Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

July 15, 2015

Suspects captured in Bradenton homicide

A quick blurb from a BayNews9 article about a local crime that shocked the community. Three suspects are now in custody in a killing where there is more then meets the eye…

Bradenton police have arrested three suspects in last weeks double homicide that shocked the community. Security footage showed three masked men break into a private home and kill two homeowners. Five children between one and 11 years old were present and at least one kid was thought to have witnessed the shootings.

Police announced the arrests of Jimmie Mcnear, Terez Jones and Trey Nonombre as the three masked murder suspects. Two of the suspects are 18 and one is in his 30s.

As police discovered more evidence they speculated that the trio sought out 29-year-old Kantral Brooks and his girlfriend, Ester Deneus, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

While at first glimpse this seemed to be a suburban nightmare and a random break in, authorities now believe the house was targeted as it served as a drug den and the murdered man had a large amount of drugs in the house.

During the investigation, police said narcotics were found in the home – specifically, 14 ounces of powder cocaine and “a couple of bags of rock cocaine.”

Making a bad scene even more tragic was that one of the suspects, 33-year-old Terez Jones,was released from the Manatee County jail on $18,000 bond three days before the homicides occurred.

He had been arrested three days earlier on charges of possession with intent to sell heroin and cocaine, tampering with evidence and attempted escape, according to jail records.

A Detective for the Bradenton police department was outraged. “I understand the justice system,” “… We put them in and they bond out, they do something again. That’s going to be a big topic. Should this guy be in jail? Yeah, he should still be in jail. And now he gets out and he’s able to commit a murder. It’s ridiculous.”

The 18-year-old suspects also had criminal histories, each had several convictions for burglary and controlled substance.

The two youngest suspects were caught in a series of early morning SWAT raids in four locations, part of a joint task force between the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and the Bradenton Police Department.

Police arrested Trey Nonnombre and Jimmie Lee Mcnear, both of Bradenton, and charged them with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted home invasion.

At their first court appearance on Monday afternoon, a judge denied all of them bonds and called them both a danger to the community.
Continue reading

July 6, 2015

DUI “Wolfpack” in Pinellas nets multiple arrests

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

A quick story in BayNews9 about a coordinated law enforcement “wolfpack” that took place the day before the holiday last Friday. The end result? 12 arrests for driving under the influence, several arrests for drug possession and a whopping 120 traffic citations!

Starting Friday, July third and ending Saturday morning, the latest “Wolfpack” was a coordinated effort between the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Highway Patrol, Saint Petersburg Police, Clearwater police and the Pinellas Park police department, among others.

With much of Pinellas county saturated with law enforcment, it was not surprising that there were numerous arrests. The final numbers were still surprising. There were 12 arrests for DUI. Thirteen people were arrested for possession of a controlled substance, five for miscellaneous violations, several violations of probation, two for driving with a suspended or revoked license and one for felony driving with a suspended or revoked license.

More than 120 citations were also issued, including 63 for speeding. The remaining citations were varied and included careless driving, no headlights and tag not assigned.
Continue reading

June 29, 2015

Two escaped prisoners caught, one dead

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

The New York prison escape story that has captivated the country appears to be at the end. Local news has reported that both prisoners were shot, one fatally and the other is now in custody.

For over three-weeks a manhunt for two escaped prisoners, called a “nightmare” by the governor of New York, came to a violent end this past weekend when one inmate was shot and killed Friday and another was shot and apprehended Sunday. After 22 days of searching by more than 1,000 law enforcement officials, the convicted murderers were finally captured.

Officials announced they had reason to believe the two convicts who escaped June 6 from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, were planning to head to the Canadian border in a final play for freedom. This was after earlier reports said their plan to escape to Mexico failed due to a ride not showing up. U.S. and Canadian law enforcement sent reinforcements in an effort to squeeze the escapees and keep them from potentially making it out of the country.

Sometime Friday afternoon a civilian pulling a camper near Duane, New York. He heard a sound and later discovered after pulling into a campsite that there was a bullet hole in the camper.

After that, a S.W.A.T. team was deployed to a nearby cabin in New York about 20 miles south of the Canadian border.

Inside, they noticed the smell of gun powder. While searching the grounds, investigators noticed movement and heard coughing, state police said.

A short time later Matt, armed with a 20-gauge shotgun, was spotted by a law enforcement officer.

The convict was shot and killed by a Customs and Border Protection SWAT team. He had been serving 25 years to life in prison after being convicted of murder for beating a man to death.

Investigators then set up a perimeter in the area around where Matt was killed to try and corner the last fugitive.

