Briefs

The News-Press • February 12 2025

Lee County man charged with stealing, reselling high-end cars faces 10 years in prison

A Lehigh Acres man faces federal charges of one count of conspiring to steal and resell vehicles and two counts of transporting stolen vehicles across state lines. Michel Serrano, 34, was arrested in Georgia last month after a warrant for his arrest was issued in December, according to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He has since been transported from the Southern District of Georgia to the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.Serrano, who also goes by the alias...

Naples Daily News • February 7 2025

Immokalee man arrested for possessing 1,000 files of child pornography, CCSO says

An Immokalee man faces 50 counts of possession of child pornography after Collier County detectives found over 1,000 files of child pornography depicting children as young as infants on his cell phone.

James Carter, 51, was arrested on Wednesday after the Collier County Sheriff's Office received cybertips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding suspected activity related to the possession/transmission of child pornography on Carter's devices, according to an arrest...

Fort Myers News-Press • January 31 2025

Punta Gorda man sentenced to 40 years for shooting at Lee County deputies

A Charlotte County man was sentenced to 40 years in prison as a habitual felony offender for attempted murder and engaging in a shootout with law enforcement from two counties.

Daniel Jacob Dunn, 35, was arrested in 2023 after breaking into his ex-girlfriend's Lee County home and shooting her.

More: Punta Gorda man headed to prison for shooting critically injured woman in Lee

Dunn fled and barricaded himself inside of his own Charlotte County home, according to the Office of the State Attorne...

Naples Daily News • January 28 2025

Off-duty Miccosukee officer accused of beating boy at Naples Pier

Witnesses at Naples Pier said they saw a Naples man and off-duty Miccosukee Police officer abusing a 10-year-old child.

Witnesses said Phillip Kennedy, 55, was at the Naples Pier, whipping the child with a belt on Saturday night, according to an arrest report by the Naples Police Department.

More: Pre-trial hearing for Naples mayor accused of drunken driving delayed

Investigators determined Kennedy is an active police officer for the Miccosukee Police Department in Miami-Dade County. He is no...

Naples Daily News • January 24 2025

A Naples woman was sentenced to a decade in prison for grand theft and exploiting seniors

A Naples woman who stole a new car, a diamond wedding ring and cash from a couple, one in hospice and the other in a skilled care unit, will serve 10 years in prison.

A judge also sentenced Lynn Marie Keller, 69, to five years of probation, for financially exploiting and stealing more than $100,000 from an elderly and disabled Naples couple. She must also repay $112,000.

Keller was arrested in 2019 after reports were made to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office of a grand theft of a motor vehic...

Naples Daily News • January 22 2025

Pre-trial hearing for Naples mayor accused of drunken driving delayed

Naples Mayor Teresa Heitman's pre-trial hearing has been rescheduled for the second time after her August arrest, accused of drunken driving. Heitmann, 61, was arrested in August accused of driving her Porsche under the influence to the extent that her normal faculties were impaired. Her blood-alcohol content was 0.155 and 0.169 —double the legal limit, according to an arrest report. The legal blood-alcohol level is 0.08. Naples police officers also directed Heitmann through a series of field sobri...

The News-Press • January 21 2025

Cape Coral man guilty of scamming Haitian churchgoers in nearly $1 million investment scams

A Cape Coral man was found guilty of racketeering in a series of real estate scams by targeting victims through presentations in Haitian churches and on a Creole radio station to the tune of nearly $1 million. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Office of Financial Regulation began investigating Ludovic Laroche, 57, in 2020 after a complaint about Laroche’s church presentations in Southwest Florida, according to the Office of the State Attorney 20th Judicial Circuit.According to the...

Naples Daily News • January 14 2025

Immokalee man dead after fatal car crash, investigation ongoing

An Immokalee man has died after fatal head-on collision Sunday night in Immokalee, Florida Highway Patrol reports.

More: Naples man, 28, fatally struck by car while walking along Collier Boulevard, troopers say

A 26-year-old man died in a crash on Country Road 846, also known as Immokalee Road about 10 p.m. Sunday night. The driver of the other vehicle, a 32-year-old Lehigh Acres man, sustained non-incapacitating injuries, troopers said.

The Lehigh man travelled into the southbound lanes and...

Naples Daily News • January 13 2025

Missing 48-year-old man's body found in Naples condo pond

Collier County deputies identified a body found floating in a retention pond in a North Naples residential neighborhood as a man missing for days.

Collier County deputies identified the body of 48-year-old Bradley Sugar in the Cypress Glen condominium community off Pine Ridge Road on Sunday.

The witness told officials she saw what appeared to be a person floating in the pond while taking down Christmas lights.

More: Airport expansion project: Changes to ground transportation, terminal access...

Naples Daily News • January 10 2025

Naples man sentenced to prison for over 100 child sexual abuse charges

A Naples man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after facing more than 100 charges related to child sexual battery against two children.Randy Eugene Schoolcraft, 44, was found guilty for charges including sexual battery with victim under 12 years old, lewd and lascivious molestation with victim younger than 12, 99 counts of possession of child pornography and attempted capital sexual battery, according to the Office of the State Attorney Twentieth Judicial Circuit.Schoolcraft will be on li...

