Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

A St. Petersburg man is one of seventeen defendants facing charges of mortgage fraud stemming from loans taken out on condominiums on Florida's west coast.Carlos Mesa, Jr. is accused by attorneys from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida of being involved in a complex mortgage fraud scheme that took place in 2007 and 2008. Federal attorneys say that the scheme centered around the condominium project Portofino at Largo in Largo and Bayshore Landing in Tampa, where they allege that the defendants conspired to obtain loans for unqualified buyers at those...

Almost thirty years after the crime was committed, a 67-year-old Ohio man was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of allegedly murdering a Lake Alfred woman.Carl Junior McCauley was sentenced to life in prison in a Polk County courtroom last Thursday. He was convicted earlier of the murder of Karen Ann Watson, which occurred in March, 1987. Watson's nude body was discovered at her home by her husband Charles (now deceased) after returning from an errand. Authorities say the 41-year-old died as a result of multiple stab wounds, and that she had sexual intercourse not long before...

A former Michigan law enforcement officer was arrested last Wednesday, accused of shooting to death a cook at an Oldsmar bar and restaurant.Deputies of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office say Brian Paul Mytych shot David Brown early Wednesday morning, possibly continuing a fight that began on February 6. Mytych was arrested that day on suspicion of disorderly intoxication after allegedly shouting racial slurs at musicians performing at a bar on Forest Lake Blvd. at State Street West. An altercation ensued between the 43-year-old Mytych and the 33-year-old Brown, leading to Mytych's arrest...

A pair of Tampa brothers have been charged with crimes related to a murder committed last November.Hillsborough County authorities allege that Lewis James Scott, Jr. and his younger brother James Luis "Snoop" Scott are responsible for murdering Clair-Mel's Evelyn Marie "Eve" Woodham and setting fire to a mobile home in an attempt to destroy evidence related to the murder.A person on horseback discovered Woodham's battered body on November 1 near 20th Avenue S and 58th Street. A warrant was issued for the 28-year-old James Scott shortly thereafter due to investigators discovering evidence...

Sentenced to life in prison as a teenager, Floyd Victor LaFountain became a free man on Friday, thanks to a series of Supreme Court decisions regarding sentencing of juveniles.LaFountain was sixteen when he ran away from his home in central Massachusetts. Accompanied by friends sixteen-year-old Kyle Moran and fifteen-year-old Michael DuPuis, the group stole a car, burglarized a home in Vermont for firearms, and made their way down the Atlantic coast.Their cash got them as far as Tampa, where they drank and partied for three days before running out of money. Needing an infusion of funds to...

A Tampa man expired in the course of an arrest by the St. Petersburg Police Wednesday morning.According to reports, officers were attempting to arrest Joshua George Dove, a thirty-five-year-old homeless man on a sidewalk on Fifth Avenue North near a homeless shelter. The officers were dispatched to investigate alleged drug dealing in the vicinity, and ordered the group of homeless people they encountered to disburse. All of the assemblage obeyed except for Dove, whom officers say became confrontational, leading to their decision to take him into custody. The officers say Dove was resisting...