Kwentel Moultrie, the 24-year-old former Palm Coast resident convicted last year of raping a 16-year-old girl, this morning pleaded guilty to a second degree murder charge and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He will serve that sentence consecutively to the 10-year sentence for the rape charge.
Circuit & County Court
Almost a Good Day for Brenan Hill in Murder Trial: Jury Does Not Hear Him Speak. Then the Hammer Falls.
In the third day of trial for Brenan Hill, 34, who faces a second-degree murder charge in the shooting death of Savannah Gonzalez, 22, the prosecution built its case through forensic evidence and almost a dozen witnesses today, including testimony from a firearm expert who appeared to all but demolish the defense’s claim that Hill could fire the gun accidentally, as he claims.
Jury Hears Brenan Hill in a Confederacy of Lies About Shooting that Led to Girlfriend’s Death
Brenan Hill lied at least six times times about what led to him shooting Savannah La-Rynn Gonzalez in the head on March 26, 2021, including a lie to his mother. The 22-year-old Palm Coast woman never recovered. She died last Nov. 9. The jury heard most of those lies today in Hill’s second day of trial on a second-degree murder charge that could send him to prison for life if he’s convicted.
Jury Selection in Brenan Hill’s Trial on Murder Charge Keys In on Guns, Violence and Intent
Brennan Hill, 32 at the time, shot Savannah Gonzalez in March 2021 near the Microtel in Palm Coast. Hill’s attorney, made his intentions clear in his remarkably brief interactions with potential jurors at the end of a day of jury selection Monday: the shooting was accidental. It had nothing to do with domestic violence. It was a homicide, but not a murder.
Obviously, the prosecution disagrees, though it did not tip its hand today as Bettman did.
Law Enforcement, Court and Incident Round-Up: Sept. 1-8
Running a stop sign leads to an arrest on two felonies, a bored inmate triggers a fire sprinkler, four are arrested for illegally picking palmetto berries, a child drowns in Seminole Woods, Brendan Depa’s pre-trial is postponed.
Ex-Matanzas Student Facing Adult Gun and Molestation Charges Here Is Attending High School in Wisconsin
Marshall Thomas, the former Matanzas High School student who was charged as an adult with gun theft and, separately, charged as an adult with the sexual assault of a Matanzas student at school in May 2022, was enrolled in a charter school in northern Wisconsin after posting $60,000 bond in Flagler County. Both cases are pending, with Thomas’s next scheduled pre-trial in Circuit Court in Bunnell on Oct. 11. A parent in Wisconsin is concerned about Thomas’s presence among students there.
Brendan Depa, Now 18, Is Transferred to the Flagler County Jail to Await Trial
Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School student facing a first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery in the beating of a school paraprofessional last February, has been transferred to the Flagler County jail, from the Duval Regional Detention center in Jacksonville, where he’d been held for the past six months.
Gabriella Alo Pleads Out in Brutal, Dual Flagler Beach Attack, Leaving Herself Open to Steep Prison Sentence
Gabriella Alo, the 19-year-old woman accused, with her brother, of beating a teen and running over a woman’s foot at Wickline Park last January, pleaded to numerous charges that add up to a potential 67 years in prison, though she will likely face considerably less than that when she’s sentenced on Dec. 1. How much less is the question: she tendered an open plea to Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, who is neither softie nor sadist.
Lyonel Jeune, 65, Arrested on 1st Degree Felony Charge in Hit-and-Run Death of William Rembert, 56
Lyonel Jeune, a 65-year-old resident of Beacon Mill Lane in Palm Coast, was arrested over the weekend and charged with a first-degree felony in the hit-and-run death of William Joseph Rembert, 56, on Dec. 1, 2021, at Palm Coast Parkway and Leanni Way, near Belle Terre Parkway. The charge carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison on conviction.
Collin Calvert, 21, Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison Over Armed Robbery of Palm Coast Store for Strip Joint Money
Colin Calvert, the 21-year-old man who stole a rifle, robbed a Palm Coast convenience store of nearly 5,000 in cash, which he put in a Happy Meal box, spent all the money at a strip joint, then burglarized a gun store, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, followed by five years on probation.