Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

Back in May of 2011, Mervin Bettis attempted to shoplift $1,100 worth of razor blade cartridges from a Target store on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa. Retired FBI agent Russell Horner was one of two Target-employed security officers who struggled with Bettis as he tried to flee the store.Moments after the officers got Bettis handcuffed, Horner collapsed, suffering a heart attack. He died an hour later.Bettis, described by his family as a compulsive shoplifter, was charged with third-degree murder for Horner's death. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.A person can be...

Unsurprisingly, a grand jury returned a fifty-seven-count indictment this month charging Rashia Wilson of Wimauma and Maurice Larry of Tampa with conspiracy and multiple counts of wire fraud, filing false tax returns, theft of government property, and aggravated identity theft. Wilson is charged with one count of conspiracy, nine counts of wire fraud, 19 counts of filing false tax returns, 14 counts of theft of government property and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft. Larry is charged with one count of conspiracy, nine counts of wire fraud, 17 counts of filing false tax returns, 13...

Earlier this month, social worker Stephanie Ross died after allegedly being slashed multiple times with a large butcher knife by Dade City resident Lucious Smith. Ross was visiting with Smith to help him manage his Medicaid benefits. She had visited him on three prior occasions and there are conflicting reports as to whether she reported feeling unsafe on those visits.Witnesses told police that Ross ran screaming from the apartment on her final visit, with Smith chasing her and slashing at her with a large butcher knife. Ninety minutes later, she died at a hospital of multiple stab wounds to...

A Hernando County judge sentenced Mikell Begley of Brooksville to 11 years in prison last week for the April death of Begley's friend Gary Ziegler. The sentence came after Begley pleaded no contest to DUI manslaughter.Had he been convicted at trial, Begley faced a maximum prison term of 15 years. He has several prior arrests in Florida, including a burglary conviction in Hernando in 2007.Begley also pleaded no contest to a charge of battery on a corrections officer, which was filed after Begley spat on an officer at the Hernando County Detention Center earlier this month. He will serve a...

Jervis Wise, an attorney here in the Law Offices of Bjorn Brunvand, obtained a not guilty verdict this week for a client in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. Wise's client was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. If convicted, he faced 10 years to life in prison. Fortunately, however, the client was acquitted and did not face sentencing.Mr. Courtney Allen, a 34 year-old father, was alleged to have conspired with at least one other individual to purchase a half kilogram of cocaine for sale...

Bruno Skoczynski, a 36-year-old mortgage broker from Dunedin, was sentenced this month by a Tampa federal court to two years in prison. Skoczynski owned E-Value Mortgage Services and E-Value Title Services. He pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud conspiracy charges in June 2012.According to court documents, Skoczynski was a licensed mortgage broker in the Tampa Bay area. His wife was a licensed realtor. From May 2007 through July 2008,, Skoczynski acted as mortgage broker and title company for the sale of some of Richard Cartagena's and Neil Ferrigno's properties, including some of the La...

Shaneva Boyd of Clearwater was sentenced earlier this month to 12 months and 1 day in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for participating in a conspiracy to commit federal student financial aid fraud. The federal court in Tampa also ordered her to pay $77,364.00 in restitution and to forfeit substitute assets in the amount of $70,000.00. Boyd previously pleaded guilty in August 2012.According to the plea agreement, Boyd's husband formed "Graduate Assistance and Consolidations, Inc." (GAC), located in St. Petersburg, Florida in January 2006. GAC purported to be in the...

Local media reported another round of tax refund fraud charges in the Tampa Bay area recently. Federal prosecutors now claim that several former Hillsborough County high school football players participated in the scheme and even recruited students at the University of South Dakota to participate.Just a few weeks ago, we reported on a Palm Harbor man charged in a similar alleged tax refund fraud scheme. In late September, 39 other area residents were indicted in a large scale tax refund scheme.Now, prosecutors and IRS investigators accuse Alphonso Rico Valdez, a graduate of Chamberlain High...

A federal court judge in Tampa sentenced Cristie Fay Bottorff and Jerry Alan Bottorff of Brandon this week to three concurrent terms of life in federal prison for the contract murder of Cristie Bottorff's former husband, Thomas Lee Sehorne, of Lithia, Florida. The court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $1,043,517.99 against each defendant. This was the amount collected against Sehorne's life insurance policies paid after his death in 2007.The Bottorffs were arrested on May 23, 2011 and pleaded guilty on July 9, 2012. They testified against Luis Angel Lopez, who was allegedly...

Eighteen-year-old Benjamin K. Bishop of Oldsmar was charged this weekend in Pinellas County with killing his mother and her boyfriend in their Oldsmar home. He faces two counts of first-degree murder. According to the sheriff's report, Bishop has a history of mental illness, addiction to bath salts and violence towards his mother.Bishop reportedly returned home last month after 10 months in a rehabilitation center. He is accused of shooting Imari Shibata, his mother, and her boyfriend Kelley Allen with a sawed off 12-gauge shotgun. The sheriff's report suggests that Bishop fired a total of...