Gary Skelton, 67, of Bunnell, a motorcyclist, is the seventh road fatality in four weeks in Flagler. This wreck appears to have been the result of a tragic set of circumstances in the pitch darkness of County Road 302 on a rainy night.
Cops/Courts
Two Men Caught in Bunnell After Smashing Their Speeding Car and Fleeing Cops
Two men driving east at a recklessly dangerous speed on SR100 this morning smashed their car then triggered a foot and air chase before being caught by Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies.
Cop Escapee Michael Testa Turns Himself In
Michael Testa, 21, who escaped from a cop car where he’d been held after being stopped on suspicions of dealing in stolen property, had just finished writing a statement and was complaining that his bond amount would keep him in jail forever.
A Suicide in Walmart’s Parking Lot; Victim, 28, Was Connected to Tuesday’s Cop Escapee
Mike Saunders, 28, was found dead in his car in the Walmart parking lot Wednesday, of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. He had been at the wheel of the same car, with Mochael Testa, when Testa was arrested near Marvin’s Gardens the day before–and escaped from a cop car.
Flagler County Jury Finds Quritus Lowe Guilty of Murdering Retired School Teacher
Myrtle McKinney, a 58-year-old retired schoolteacher, was found bludgeoned to death, gagged and blindfolded on Christmas Day 2007. Quritus Lowe II, one of four people charged in the murder, was convicted of first-degree murder in Flagler Monday, where the trial was moved because of publicity in Palatka. He may face the death penalty.
Domestic Fight Over a Truck in P Section Turns Into a 4-Hour Ordeal of Violence, and a Jailing
Richard Lorusso, 44, of Pine Crest Lane in Palm Coast, is accused of torturing his wife for four hours–beating her, cutting her, spitting on her and keeping her prisoner–before he fled the scene and turned himself in to authorities two hours later.
Head-On Crash Hurts 3 and Closes Belle Terre South of SR100; Driver Likely Drunk
Karen Dempsey of Palm Coast was injured in a head-on crash on Belle Terre Boulevard south of 100 Friday evening. Kenneth Fuller, the driver of the Corolla in the crash, likely drunk, ran from the scene and was caught by a deputy and a K-9. Richard Deacon, a passenger in the Corolla, was severely injured.
Charges Dropped: European Village Store Owner Was Falsely Accused of Gun Assault
Dan Ferrena, owner of Palm Coast Gold Buyers at European Village, was falsely accused of threatening a customer and his children with a gun. Ferrena now faces a long road to expunge his record.
Charles Canady and Ricky Polston, Florida Supreme Court’s Scalia-Thomas Duo
The Florida Supreme Court in recent months has split by a 5-2 margin on a series of cases, with Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justice Ricky Polston siding together and offering conservative — and sometimes-stinging — dissents.
Distracted Driver Kills Josefina Reid, 54, As She Jogs; 6th Road Fatality in 20 Days
Driver Antonio Castanheira, 35, was looking back at two children in the backseat of the car he was driving when he struck Josefina Reid as she jogged in broad daylight on Sesame Boulevard in the Seminole Woods section of Palm Coast Wednesday afternoon.