Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

Staring a life sentence in federal prison in the face, a St. Petersburg man is now awaiting sentencing on lesser crimes after a jury unanimously found him not guilty of murder.Corey D. Harris, a twenty-five-year-old, was acquitted after a grueling three-month trial where he, along with five other men from Bradenton, stood accused of murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, and racketeering. Federal prosecutors accused the group of being responsible for at least nine murders in Manatee and Sarasota counties between the spring of 2007 and late summer 2013.Although each...

Leo Schofield was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison in 1989. Almost three decades later another man has come forward claiming responsibility for the murder and has filed a motion with the relevant court asking to go on the record with his own confession.On Tuesday, February 24, 1987 Michelle Saum Schofield left her job at a fast-food restaurant in her orange Mazda wagon, which was the last time anyone but the murderer saw her alive. Her empty car was discovered on Interstate 4 at Highway 559 in Lakeland two days later, and her battered corpse was found three...

Florida's 2nd District Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for George Shrader on Wednesday, thirty years after the body of the woman he was originally convicted of murdering was first discovered in southern Hillsborough county.Shrader, who celebrated his fiftieth birthday almost one month ago in Hamilton Correctional Institution, was indicted in 2011 on charges that he sexually assaulted and murdered with premeditation Sharon Lorraine Moss, who was 23 at the time of her death. Moss's body was discovered on the morning of Monday, January 27, 1986 in the middle of a dirt road in the Whiskey...

An unarmed Tampa man was mortally wounded by a Hillsborough county sheriff's deputy on Tuesday morning in the course of serving a warrant in the Clair-Mel area.The Hillsborough Sheriff's SWAT team arrived around 8 A.M. at a home near S 78th Street and Palm River Road to serve a search warrant. The deputies were in search of 22-year-old Levonia Riggins, who had been the subject of a month-long narcotics investigation.Upon executing the warrant, deputies say that all but one of the individuals inside exited the home. They say those who came out told them that Riggins was still within, likely...

A Clearwater man charged in the murder of a woman whose body was found near the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail was released on Friday after prosecutors dropped the charges against him.Dewayne Jones, who turned 20 almost two months ago in the Pinellas County Jail, was charged with first-degree murder in the 2014 slaying of Lydia Ann Tross. Tross, who was 41 at the time of her passing, left her apartment on Highland Avenue on August 1, 2014 after a disagreement with Lawrence Staley, her boyfriend. Four days later her nude body was discovered by a man and his grandson collecting wildflowers near...

One elementary school music teacher is dead and another is in critical condition after allegedly being struck by a drunk driver early Sunday morning.Pinellas Park Police say that Bryce McCloud, a 36-year old man from St. Petersburg, was driving a new Toyota Corolla Saturday night when he hit the 2003 Toyota Camry driven by Caroline Sue Sine and with Sean Hankins as a passenger at around 1 A.M in the 4000 block of Park Boulevard. They allege McCloud ran a red light, and officers at the scene say they believe he was impaired at the time of the accident. Officers allege that his eyes were...

A man on the run from Hillsborough County authorities for almost six years was apprehended in Matamoros, Mexico by officials from the Department of Homeland Security last week.Mario Sanchez Mercado, 27, was apprehended by Mexican authorities in the city just opposite of Brownsville, Texas, 940 miles from Tampa. He is sought by Hillsborough County authorities due to allegations that he fatally shot Gregorio Santana, 23, and wounded his twin brother Felix.Authorities say that, on October 5, 2010, members of the Latin Life gang became embroiled in an argument with members of the West Side gang...

A Tampa man who has been wanted in connection with allegedly killing another in a drunken wrong-way driving wreck in 2012 was arrested last week on the southern coast of Spain, 4,600 miles away. Authorities allege that Christopher Ponce (aged 22 at the time) drove his new 2012 Ford Fusion south on the northbound lanes of I-275 near the downtown exit in the early morning hours of July 19, 2012. He is alleged to have driven his vehicle head-on into another vehicle driven by twenty-year-old William Brooks Angel, with twenty-two year-old Robert Patrick Newberry and twenty-year-old Jay Davis as...

A Tampa man is facing charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after an alleged road rage incident on Thursday.Authorities allege that 29-year-old Ezekiel Henson was involved in an altercation with a group of motorcyclists on N Nebraska Avenue at around 6:30 P.M. Witnesses say a handful of motorcyclists were weaving in and out of traffic when, at 109th Avenue, Henson and one of the motorcyclists became involved in an argument. The motorcyclist, 33-year-old Carlos R. Rodriguez, subsequently turned and retreated to his motorcycle. Allegedly Henson shot Rodriguez at this point, then...

An alleged murderer is still at large today after Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies say that he shot and killed his girlfriend and wounded another man who attempted to intervene.Antelmo Ontiveros, 28, allegedly fatally shot his girlfriend, Banesa Martinez Herrera, 30, after he arrived uninvited to a barbecue on the 1500 Block of Wishing Well Way in Clair-Mel. Shots rang out at around 2 A.M. Thursday morning, and afterwards Herrera lay dead and Christian Picazo-Guzman, who attempted to physically prevent the shooting, had himself been wounded in the leg. According to local media,...