Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is seeking to obtain almost $45,000 in funds its deputies discovered in the course of a raid upon the Plant City home of a man alleged to have been engaged in the sale of illegal drugs.A filing in state court late last week alleges that the money was used in connection with illegal narcotic activity, and therefore in violation of the Florida Contraband Act. If the court agrees, the sheriff's office could wind up with a significant windfall.According to sheriff's deputies, an informant passed information to a deputy in late winter this year accusing...

A Holiday teenager will be facing adult first-degree felony murder charges, as Pasco County authorities say he battered and robbed a neighbor who died shortly thereafter.Fourteen-year-old Alexander Perez was indicted by a grand jury December 9 for a beating and robbery prosecutors say he committed against a neighbor on September 23. They allege that Perez approached his neighbor around two o'clock that morning as he was sitting on his porch and began physically attacking him. Prosecutors say Perez forced Walker into his own home where Perez robbed him of cash and continued the assault....

A Seffner woman was released from federal custody today but is all but certain to face state charges for actions she's alleged to have committed leading up to her custody in the federal prison system.Cortnee Nicole Brantley was freed from a federal halfway house today. She was released after serving ten months of a twelve-month sentence for misprison of a felony, as she did not inform the police officers whom her ex-boyfriend is currently on Florida's death row for killing that she was a felon carrying a firearm.Brantley, now 28, was convicted of the rarely-enforced crime in 2013, but she...

A Brandon couple are facing charges relating to cannabis cultivation after sheriff's deputies were called to the home to investigate a complaint of a loud television.Deputies were called to the residence of Eduardo Jesus Estevez-Aguilera, aged 34, and Barbara Ann Wilson, aged 42, in Brandon's Mayfield neighborhood early on the morning of November 21 to respond to a domestic disturbance complaint. The responding deputies said that they noticed a "strong odor" of cannabis in the home, which led them to obtain a search warrant, executing it later the same morning.Upon entering the residence,...

A Tampa man was arrested early this morning after authorities allege that he stabbed his father to death.Da'Mon Timothy Rashaad Larry was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail at half past four this morning and is being held without bond on a charge of second-degree murder with a weapon. Tampa police say that the 23-year-old man attacked his father, Damon Larry Sr., and the two became involved in what witnesses described as a fistfight. They said that 43-year-old Larry Sr. attempted to disengage from the fight, but Da'Mon followed him to the ground and continued attacking. Police say that...

A Pinellas county jury began deliberating the fate of two St. Petersburg brothers earlier today. The defense rested after making its closing arguments in the first-degree murder trial of Shirune and Gregory Green, both of whom are on trial for the slaying of Floyd Lassiter in the spring of 2014.According to the state of Florida, the Green brothers went to Lassiter's home early in the morning of Saturday, May 10 in search of a vehicle. They say the brothers had keys to Lassiter's two vehicles, a Toyota and a Honda, from a burglary of his Jordan Park home two days prior. Lassiter, who was...

A Bradenton rapper sentenced to life in 2008 on a charge of cocaine possession was one of seventy-two recipients of a commutation from President Obama last week.Antonio Lee Alls, known in the music community as Tampa Tony, was arrested in 2006 after accepting delivery of 24 kilograms (53 lbs.) of cocaine from an eventual co-defendant. According to court documents, law enforcement used confidential informants to build the case and orchestrate the sale.The confidential informant in Alls' case traveled to Arizona in October, 2006 and met with Sergio Medina and retrieved the cocaine from him....

A Polk County jury acquitted a Lakeland man defended by J. Jervis Wise last month on charges of first-degree murder and armed robbery in relation to the shooting death of an auto mechanic and alleged drug dealer in 2008.Kaheem Shakel Bennett, who was fifteen at the time of the murder, was indicted on the charges in January of this year. Now 23, Bennett was tried on crimes related to the slaying of Ernest Allen, Jr. on December 29, 2008. Allen was killed in an apparent robbery at his home (which doubled as an auto shop and, from where Allen allegedly sold illegal drugs) in the North Lake Wire...

A Tampa woman is awaiting sentencing on a conviction of fraud and money-laundering charges relating to her alleged participation in a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud scheme.Pilar Garcia Lorenzo was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering last Thursday. The thirty-eight year old was convicted due to her allegedly submitting $2.5 million of fraudulent claims to Medicare via her company Gold Care Home Health Services Inc., which maintained a storefront on Busch Boulevard. According to federal...

Corey Rocker turned eighteen in prison, convicted of a murder in which he never touched the weapon used in it. He turned twenty one and twenty five there, too, and marked his twenty-sixth birthday there this spring, knowing nothing but the gray cinder block walls of Florida's prisons.However, thanks to the hard work of Bjorn Brunvand and his office, Rocker walked out of prison a free man who, instead of looking at a life sentence, is now looking at a new life.Rocker found himself charged with the murder of Brennon Darvane Days, who was eighteen at the time of his demise. Rocker, then...