On April 9, 2019, the sheriff's office was called to South Venice and asked to transport Hosea Harrison III to Coastal Behavioral Healthcare in Sarasota for treatment.
Three separate victims came to the sheriff's office earlier this month after finding transactions at Walmart they did not make. Each was charged with $254.94 and the last place each had eaten was at Prime Serious Steak in Port Charlotte.
William Brian Slider, 57, was arrested in June 2019, after agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found an IP address connected to Slider’s home had downloaded 79 videos. The videos were found on a laptop in Slider’s living room and many depicted sexual battery on young children.
Jabez Spann was 14-years-old when he disappeared on Labor Day in 2017. He was last seen at a candlelight vigil on 22nd Street and Palmadelia Avenue in Sarasota, just two blocks away from his home. A witness saw Spann with two other boys at around one in the morning that night.
The sheriff’s office began investigating in December 2019 after an IP address connected to a home on the 2000 block of Sun Home Street in Sarasota was uploading child porn. Deputies say 65-year-old Gerald Nicolas lived at the home and downloaded the images.
Court records show that 45-year-old Shiraaz Sookralli was sentenced last week in Fort Lauderdale federal court. He pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.
It happened around 8:15pm on February 6 near the intersection of Fruitville and Beneva Road. No one was injured, but police are looking to identify the driver of the vehicle.
Joseph Smith was convicted of the February 2004 murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. The case drew national attention after surveillance video showed a man, later identified as Smith, taking Brucia from behind a car wash on Bee Ridge Road.
Troopers say Andy Gonzalez was behind the wheel of a 2013 Honda CRV and was driving at a high rate of speed east on Lee Boulevard near Colin Avenue in Lee County when he went off the road, hitting two trees.
Sandy Hawkins reached an agreement with Palm Beach County prosecutors on Friday. He will spend the next year at a Christian residence for the homeless and if he stays out of trouble the charges will be dropped.
Police in North Port say over the weekend, the pair stole trail cameras from a property on Whiptree Circle. They may be traveling in a red truck with a white trailer.
Joseph Hennessy, 39, of Sarasota was arrested last week and charged with Computer Crime Damage and Unlawful Use of a Two-Way Communication Device. He was previously the chief technology officer of a Suncoast business, which was unnamed in a probable cause affidavit.
Florida authorities say a man accused of slashing two children with a machete is being held in jail without bond on charges that include attempted murder.
Police were called to a home on Bay Street in Sarasota around 11am after the woman called to report what happened. She told officers that Frankie's Tree Service had come to her home and an employee, 49-year-old Francisco Leyva of Sarasota, had knocked on the door to discuss the job with her.
In August 2019, deputies were called to the North Port Police Department after the young child told offers she had been molested by 41-year-old William Amodei of Port Charlotte.
Police were called to the Main Street Condominiums on the 200 block of 3rd Street West around 10am Friday where they found 48-year-old Rene Escobedo Balditt dead. Police say he had been stabbed several times in the upper body.
Detectives say on Monday, while repairing 76-year-old Richard Sundstrom's phone, employees at the repair shop saw images of nude children and alerted the sheriff's office.
A defense lawyer says Michael Drejka was hit in the head Tuesday with a sock that had a lock inside, which caused him to get five stitches. Drejka’s wife told his attorneys he’s now living in fear.
A victim came to the sheriff’s office and reported she had given the company a $17,000 deposit in March 2019 to remodel two bathrooms in her condo, but no work had been completed.
Kevin Brown and a pair of young teens leading Manatee County Sheriff deputies on a high speed chase Tuesday night around 10:30. Once deputies spotted the stolen vehicle in the BP gas station parking lot on Manatee Avenue East, the teens sped off at a high rate of speed down 27th Street East.
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) has arrested an 18-year-old Sarasota man in connection to two separate shootings that occurred in the city earlier this week.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is offering a $20,000 reward to anyone who has any information on the person or people who are responsible deaths of two Florida dolphins.
Deputies arrested a 33-year-old Bradenton man for allegedly drug trafficking after he sold cocaine to undercover detectives on three different occasions.
A sheriff’s office in Florida says a man has been arrested for driving into a tent set up in a parking lot by Republicans to register voters in Jacksonville.
Around 1:15pm, police were called about a reckless driver on U.S. 41. An officer responded and says the driver, 43-year-old Jaime Lynn Wakkila, was traveling in the center lane but swerving into other lanes.
A man behind bars on the Suncoast finds himself in a familiar place. He was arrested for the 66th time Wednesday after being on the run since last year.
Around 1:45pm on Tuesday, January 28, deputies were called to 52-year-old James Hoskins Jr.'s home after the sheriff’s office says he made threats about his roommate to an employee at a substance abuse and mental health facility.
