• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

In-Person Trials Will Resume in Flagler, With High-Profile Murder Cases On Deck

March 12, 2021 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

A jury room at the Flagler County courthouse. (© FlaglerLive)
A jury room at the Flagler County courthouse. (© FlaglerLive)

In person-trials will resume on Monday in Flagler County and the rest of the Seventh Judicial Circuit (including St. Johns, Volusia and Putnam) starting Monday, Chief Judge Raul Zambrano announced.




Most court functions have been continuing through hybrid arrangements, with judges in their courtrooms and defendants and lawyers appearing either in person or from remote locations. But with a few exceptions last fall, jury trials had been suspended in mid-March and again since late December as coronavirus case loads rose in two successive waves.

Juries may be made up of six or 12 people, but getting to those numbers is an extensive process that requires calling in jury pools of up to 150 citizens at a time. Pools are gathered in the courthouse’s jury assembly room on the first floor, a room not designed for social distancing with that many people. Jury pools in groups of 50 then appear in courtrooms before the judge, defense and prosecution lawyers, where jury selection is conducted, often over several hours. Again, the courtrooms are not designed for socially distancing that many potential jurors.

Resumption of trials means that pools will be assembled in smaller numbers, and only half the usual number of people will be brought into the courtroom for jury selection, which may end up doubling the time it takes to select some juries. On the other hand, many cases have been idled for months, their defendants awaiting their day in court. Jury boxes will be set up as they were last fall, with jurists distanced from each other. Family of defendants and members of the public will be barred from attending in person, to minimize the number of people in each room, but will have access to the proceedings through YouTube.




Pre-trials, pleas, sentencings and the like have not been as affected since they draw fewer people, although what usually amounts to the cattle-call like parade of lawyers and defendants at pre-trials, when dozens of cases are handled in succession, will continue to be conducted mostly from remote locations: the defendants at their home, if they have bonded out, or from the county jail, the lawyers from their offices, and the judges from their courtrooms.

Despite the last year’s restrictions, several high-profile criminal cases have been brought to conclusion. Among them: the plea and sentencing of Dorothy Singer to 32 years in prison on a first-degree murder conviction (she had killed her husband in West Flagler), after an appeals court had ordered a new trial; the plea and sentencing to 30 years in prison of Joseph Colon, accused of first degree murder in the heroin-overdose death of Savannah Deangelis in 2017; the plea and sentencing to 50 years in prison of Michael Shimmel in the first-degree murder of his mother in 2017; the plea and sentencing of Tammy Almond, to five years in prison, for the manslaughter death of her boyfriend Darrell Wilson in Bunnell in 2018; the rejection of leniency in the life sentence of Jonathan Canales, who shot his girlfriend in the neck in the Mondex in 2014 (she survived); and the plea and sentencing to life of Brian Wirth, the father of three who’d raped his children for years.

The pandemic did not stop the Fifth District Court of Appeals from continuing its work, upholding in the main such felony convictions as that of former Supervisor of Elections Kimberly Weeks, who was then re-sentenced to a month in jail, and ordering a new trial in the case of Joseph Bova, the troubled man accused of murdering Zuheili Roman Rosado at the Palm Coast Mobil Mart on State Road 100 in February 2013.




But other trials were put on hold, including that of Keith Johansen, who faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Brandi Celenza. That trial was all but set to go last March. So was the case of Benjamin Allen, who was 16 when he was charged as an adult in the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Elijah Rizvan in Palm Coast, and who has turned down plea offers so far. His docket sounding–the last step before trial–is set for May 4.

There’s also the case of Cornelius Baker, who had been convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death, but whose case has entered a twilight zone of uncertainty since a pair of contradictory higher court rulings about whether he may or may not be re-sentenced: his original sentence followed a recommendation for death by a jury that was not unanimous. A Florida Supreme Court order invalidated that sentence, requiring a unanimous jury, only for a more recent Supreme Court decision to invalidate the earlier ruling. Baker’s fate has been dangling since. He is due for a status hearing, by Zoom, on May 25.

Support FlaglerLive's End of Year Fundraiser
Thank you readers for getting us to--and past--our year-end fund-raising goal yet again. It’s a bracing way to mark our 15th year at FlaglerLive. Our donors are just a fraction of the 25,000 readers who seek us out for the best-reported, most timely, trustworthy, and independent local news site anywhere, without paywall. FlaglerLive is free. Fighting misinformation and keeping democracy in the sunshine 365/7/24 isn’t free. Take a brief moment, become a champion of fearless, enlightening journalism. Any amount helps. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donations are tax deductible.  
You may donate openly or anonymously.
We like Zeffy (no fees), but if you prefer to use PayPal, click here.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Conner Bosch law attorneys lawyers offices palm coast flagler county
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Ed P on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 9, 2025
  • Ed P on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 10, 2025
  • Lance Carroll on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • Lance Carroll on Without a Single Question, Bunnell Board Approves Rezoning of Nearly 1,900 Acres to Industrial, Outraging Residents
  • Ray W, on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 10, 2025
  • CJ on Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris Thinks the FBI or CIA Is Bugging His Phone
  • Ray W, on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 10, 2025
  • Atwp on AdventHealth Hospitals Hire More than 800 Nurses in Flagler, Volusia and Lake Counties in Past Year
  • Michael on Flagler Beach Will Consider Selling Ocean Palm Golf Club to Leaseholder, With Conditional Milestones
  • Mothersworry on Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris Thinks the FBI or CIA Is Bugging His Phone
  • Jeff Schurman on Flagler Beach Reels at Death of SunBros Café Owner Travis Sundell, 49, ‘Passionate Part of What Makes This Town Special’
  • Ray W, on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 10, 2025
  • JimboXYZ on Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris Thinks the FBI or CIA Is Bugging His Phone
  • The Villa Beach Walker on Flagler Beach Will Consider Selling Ocean Palm Golf Club to Leaseholder, With Conditional Milestones
  • Sherry on The African Penguin May Be Extinct by 2035
  • Sherry on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 10, 2025

Log in