Judge Refuses to Revoke $400,000 Bond on European Village’s Would-Be Shooter; Bova Behaves

Flagler County Circuit Judge J. David Walsh today refused to revoke the $400,000 bond set for Daniel Noble, the man accused of threatening to shoot patrons with an uzi submachine gun at a European Village lounge on March 15 before he was wrestled to the ground by three bar patrons. But Noble remains at the Flagler County jail for now.

In an earlier, unrelated hearing, Walsh set May 6 for a pre-trial hearing in the case of Joseph Bova, the man accused of murdering, execution-style, Palm Coast Mobil Mart store clerk Zuheily Roman Rosado in February 2013.

Bova appeared in court today, but unlike his two previous appearances, when he made a series of inflammatory declarations, interrupted the judge several times and refused to take the counsel of his court-appointed attorney, he was subdued, entirely silent, and forbidden from so much as looking back by a platoon of bailiffs who kept close guard.

Bova had previously refused to submit to mental evaluations. The prosecution said he had been evaluated about a month ago, though the report of that evaluation had not yet been produced, and he would again have an evaluation son, though those valuations may not be directly related to his competency to stand trial.

“Will we be able to get in for a competency hearing if necessary prior to the May 6?” Assistant State Attorney Jacquelyn Royse asked Walsh.

“I’ll certainly try, but I can’t tell you right now,” Walsh said.

Royse asked to approach the bench but was denied. The hearing ended in a matter of minutes, and Bova was ushered out.

In the afternoon hearing regarding Noble, the judge reviewed the suspect’s first appearance (by video, from the jail), before Judge Dennis Craig the morning after the incident at European Village.

Bond had been set at $400,000–$200,000 for the attempted murder charge, $50,000 for each of two aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges, and $100,000 for an aggravated battery charge. Noble, if he were to bond out, was to steer clear of European Village, and to have no contact with the victims who’d wrestled him–Vassili Mironov, Roman Dubinschi, and Joshua Auriemma. All three were in court Tuesday.

The prosecution was seeking to revoke Noble’s bond, “showing that this particular defendant is a danger to our community,” Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark said.

Regina Nunnally, the public defender, objected to the motion, arguing that when Noble had his first appearance, the defense and the prosecution agreed to the bond set at the time.

In order to win a revocation, the prosecution had to prove that a certain legal precedent did not control the Noble case. The prosecution was ready to have the bartender at Europa Lounge, on whose patio at European Village the incident unfolded, testify, along with the arresting officer and the three men who wrestled Noble to the ground, to buttress the case for revocation. But Clark also told Walsh that she would not waste the court’s time if he believed that the precedent still controlled the case. Walsh believed just that.

“I take it as an agreement, I did not hear any objection made,” Walsh said of the bond set on March 16 after Craig heard from both defense and prosecution. But he left the door open for a revocation, based on what the prosecution might file next.

“He was saying in essence that we have to show him something else that wasn’t contained in that paperwork to kind of get over the hump and even argue that he should be held” without bond, Clark said after the hearing. But if future evidence becomes available, “we’ll re-address this.”

Noble was in court, but he did not say a word.

“I think that noble should not have gotten a bond at all,” Mironov said Tuesday evening. “He is armed and dangerous. I don’t doubt that he would come after the victims including myself if he gets out. It was premeditated attempted murder. He had time to think about it. He went home to change his clothes and to grab the gun. So it was premeditated. I almost lost my life because of this man.”