Alphonso Bernard Rock of Jacksonville was arrested in connection with the stolen buses, recovered in Gainesville Wednesday, but the buses no longer belong to the school district, which on Tuesday approved an $812,700 purchase of seven new buses, including two with the insurance-recovery money.
Cops/Courts
Accused Palm Coast Carjacker Verdone Had Sought to Go to Virginia With 15-Year-Old Runaway
Swift detective work led to five felony charges against Giuseppe Verdone Jr.—who goes by “Joe”—the 22-year-old habitual Palm Coast offender accused of carjacking and severely injuring a Chinese-food delivery man Saturday before fleeing the state with a 15-year-old girl who had previously been listed as missing.
Gentle Warning Beep as Flagler’s $10 Million Emergency Radio System Approaches Its End
It’s less than eight years since Flagler spent $10 million to upgrade its county-wide communications to an 800 MHz system, to which some 1,500 radios from police, fire, municipal and county agencies are attached. That system is set to reach its official life’s end in 2017, requiring county government to start now to examine how it will replace it, and how it’ll pay for the replacement.
Charged With Assault, Thomas Merrill, 69, Denies Threatening a Woman With a Gun
Thomas R. Merrill, a 69-year-old resident of Beaverdam Lane in Palm Coast, was booked at the Flagler County jail on an assault charge after getting in an alleged altercation involving a gun with a woman who was living with him. He is the father of William Carson Merrill, the man sentenced to 25 years in prison for accidentally shooting and killing his wife in Palm Coast early last year.
Trevor Blumenfeld, 19, Is Shot While Skateboarding in Palm Coast’s LL-Section; Shooter Is At Large
Trevor Blumenfeld, 19, was shot while skateboarding in the area of Llovera Place and Lloyd Trail the Palm Coast neighborhood just south of the Flagler County Airport, just before 8 Monday evening. He was evacuated by air to Halifax hospital. His assailant was still at large.
Point Pleasant Dr. Tragedy: A Brief Stand-Off Amid Tears, a Refusal of Help, Then a Gunshot
Joshua Schmidt Roberson, 23, shot himself in the head in a construction lot on Palm Coast’s Pleasant Drive early Friday morning after a brief stand-off with deputies, and after calling 911 five times in tears, but refusing help.
Palm Coast Delivery Man Carjacked and Dumped on Parkway Ahead of Assailants’ 3-State Crime Spree
Giuseppe Verdone Jr., who four years ago set off a bottle bomb at a Palm Coast bus stop, is accused with an underage girl accomplice of carjacking Ming Gong, 43, and dumping him on palm Coast Parkway before taking his car on a crime spree through Georgia and South Carolina, where Verdone and the girl were arrested.
Third Suspect in Hunting Camp Rape Case Surrenders, One Still at Large: Frank Goggans
Shortly after midnight this morning, Kurt Benjamin, the third of four suspects in the alleged rape of a woman at the Cowart Hunting Camp on March 20, was booked in at the Flagler County jail. Frank Goggans remains at large.
Woman Hurt in Belle Terre Wreck at Ponce de Leon as Rain Adds to Hazards
A woman was transported to Florida Hospital Flagler following a two-car wreck just before noon Saturday at Belle Terre Parkway and Ponce de Leon Drive in Palm Coast. The second driver, Christopher Maher, 18, of Palm Coast, was shaken but unhurt, though his car was severely damaged.
Hunting Camp Rape: Charles Cowart Turns Himself In; U.S. Marshals Hunting For 3 Remaining Suspects
Charles “Skeeter” Cowart, one of the four men wanted in the alleged kidnapping and gang-rape of a woman in Flagler Beach and at the Cowart Hunting Camp in western Flagler County on March 20, turned himself in at the Flagler County jail early Thursday afternoon. U.S. Marshals are hunting for the remaining three suspects–Daniel and Frank Goggans, of 65 Leidel Drive in Palm Coast, and Kurt Benjamin of 31 Poinsettia Lane in Palm Coast.