Naples Daily News • January 10 2025

Fort Myers man sentenced to 35 years for killing senior citizen outside Naples bar

A Fort Myers man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for a murder outside a popular Naples nightclub. Alexander Michael Evans, 34, was found guilty of second-degree murder with a firearm, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery on a person 65 or older, according to the Office of the State Attorney Twentieth Judicial Circuit announced in a news release Thursday. Evans, who pled no contest, was arrested in October 2022 after shooting someone older than 65 outside of the Cavo Lounge...

Naples Daily News • January 9 2025

Marco Island man, repeat offender, sentenced to 18 years in prison for drug charges

A Marco Island man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty on several drug cases in Collier County.

Nicholas Munson Troemner, 42, was charged as a habitual felony offender and must also serve five years of his sentence as a prison releasee reoffender, according to the Office of the State Attorney Twentieth Judicial Circuit.

In March 2023, a Collier County deputy stopped Troemner for two traffic violations — an improper right-hand turn and a stop sign violation. The of...

Naples Daily News • January 7 2025

Troopers arrest Naples man for hitting bicyclist and fleeing

A Naples man has been arrested in connection with an exhaustive criminal investigation of a hit- and-run crash that left a bicyclist injured.Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested Richard Jean Baptiste, 61, of Naples, on Tuesday for leaving the scene of a crash where a bicyclist sustained critical injuries.A 39-year-old Naples woman was thrown from her bike along Weber Boulevard North after the front of Jean Baptiste's vehicle collided into her from behind, according to a press release by the...

Orlando Sentinel • March 28 2024

Affidavit: Orlando man who raped, tried to kill woman sought to keep her off witness stand

An Orlando man accused of rape and attempted murder in a 2022 attack was arrested last week on a witness tampering charge for trying to keep the victim from testifying against him, according to the arrest affidavit.

Bruce Whitehead, 55, a registered sex offender after a 1987 conviction in Duval County for kidnapping and sexual battery, already faces charges of sexual battery, attempted murder, armed kidnapping, robbery and aggravated battery for the incident on Orange Blossom Trail in Oak Ridge

Orlando Sentinel • February 15 2024

Orlando officer pepper-sprays, arrests 12-year-old at school

An Orlando officer pepper-sprayed and arrested a 12-year-old student Wednesday who allegedly struck the officer.

The student faces charges of battery and resisting an officer after becoming verbally and physically violent with staff members at Lake Nona Middle School.

The student then struck the school resource officer and removed the officer’s radio mic, according to a press release from the Orlando Police Department.

After several failed attempts to de-escalate the situation, the officer pe

Orlando Sentinel • February 9 2024

Orlando man sentenced to life for murder of Orange County attorney

An Orlando man has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of the murder of former Orange County government attorney Erin Hartigan.

William Ramon Franklin, 36, was arrested in August 2020, and has been awaiting trial for over three years.

In a six-day trial, a jury found Franklin guilty earlier this week of first degree murder with a weapon, according to a press release by the Ninth Judicial Court State Attorney’s office.

The victim was found dead at around 4:00 a.m. on Augu

Orlando Sentinel • January 25 2024

Winter Park authorities seeking lookalike suspects in eight residential burglaries

Residents of Winter Park are on edge after eight reports of residential burglaries were made within the last three weeks.

The burglaries took place within a two-mile radius of Mayfield Ave., Winter Park police said in a crime alert.

Surveillance footage captured by a Ring camera at one of the targeted residences shows the suspects in similar clothing, with matching baseball caps and face masks. Police suggested the burglars are attempting to “blend in with landscaping crews or pest control ser

Orlando Sentinel • January 23 2024

Two arrested in fatal birthday-party shooting in Kissimmee

Osceola County sheriffs have arrested two men for a fatal shooting at a Kissimmee residence.

Maximo Mercado, 41, and Liam Roland Nicholson, 28, are facing charges in the homicide of Steven Jesus Perez, 31. At around 1 a.m. Sunday morning, Osceola sheriffs found Perez on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds in front of a home on Doncaster Ct. near Deerwood Elementary School, where the three men were attending a birthday celebration.

The incident began as a physical altercation among the thre

Fort Myers News-Press • June 24 2023

Port Charlotte man dies after motorcycle hits SUV driven by Lehigh woman

A 59-year-old Port Charlotte man died in a collision at State Road 776 and Cornelius Boulevard shortly after 7 a.m. on Saturday morning near Port Charlotte.

He was driving a motorcycle and traveling west on SR 776 (El Jobean Road) and rear-ended an SUV when it pulled out in front of him.

The man was pronounced dead on scene, according to a press release by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The SUV, driven by a 61-year-old woman from Lehigh Acres, was traveling south on Cornelius Boulevard, and turn