Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

A St. Petersburg man is facing homicide charges after police say he gunned down a USF student in a robbery that turned fatal. According to authorities, the 19-year-old was one of three men involved in the slaying, which took place on May 27. The victim was a 22-year-old psychology major at USF St. Petersburg and was visiting friends in an apartment west of downtown. Witnesses say the victim was one of three individuals in the apartment at the time when a shirtless man whom police later identified as the defendant asked to see another man within the dwelling. The defendant then allegedly left...

Lawyers for a Tampa man have asked that the four murder charges he's facing be prosecuted as four separate trials instead of in one set of proceedings. Reasoning that the four charges arose from four separate episodes, the lawyers representing the 27-year-old man noted the possibility that facts and opinions distinct to one episode are likely to bleed over into jurors' considerations regarding the other three incidents. The defendant is facing four first-degree murder charges arising from a series of slayings allegedly conducted by the defendant over the course of several weeks in 2017....

A Tampa man is facing murder and attempted murder charges after authorities say he killed his father and nearly killed his mother in a savage knife attack. Prosecutors say the 21-year-old man first came to their attention due to a 9-1-1 report by his mother of him acting in an erratic fashion. Erratic then turned to irate, per detectives, when the defendant grabbed a kitchen knife. Detectives say his 52-year-old father attempted to intervene, but he became a victim instead as the defendant began raining down blows. Mounted atop his father, they say he continued the attack unabated until his...

A Tampa man is facing homicide charges after authorities say he shot to death a pregnant woman early in the month. Hillsborough County authorities say they were alerted to the sound of gunshots early in the pre-dawn hours of May 5 at the 1000 block of East 25th Avenue, leading to their discovery of a bullet-ridden red Camaro. Upon further inspection, the lifeless body of a pregnant 22-year-old woman was discovered in the driver's seat, launching the homicide investigation. Meanwhile, the father of the fetus was arrested by police on unrelated charges, but suspicion of his involvement in her...