.

Employees at the Stuckey Shell station in the 8000 block of Southwest Jack James Drive, Stuart, called deputies about 11 a.m. Friday after the theft. An employee said she had been counting cash and preparing to load an ATM machine when she left a rear office at the store for a few minutes. When she returned, a plastic bag with the cash was missing, according to the incident report.
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A Sebastian woman remained in custody Tuesday in Brevard County after she roughed up and robbed someone she was partying with and threatened to arrest him, though she is not a law enforcement officer, according to an incident report.

Dawn Leigh Kravis, 31, of the 1000 block of Roseland Road, Sebastian, was charged with robbery with no weapon, kidnapping and false imprisonment of an adult and fraudulently impersonating a law enforcement officer in the commission of a felony. She was being held at the Brevard County Detention Center in lieu of $48,000 bail.

A 53-year-old man who lives in the 9100 block of U.S. 1, Micco, called the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office about 6 a.m. Saturday and said Kravis had robbed him, the report said. He told deputies he had been partying most of Friday and early Saturday with Kravis and another woman, the report said.
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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A year after Sheriff’s Office employees got a $1,000 bonus in lieu of raises from retiring Sheriff Roy Raymond, current Sheriff Deryl Loar is expected to give at least some of them a bigger bonus, as much as $1,600 each.

It’s the product of an unusual situation, sheriff’s Comptroller Harry Hall said Monday. He said he expects to have $747,000 unspent at the end of the month.

Some of the savings, he said, came from budgeting $3.48 per gallon last fall for patrol cars’ gasoline and seeing prices drop to $1 less. And there haven’t been as many jail inmates hospitalized, he added.

“It’s like the planets all lined up,” Hall said. “It’s unrealistic to think this can continue (in future years).”
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VERO BEACH — If the owner of Vero Fashion Outlets mall doesn’t answer a $32.15-million mortgage foreclosure lawsuit by Sept. 16, it could lose the right to defend itself in the case, according to attorneys.

If so, a judge could order the outdoor mall at Interstate 95 and State Road 60 — the first large mall in the county — to be sold.

“We plan to stay open during the foreclosure and after,” said West Palm Beach attorney Kenneth Curtin, who represents the mortgage holder, LNV Corp., of Nevada. “The mall will stay the same as it is now, with tenants.” (more…)

PORT CANAVERAL — Martha Jackson was watching a wedding video with her nephew when she heard the splash.

Soon after, the Nashville, Tenn., woman heard a man yelling.

“You could hear him hollering for help,” said Jackson, who was on the last night of a four-night cruise to the Bahamas.

Authorities have not released the name of the 34-year-old Philadelphia man who jumped from his sixth-deck suite aboard the Carnival Sensation late Wednesday. The man, who was on the cruise celebrating his wedding anniversary, was rescued 1 1/2 hours later by the Disney cruise ship Wonder off the coast of southern St. Lucie County. (more…)

MARTIN COUNTY — The owner of Gold Coast Towing was arrested Wednesday after a Martin County Sheriff’s Office investigation showed he was overcharging for services, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

After an in-house audit performed by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, reports showed Gerard Jean Landru, owner of Gold Coast Towing, had six counts of violation of vehicle towing and storage fee limitations. (more…)

STUART — It was “bizarre” for Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder to repeatedly pat the short, spiky haircut of Detective Jennifer Heard, her lawyer said, and he expects Heard’s sexual harassment complaint to lead to a federal discrimination suit.

“We fully expect to file a lawsuit and just litigate the matter,” said Justus Reid, a lawyer representing Heard. “The overall theme will be gender discrimination and, in effect, sexual harassment that went on in the department.”

Heard filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May alleging the sexual harassment against her began shortly after she was hired in September 1996 and continued for the next 12 years in the form of sexual advances, catcalls and a suggestive nickname. She also accused Crowder of belittling her by patting her on the head.
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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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