Later that day a policeman was on a routine patrol in the area of Constable, New York, about 1.5 miles south of the Canadian border, when he spotted Sweat on a local road.

The cop ordered him to stop and shot the convict twice in the chest when he started to run.

Sweat, who was serving a life sentence after he was convicted of killing a sheriff’s deputy, was not armed and no law enforcement was injured in the capture.
Continue reading

June 22, 2015

Country singer killed by bounty hunter in a shoot out

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

What happened, while sad, actually sounds like a country song come to life! A bounty hunter, a desperado and a gun fight…that sounds like old school country.

In Lynchburg, Tennessee a bounty hunter got into a shoot out with country singer Randy Howard leaving the singer dead. While details were still coming in at the time of this writing, the shootout is believed to have happened over a DUI charge!

Randy Howard was an early member of country music’s “Outlaw” movement, which rejected traditional country music in favor of a rougher sound. Howard shared the stage with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr., and has written songs for Hank Williams III, according to his LinkedIn site.

The “All American Redneck” singer had been charged with fourth-offense DUI, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a firearm while intoxicated and driving on a revoked license. A warrant was issued for him when he missed a court date.

A friend had earlier offered to drive him to his court date but Randy told him he wasn’t going back to jail.

A bounty hunter by the name of Jackie Shell showed up at Howard’s home to take him into custody. It is alleged that Howard opened fire and Shell shot back. Jackie Shell is reported injured (undergoing surgery) while Randy was killed in the exchange of gunfire.

Tennessee authorities are investigating the bounty hunter to determine if he had the right to enter Randy’s home, an event which precipitated the shootout.
Continue reading

June 15, 2015

Justin Bieber pleads guilty to assault, traffic charges

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

While megastar Justin Bieber has vowed to get clean and stay out of trouble, his latest legal troubles may put his promise to the test.

Last Thursday in a tiny town in Canada, Justin Bieber plead guilty to assault and careless driving that involved an incident with photographers and his then girlfriend Selena Gomez.

The incident, that took place August 29, 2014,resulted in a plea bargain when the government reduced a dangerous driving charge in exchange for a guilty plea. Justin Bieber intentionally drove a four-wheel ATV into a van two photographers were using to stake him out at his family’s rural property, according to an agreed statement of facts.

The pop star then started to hitt one of them, Todd Gillis, 47, who said he was able to fend off the tiny singer who was yelling at him to leave.

Bieber landed multiple punches on Gillis through the window of the parked van.
While Justin did not hurt the large photagrapher, he was sore in his shoulder afterwards and most likely received a large settlement from Bieber in order to agree to the reduced charges.

In a surprising twist, the photographer was also found guilty of trespassing on Justin Bieber’s family home, which set the above events in motion.

Justin, for his part, appeared via video from his California criminal defense attorney‘s office. He was fined $750 for the careless driving and his assault charges were dismissed. It was unclear if he had to participate in a pretrial diversion program in order to secure the dismissal.

On the day he got arrested, he and his then girlfriend Selena Gomez took an ATV that seats two people, one in front of the other, to the nearby home of a family member. They were on vacation and it was reported that they were driving on roads with no helmets. Meanwhile they were being staked out by two photographers both established paparazzi who had shot them before.

Selena Gomez drove on the way out, but Justin Bieber drove on the way back, and spotted the photographers parked in a driveway up ahead as he approached his own driveway. He drove at them, intentionally colliding with the front right side of their van. The police were unable to determine where exactly the impact occurred, whether on or off the highway, but there was evidence that the van, previously parked, had been moving forward at the moment of impact.

After crashing into the van, Justin immediately raced up and started to batter the photographer.

His criminal charges were dropped, in part, because at the time of this incident, he had no other criminal record. Since this incident, he has had several run ins with the law in both California and Florida. His publicist had no comment after this latest incident and his twitter feed was unusually quiet as well.
Continue reading

June 10, 2015

Proposed new BUI laws in Florida

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

While the weather has been hot for months, the official arrival of summer brings with it more boating. Whether deep sea fishing or pleasure cruising, boating accidents are a serious problem faced by many residents in Florida. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife , Florida leads the country in boating accidents per year. each year than any other state. Alcohol (boating under the influence) plays a large part, coming in as a top-10 cause of boating accidents in Florida.

Recently, a pair of proposed bills in the Florida House and Senate could affect how the state handles convictions for boating under the influence of alcohol (BUI). The two proposed bills, House Bill 289 and Senate Bill 598, would toughen the penalties for a person convicted of boating under the influence of alcohol. If passed, the laws would go into effect in July of this year (2015). There are three primary provisions of the proposed legislation:

1. BUI convictions would be reported to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. This would mean a possible DRIVING suspension for a BOATING infraction!

