Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

The owner of a public accounting firm with an office in Tampa was sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud charges. Walter Drakeford, Sr. entered a guilty plea on one count of interfering with the administration of Internal Revenue laws and sought community supervision on account of his age and health. The septuagenarian is scheduled to undergo heart surgery in May and, according to his attorney, suffers from severe diabetes, heart disease, and memory problems. However, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday was unmoved, opting to put Drakeford behind bars....

A suspect in the slaying of a Tampa man whose corpse was found in flames turned himself in to authorities last Sunday. He's now facing charges of second-degree murder for his alleged actions in connection with the case. Sigfredo Espinel was arrested at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office upon voluntarily arriving there on Sunday. Espinel, who hails from Lakeland, will spend his eighteenth birthday in custody this Saturday, as detectives consider him the prime suspect in the untimely death of Jose Zarragoitia. Though detectives have not revealed further details surrounding the case nor...

A bar patron who was asked to leave a SoHo establishment last week allegedly made good on a promise to return with a firearm and is now being charged with first-degree murder for actions authorities say he took upon his return. Tampa resident Gary Omar Rivera Montanez allegedly began last Saturday night by being removed by bouncers from a local lounge after another patron accused him of aggressively flirting with her to a degree she found uncomfortable. Witnesses at the lounge told Tampa police that Montanez made comments on his way from the establishment alluding to his possession of a...

A Dade City native is facing almost two dozen charges after police in New Port Richey say they discovered significant quantities of controlled substances and firearms upon apprehending him after a vehicular chase. Twenty-seven-year-old Lionell Dieon Bates initially attracted the attention of law enforcement due to allegedly illegal window tint on the 2015 Range Rover he was driving. The chase allegedly began on Louisiana Avenue near Madison Street, where Bates was driving westbound. Police say he then crossed over to the eastbound lane in an alleged attempt at ramming another police vehicle....

A football player for the University of South Florida was arrested last week after Tampa police say he was involved in a road-rage incident while in possession of cannabis. Hassan Ismael "Hot" Childs was taken into custody upon his release from Tampa General Hospital last Monday after being treated for gunshot wounds. Officers allege the 22-year-old was shot twice after pointing a firearm at a vehicle containing a family of three. According to authorities, Jovanni Jimenez was driving with his wife Jennifer and their three-year-old child on Skipper Road when he says a Chevrolet Malibu began...

A Pasco County judge ordered a new penalty phase for a man on Florida's Death Row last week based upon a motion for relief filed by Bjorn Brunvand. Senior Judge William Webb granted the order for resentencing in favor of Phillup Alan Partin, who was sentenced to death in December, 2008 by a jury vote of 9-3 after being found guilty of first-degree murder in July of that year. While non-unanimous jury votes were frequently allowed to advise judges to pass death sentences in years past in Florida, a United States Supreme Court ruling last year determined that Florida's capital punishment...

A Pasco County judge ordered a new penalty phase for a man on Florida's Death Row last week based upon a motion for relief filed by Bjorn Brunvand. Senior Judge William Webb granted the order for resentencing in favor of Phillup Alan Partin, who was sentenced to death in December, 2008 by a jury vote of 9-3 after being found guilty of first-degree murder in July of that year. While non-unanimous jury votes were frequently allowed to advise judges to pass death sentences in years past in Florida, a United States Supreme Court ruling last year determined that Florida's capital punishment...

A Wesley Chapel woman was apprehended last week after police say she left the scene of an accident she caused while driving drunk. Florida Highway Patrol troopers say Wendy Ann Rogers was driving east on State Road 56 at Maple Parkway when her 2013 Ford Edge rear-ended the 2017 Ford F-250 of James Pittman, also of Wesley Chapel, shortly after eight o' clock last Tuesday evening. The 21-year-old Pittman was stopped at a red light when the 48-year-old Rogers struck his vehicle with hers, according to troopers. They say she then left the scene of the accident and was apprehended a short time...

A Florida Supreme Court ruling has cleared the way for a retrial of a former executive at Jabil Circuit, Inc. who is accused of murdering his wife and her friend. Patrick Albert Evans of Saint Petersburg Beach was a vice president at Jabil in 2008, and married to Elizabeth, a sales director for the firm. She filed for divorce from Patrick that year and moved to a separate residence. Authorities say that he confronted Elizabeth and coworker Jerry B. Taylor at her condo after the pair had gone on a date, firing upon and killing both. Evans first stood trial in 2011, where he was convicted of...

Eight people were injured and a ninth was killed in a fiery car crash that officers of the Florida Highway Patrol say was the result of a Pinellas Park man drunkenly driving the vehicle several of them occupied. Eighteen-year-old Donavan Leigh Patterson is accused by authorities of driving his 2008 Dodge Caliber while intoxicated last week. They say Patterson had five others in his vehicle at the time, all of whom were minors, when he struck the Ford F-250 driven by Dalton Cox. The crash, which occurred at the intersection of Curlew Road and McMullen-Booth Road in Oldsmar, occurred at two...