FORT PIERCE — Land along Ten Mile Creek, west of Florida’s Turnpike, owned by former Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins quarterback Bernie Kosar, may be auctioned as part of a bankruptcy settlement.

To satisfy creditors of his companies and investments, Bloomberg.com is reporting that Kosar filed a plan last week that would include auctioning 140 acres of the proposed development called Creekside.

The undeveloped land is owned by Kosar’s company BJK.
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PALM CITY — A 64-year-old motorcyclist died after a Toyota Tundra collided with his bike Thursday on Martin Downs Boulevard near the Florida’s Turnpike entrance, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Thomas M. Niebauer, of Palm City, was driving a 2005 Suzuki east on County Road 714 about 6:15 p.m. as Theresa M. Finnegan, 47, of Port St. Lucie, drove a 2008 Toyota Tundra west. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — The drivers of two tractor-trailers were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries following a Monday night crash on Florida’s Turnpike, a St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Fire District crews were called about 10:45 p.m. Monday to the incident, which occurred about a mile north of Becker Road on the northbound side, Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — When Maria Trigueiro and her husband, Jose, bought a home in Lake Forest after living in New Hampshire, they did so under the impression that the vegetative buffer between the home and Florida’s Turnpike would remain untouched.

About six years later, Trigueiro is upset that St. Lucie West Services District officials are pulling up invasive, non-native Brazilian pepper trees in the surrounding community. The trees behind her house are still in the ground, but she is worried they will be coming down soon.

Under its development permit through the South Florida Water Management District, St. Lucie West Services District is required to check its property and destroy invasive plants such as the Brazilian pepper, which crowds out native vegetation and can damage the local environment.
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VERO BEACH — More than 1,000 Medicare patients were impacted by a decision by a health maintenance organization this month to end its affiliation with a local clinic, which has offices in Indian River and St. Lucie counties.

Quality Health Plans, of Tampa, which is contracted to offer a Medicare Advantage Plan through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has terminated its contract with University Medical Clinics as of June 30.

The company “felt that this was necessary due to multitude of reasons; abrupt closures of UMC clinics thus affecting patient care and accessibility, UMC threatening patient abandonment, inability of UMC to maintain financial solvency,” according to an e-mail sent Monday from Quality Health Care.
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STUART — Two weeks after a natural-gas pipeline rupture shut down the two major thoroughfares leading to South Florida, more than 20 miles of the pipe remain closed and investigators are still trying to figure out why it failed.

The May 4 blast along Florida’s Turnpike in Martin County caused a 113-foot-long segment of the pipe to be ejected from the ground and hurtled alongside the highway, according to an initial report from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Though the cause of the rupture remains unclear, the report raises the possibility that a seam in the pipe may have been a factor. The 18-inch-wide pipe was manufactured by Youngstown Sheet and Tube in 1959. (more…)

Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the natural gas pipeline rupture that shut down Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike for several hours Monday morning.

Florida Gas Transmission, the Houston-based company that owns the 5,000-mile pipeline, sent three investigators to Martin County to examine the damage.

They probably will ship pieces of the broken 18-inch pipe for metal testing to help find clues, said company spokesman John Barnett. The segment of the pipeline that ruptured was built in 1959.

It’s unclear how long the investigation will take, Barnett said.

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…)

A federal jury ended deliberations Monday with a question but no verdict as to whether Ricardo Sanchez, Jr. and Daniel Troya should face life in prison or the death sentence for the 2006 murders of Jose Luis Escobedo and his family.

The jurors asked U.S. Senior District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley to clear up confusion about the verdict form he and attorneys in the case gave them before they began their deliberations Thursday.

Family slain

Jose and Yessica Escobedo with sons Luis Julian (left) and Luis Damian (right). Husband, wife and two children from Greenacres found shot to death off Florida’s Turnpike in northern Port St. Lucie. More news, photos

During discussions between Hurley and attorneys outside the presence of the jury, Troya's attorney James Eisenberg renewed his objection to the fact that Hurley had only informed jurors of three possible options for their deliberations - unanimous decision for a life sentence, unanimous for a death sentence, or a unanimous decision to let Hurley decide the sentence.

The third option is a life sentence by default because life is the maximum sentence Hurley is authorized to impose under those circumstances.

Eisenberg during a hearing more than two weeks ago asked Hurley to also inform jurors that the burden of sentencing would also fall to him if they could not reach a unanimous decision. Hurley ultimately declined and reiterated his decision Monday in court.

"I'm not getting into any issue about a hung jury here," Hurley told Eisenberg.

Prosecutors say Sanchez and Troya killed Escobedo, a cocaine supplier for their drug organization, to steal cocaine and to clear a debt owed to him by their boss, Danny Varela. Jurors also convicted the men in the deaths of Escobedo's wife Yessica, and their 3 and 4-year-old sons Luis Damian and Luis Julian.

Varela was not charged in the deaths but will likely spend the rest of his life in prison based on convictions on related drug charges for which the jury convicted him, Sanchez, Troya, and Liana Lee Lopez earlier this month.

The jury will continue deliberations today.

Family slain

Jose and Yessica Escobedo with sons Luis Julian (left) and Luis Damian (right). Husband, wife and two children from Greenacres found shot to death off Florida’s Turnpike in northern Port St. Lucie. More news, photos

A federal jury will continue deliberations tomorrow in deciding whether Ricardo Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya will spend the rest of their lives in prison or be put to death for the 2006 drug-related murders of Jose Luis Escobedo and his family on Florida’s Turnpike.

The 12-member panel began deliberations in the case early this afternoon, ending a nearly two-week hearing where attorneys for the men tried to get them to opt for life sentences for Escobedo, his wife, Yessica, and their 3- and 4-year-old sons Luis Damian and Luis Julian. Prosecutors say Escobedo was a drug supplier to Sanchez and Troya’s boss, Danny Varela, and the pair killed the man and his family to steal the cocaine he was carrying and relieve Varela from a debt.

If jurors in the case cannot come to a unanimous decision on life or death in the case, then sentencing will fall to U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley, who will by law be authorized to impose a sentence no harsher than life in prison.