2. BUI convictions would be recorded on a person’s driving record, just like convictions for driving under the influence (DUI);

3. Prior BUI convictions would be considered prior DUI convictions for purposes of enforcing Florida’s DUI laws, and vice versa! Currently, BUI convictions are not counted as DUI convictions for purposes of enhancement. If the law(s) are passed, a previous DUI charge may be used against you to enhance a BUI charge. Also, in the state of Florida, you can be charged with a felony DUI based on previous convictions (ie. three DUI charges in 10 years or four in total). If this bill passes (see below), a person can be looking at a felony DUI charge and a permanent driving suspension based on boating under the influence convictions from decades ago!

Besides bringing up potential constitutional issues, this bill had both supporters and opponents up in arms. If passed, the bill would go into effect July 1, 2015. As of this writing (June 2015), the Senate bill died in committee and there are no plans to reintroduce it.

What were the bills purpose? Clearly they aimed to reduce the number of boating accidents on Florida waterways,but they also opened up a “boatload” of issues. Criminally, we have already discussed potential issues.

For the victims of BUI and their personal injury attorneys, whole new avenues might have opened up. A person injured in Florida by a drunk boater can seek damages through the civil court system by filing a negligence lawsuit. To win this claim, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant owed the victim a duty, that the duty was breached, the plaintiff sustained damages, and that the breach was an actual and proximate cause of the damages.

Punitive damages are always a possibility in a DUI or drunk boating crash. If these bills had passed, would there have been a possibility for punitive damages based on PRIOR DUI/BUI convictions as well?

All boaters in Florida owe the people around them, including their own passengers, a duty of reasonable care. A person who chooses to drink alcohol and operate a boat has breached this duty, since his or her actions unreasonably endanger others and themselves. Hopefully this summer’s boating will be safe and fun for residents of the “Sunshine State”.
Continue reading

May 27, 2015

Saint Petersburg “DUI Wolfpack” operation makes 16 arrests

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

The Tampa Bay Times had a brief story about DUI arrests in Pinellas over the Memorial Day weekend.

15 people were arrested for driving under the influence and one person was arrested for DUI manslaughter by Pinellas County law enforcement.

This took place during a DUI “wolf pack” operation that took place between 8p.m. Saturday and 5a.m. Sunday. Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office combined with Saint Petersburg, Largo, Gulfport and Tarpon Springs police agencies.

A “wolf pack” is a term used when police make an effort to bring attention to DUIs. Using special patrols or often “sobriety checkpoints”, police can often make numerous arrests during known drinking holidays. Often it is a coordinated effort between numerous jurisdictions and agencies. During this operation, police also arrested other drivers on a variety of charges, from a DUI involving serious bodily injury to illegal drug charges.

This operation might have come in handy just a few days later after a driving mishap in Saint Petersburg. In a story that drew quite a bit of attention, 59-year-old David Ellis drove his minivan over the bridge and into the water Tuesday afternoon.

The accident took place near Snell Isle and Coffee Pot Blvd NE. Mr. Ellis suffered minor injuries but refused medical treatment. The reason for the accident soon became clear. David was arrested for an enhanced DUI and blew a .273 and .264, over three times the legal limit! This was not his first brush with the law as he was found to have at least two prior DUI convictions.
Continue reading

May 19, 2015

Ex-NFL player arrested for “extreme DUI”

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

While you don’t often think of TMZ as a sports news source, they brought attention to a former player and his “extreme arrest”.

Ex-Michigan star and high first round draft pick Braylon Edwards was arrested and charged with an “extreme DUI” in Arizona. The third overall draft pick in the 2005 NFL draft was always deemed a “disappointment” and never played up to his ability. He was last on a NFL team three years ago.

The ex-Browns, 49ers and Jets player was arrested for a “extreme DUI”. This means that his Blood Alcohol content was above a .20.

This was not Braylon’s first brush with the law. In 2010, he was arrested for another driving under the influence charge and the team was under pressure to suspend him for the upcoming Dolphins game. He instead sat on the bench for the first quarter, causing a large public outcry.

For his career, Braylon has 40 touchdown passes and over 5500 receving yards over an eight year career.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

If this had taken place in Florida, there would have been no “extreme DUI”. In our state, there is an enhanced blow of .15, much lower then Arizona’s “extreme 2.0”. In addition, if this had been a second DUI with in five years, he would almost certainly be looking at jail time as well as a mandatory ignition interlock for 24 months.
Continue reading

May 12, 2015

Policeman uses his patrol car to ram man who had gun

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

CBS News has another case where a suspect is alleging police misconduct. Is this just another in a flurry of police brutality cases or was the cop a hero who saved innocent lives by his action?