In February of 1994, 26 years ago, a man was found dead in the woods in Punta Gorda. He had no clothing, no teeth and absolutely nothing to identify him or even know what happened to him. Since then, he’s been known as John Doe and the first of many bodies discovered from the Hog Trail Murders.
A 26-year-old Bradenton man has been sentenced to three terms of life in prison after being one of three suspects found guilty of four murders and several other charges related to drugs and firearms.
Around 11:15pm on Super Bowl Sunday, deputies were called to a bar on Manatee Avenue West where a caller had seen a child in a car parked near the bar's back door.
Jackson Kelley was 19 at the time of the accident on February 28. He was commuting to school on north Tamiami Trail when the minivan Zachari Brock was driving crashed into him, causing his car to flip multiple times into the Lantern Inn parking lot.
As part of a plea deal, Zachari Brock, 25, of Bradenton was sentenced on Friday, January 31 to five years in prison on charges of leaving the scene of a crash and driving without a valid license. Both felony charges.
Florida law enforcement is searching for the hit-and-run driver who ran a red light and plowed into a car, killing a Clearwater couple and their teenage son.
Troopers say around 8:00 a.m. in the 3400 block of Whitfield Avenue, a maroon-colored 1997-2003 full-size Ford Pickup or SUV was traveling eastbound, east of 33rd Avenue East, and 28-year-old Hung Dong was walking in the eastbound lane.
Nicole Sereby was released from jail in 2018 for charges from outside of the area. She then got work at two local businesses, one in Sarasota County and the other in Manatee County, and stole more than $100,000, telling prosecutors she used the money for drugs.
The sheriff's office says around 4am at Fruitville Road near Coburn, deputies attempted to stop a gold sedan with a broken taillight. But deputies say the driver, 19-year-old Jacob Harris, fled.
Witnesses at the scene say they were speaking to the victim in a driveway in that area when 14-year-old Sha’Miya Williams walked up and starting shooting at him, firing multiple rounds and hitting the victim twice.
Airport and Sarasota Police began investigating in October last year after learning that some rental vehicles from Hertz were missing. Between October and November, police say they found 10 cars had been taken.
On Friday, police charged Henry Lee Porter, Sr. with the additional count. The second victim tells police the abuse happened between April and November in 1990 when the victim was attending the school at Westcoast Center for Human Development.
Deputies say on Wednesday, 38-year-old Robert Edwards was annoyed that the dog was barking, so he took an electrical cord and wrapped it around the dog’s neck until it died.
Joseph Smith was convicted of the February 2004 murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. The case drew national attention after surveillance video showed a man, later identified as Smith, taking Brucia from behind a car wash on Bee Ridge Road.
Around 1:45pm on Tuesday, deputies were called to a home on the 2500 block of 32nd Avenue East after the sheriff's office says 52-year-old James Hoskins Jr. made threats about his roommate to an employee at a substance abuse and mental health facility.
Deputies say Adam Smith is six-feet tall and weighs around 180 pounds and that he violated his probation for exposure of sexual organs and is also in possession of a controlled substance.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a 30-year-old woman for allegedly stabbing a man because he forced her to get out of a car that he was borrowing.
Deputies have arrested a 31-year-old man for allegedly stealing lottery tickets from a Circle K convenience store in Bradenton in October of last year.
An 18-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a robbery that occurred in a Starbucks parking lot in Sarasota as well as an armed burglary that took place in Venice.
Detectives say they received a tip in October 2019 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about two images that were reviewed and confirmed as child pornography.
Kendrick Wade is facing charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, leaving the scene of a crash without giving information, resisting a law enforcement officer without violence and driving with a suspended license.
The fair is usually a place where people like to bring their family and kids. You would never think a sex offender would be working there. But on Friday, 49-year-old William Rezey was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender.
In August 2019, the pharmacy director of Doctor’s Hospital in Sarasota met with Christine Eckles, a registered nurse working at the hospital in the ICU, to discuss discrepancies in the use of hydromorphone, a schedule II controlled substance.
Officials said as a result 54-year-old Gary Hudge is charged with solicitation to commit murder. Investigators said Hudge provided several Michigan addresses for his brother and offered .25-caliber handgun, a bus ticket as well as the cash.
Troopers say Pablo Tobar was crossing 15th Street East, north of the intersection with 57th Avenue East, when the driver of what witnesses described as a blue four-door Honda vehicle failed to slow down and struck him.
The murder happened on July 31, 1998 near Booker High School. The following day, the newspaper headline read, "Woman’s body found behind Sarasota School.” That woman was 23-year-old Judith Elaine Doherty.
On Friday, January 10 around 10:15pm, police say Mary Arslanagic, also known as Mary Tormey, is seen in these photos stealing approximately $1,000 from the gift shop at the Art Ovation Hotel, Autograph Collection.
Social media has changed the landscape of society and how law enforcement does police work. It’s also made a difference for people who want to take matters into their own hands to find their stolen property.
