Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

A car accident on Christmas Eve last year led to an arrest on Veterans Day this year, when Pasco County authorities arrested a Spring Hill man whom they say agreed to turn himself in but did not.In the early morning hours of December 24 Victor Karl Valdez Jr. was driving his 1999 Jeep Cherokee on Monteverde Drive just over the Pasco side of the county line. According to FHP troopers, Valdez was speeding along the thoroughfare, and operating his vehicles without its headlamps on.Per the troopers, Valdez's vehicle struck a golf cart driven by Scott Blair Wilson, with Jennifer Boudreau, Leah...

A fatal crash last week in Brooksville is being laid at the feet of a man whom authorities say was intoxicated at the time of the collision.Troopers of the Florida Highway Patrol say a 2012 Chevrolet Camaro piloted by Rodger James Carr was traveling east at a high rate of speed on Centralia Road near Sunshine Grove Boulevard at around seven o'clock last Sunday night when a Honda Fit driven by Sandra Sevilla stopped in the intersection and turned in the path of Carr's vehicle. According to troopers, the 51-year-old Carr did nothing to avoid Sevilla's vehicle, and a crash was the result....

A Weeki Wachee man accused of three murders, one attempted murder, and two attempts to solicit murder will avoid the death penalty thanks to the work of Bjorn Brunvand.Christopher Lee Duncan pled guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of solicitation to commit murder and one count of attempted murder late last month. As a result he will not face a jury and court the risk of a death sentence. Instead, the 28-year-old Duncan will likely spend the rest of his days within the walls of a Florida prison after being sentenced to a term of life last week."By entering the plea and...

A Brooksville man was arrested last week after Hernando County authorities say he was responsible for the death of a woman whose body was discovered by police early last Wednesday morning.Police say they received a report of a death at a quarter past four o'clock in the morning on November 22 at a location on Old Stage Coach Road near the junction of Suncoast Parkway and US-98 in Brooksville. Details released by authorities were sparse, but deputies indicated their belief that Janet J. Carroll met with "homicidal violence" prior to their discovery of the 32-year-old woman's remains that...

A Brandon man has been charged with vehicular homicide for a death they say he caused in the course of a head-on car collision.The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office charged 23-year-old Jacob Robin Albarracin with a single count of vehicular homicide last week. State's attorneys say that Albarracin borrowed a Toyota Camry early on July 17th of last year and drove it eastbound on Broadway Avenue at a high rate of speed.According to reports taken at the time, Albarracin failed to properly negotiate a curve in the road. His vehicle allegedly crossed the center line just before six o'clock...

A Plant City man will be spending the next 110 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to traffic cocaine on behalf of a Mexican drug cartel in 2016.According to federal prosecutors, Joseph Rumore was a significant distributor of drugs for the Matamoros cartel. Allegedly operating out of a local pallet company, prosecutors say he received large quantities of cocaine, divided the cocaine into small, salable quantities, then sold the cocaine to individual users at a profit. Prosecutors say the 34-year-old sold between one and five kilograms (2.2 and 11 pounds) of cocaine...

Pinellas Park Police say a woman they observed driving on a tire rim turned out to be a second-grade teacher who was in possession of cocaine.Officers say they spotted the vehicle at the intersection of Park Boulevard and 49th Street early last Sunday morning and initiated a welfare check due to the vehicle operating on only three tires. Upon approaching the vehicle they say they noticed the driver, whom they later identified as Lauren Laraine Garner, gave off an odor of alcoholic drink and had glassy, bloodshot eyes.Police continued by administering field-sobriety tests, which they say the...

A St. Petersburg man was arrested last week after authorities say he drove the wrong way while intoxicated on the Courtney Campbell Causeway and initiated a wreck that injured a handful of people.Police say that Collin John Cole piloted his Ford F-150 light truck the wrong direction in the eastbound lanes of State Road 60 over Old Tampa Bay around ten o'clock last Friday night. A couple in a Toyota Corolla allegedly spotted him first, veering off onto the shoulder and narrowly avoiding a collision. However, according to the report, Cole's vehicle struck the rear of a Hyundai Santa Fe behind...

A Brandon man is languishing in the Sarasota County Jail after authorities there accused him of murdering his girlfriend and attempting to burn her remains.Sarasota County deputies were dispatched to a vehicle fire on I-75 near Osprey in mid-October whereupon they discovered a Chrysler minivan aflame. Within the vehicle they subsequently discovered the charred body of Kristen Kelly, a 34-year-old mother of three.The county's investigation immediately focused upon Michael Connor Clark, Kelly's boyfriend and the father of her three children. The 34-year-old Brandon man allegedly told...

Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies say an argument ended in a fatal shooting last Thursday, and county authorities have charged the surviving party of murder as a result.According to deputies, 17-year-old Tamichael Broadnax and 20-year-old Reynaldo Charles Hernandez became engaged in a verbal altercation at around eleven o'clock that evening in the parking lot of a Town 'N Country apartment complex.Although authorities released few other details, they say that Hernandez eventually produced a firearm and shot Broadnax. Paramedics were dispatched and transported Broadnax to St. Joseph's Hospital,...