It was like a scene from an action movie. The suspect is walking down a street, holding a large gun and threatening to shoot himself and others. A lone cop sees his chance and disarms the man…by hitting the man with his patrol car! While in an action movie, that would just be a cutaway, in real life the cop may be faced with termination and a lawsuit.

On February 19, Mario Valencia had a stolen rifle and had already fired once near Tuscon, Arizona.

Seeing a brief opening, Officer Michael Rapiejko drove his cruiser on the sidewalk and rammed the suspect. The police chief later claimed it almost certainly saved Mario’s life.

According to the local police, Mario was fleeing from a Walmart where he had already stolen the rifle. The police caught up to him near a post office, where he then pointed the rifle at his head multiple times and threatened suicide before firing the gun in another direction and fleeing. It was not clear if he was intentionally shooting at the police or not.

The standoff came to an arupt end nearby when Rapiejko hit him with this cruiser. The police have since released the dashcam footage that shows the officer ramming into the man.

The local police srgt. told a newstation back in February.”This was a dangerous felon who’d been on a crime spree throughout the morning. He’d just stolen a weapon, loaded it, was not obeying commands from officers and was walking toward occupied businesses. It’s a busy time of morning, a lot of employees at work, a lot getting ready to come out for breaks, he’s walking toward those businesses. So we had to take immediate action and make sure he didn’t get inside those businesses.”

The suspect was taken to a nearby hospital for several days before he was booked into jail. Besides the armed robbery, assault and arson charge, the suspect is also connected to multiple crimes including a convenience store robbery, grand theft auto and a home invasion.

Mario’s criminal defense attorney made no statement other then to mention that his client was in crisis and the car ramming was not necessary. “I’ve also heard them say that they saved his life and I find that to be a very strange statement — to then use the deadly force to almost kill them by plowing them into with your vehicle,” he said.

He made mention of a possible civil lawsuit against the officer.

The local police say they treated this case in the same way as an officer-involved shooting.

Officer Rapiejko was unhurt and placed on paid administrative leave for the standard three days. While the state attorney’s office has already cleared him and he won’t be facing charges, he is still being investigated by his own agency while he is back to work.
Continue reading

May 7, 2015

Florida woman texting before fatal DUI crash

by Blake & Dorsten, P.A.

The local CBS station produced a heartbreaking story about a woman that was texting seconds before her car accident that cost her friend her life…and potentially the woman’s freedom.

“I’ll be dead thanks to you”…”Driving Drunk- woo”…These were just a few of the messages that 22-year-old Mila Dago sent her boyfriend moments before she ran a red light and crashed into a moving truck. The resulting crash ended her passenger’s life and now Ms. Dago has been charged with DUI manslaughter.

Miami police released those texts from Ms. Dago along with several others messages she had sent that night to her boyfriend. Officers painted a scene of the defendant out on the town with her friend. Sometime during the bar hopping she had gotten into a text war with her boyfriend that ended in a break up. This seemed to have set Mila off. Her texts became angrier and angrier until she sent off the above two.

At almost 4:45 a.m., just three minutes after those texts were sent, prosecutors claim that she ran a red light in downtown Miami, plowing her rental car into a moving truck. The truck driver was knocked unconscious but otherwise not harmed. Her friend, who was with her bar hopping throughout the night, was not so lucky. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Arriving police noticed the smell of alcohol and signs of impairment. Blood tests were taken and she was found to have a B.A.C. of .178 over two hours after the crash. This is twice the legal limit of .08!

While this tragedy took place in August, she was not formally charged until January because her blood results took so long to come back. The defendant has pled not guilty and they are still awaiting a trial date. She has been charged with DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and two counts of DUI with property damage.

This latest DUI or vehicular homicide incident is one of numerous similar cases that have taken place in South Florida in the past year.

Her criminal defense attorney offered sympathy for the victim’s parents but would not comment on the case as it was ongoing.

A seperate wrongful death lawsuit is also pending between the victim’s parents and Ms. Dago as well as the car rental company. The lawsuit is claiming that the rental car company was responsible as it was a forseeable risk that impaired people may rent a car. They are claiming that the cars should be equipped with a alcohol ignition device that would measure B.A.C. before the car could start. This is the same device that judges often order certain DUI offenders to install in their vehicles.
Continue reading