A St. Johns County grand jury indicted Justin Boyles, 24, and Charles Massey, 38, both of Palm Coast, murder and kidnapping charges in the killing of Edward Scott Mullener on June 13 or 14. Since Mullener’s charred boidy was found in St. Johns, that’s where the court proceedings are unfolding.
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Board Members Balk at 7:25 a.m. Middle School Start Time, But Approve New Bell Schedule
Buddy Taylor and Indian Trails middle school students will have to wake up even earlier than last year when school resumes on Aug. 19, with first-bell at 7:25 a.m. and dismissal at 1:25 p.m. Most other schools’ schedules are unchanged, with high schools starting at 8 a.m. and elementaries around 9 a.m.
Pay an Issue as Flagler County Fire Chief Don Petito and Others Aim for Jobs Elsewhere
Flagler County Fire Chief Don Petito is one of a growing list of senior county staffers, especially in the fire department, who have left or are seeking to leave the department for neighboring departments where pay is significantly higher, a brain-drain issue County Administrator Craig Coffey has been warning county commissioners about this summer.
Facing Mandatory Spending, County May Raise Taxes by Nearly $100 for Median Home
In previous years, tax rate increases didn’t mean much because they were either entirely or more than offset by decreases in property values. The end result was lower tax bills for most, even as tax rates went up. That’s over. And tax rates are set to go up in every city, too.
A Year After Armed Robbery, Flagler Sheriff Nabs Dane McReynolds In Brief Stand-Off
Adam Giddens confessed to the robbery of numerous weapons at a home in Bunnell a year ago, and implicated Dane McReynolds, who had fled to Arkansas until his capture Saturday at a house on County Road 304 in Bunnell. Giddens was sentenced to three years in prison in May.
Flagler Homes’ Median Sale Price Up 28% Over Last Year as Investors Keep Buying
Sales closed on 200 single-family homes in June in Palm Coast and Flagler County, half those for cash as investors continue to buy homes. The median price of $144,500 is the best showing since February 2009. The median number of days those homes spent on the market was 71, an increase of eight days from last year.
Florida’s Self-Insured Not Likely to See Premiums Drop Much as a Result of Obamacare
New York’s announcement last week that insurance premiums would drop 50 percent next year for individuals buying their own coverage in new online marketplaces made good talking points for proponents of the health law, but consumers in most states are unlikely to see similar savings.
Demonstrating and Reporting Outrage Over Zimmerman’s Acquittal Isn’t Overkill. Shooting Trayvon Was.
Marches and other responses to the George Zimmerman trail are focusing needed attention on a culture at times too comfortable with the the paradox of imagining itself past the sort of racially motivated mindsets that made the killing of Trayvon Martin possible, argues Steve Robinson.
‘The Struggle Continues’: Civil Rights Generation Shows Palm Coast How It’s Done in 100-Voice March
Some 100 people, most old enough to have lived through the civil rights era, walked for almost 4 miles on Palm Coast Parkway Saturday morning, singing and showing their solidarity with Trayvon Martin’s family and their opposition to Florida’s stand your ground law. Several had taken part in marches dating back to the 1963 March on Washington.
Obama on Stand Your Ground and Zimmerman Aftermath: “Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago”
As protests have continued and grown, President Obama Friday afternoon spoke on the stand your ground law, the Zimmerman trial aftermath, Trayvon Martin and race more expansively and in more personal terms than he had since his speech on race from Philadelphia as a presidential candidate in 2008. The full text and video are included.
“The Serpent” Reinvents Adam, Eve, JFK’s Assassination and Theater at Palm Coast’s City Rep
Joseph Chaikin’s ‘The Serpent,” a signature of the 1960s’ Open Theater, is a daring recreation of seductions and apple bites from Genesis to the John Kennedy assassination, and it comes to Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre under the direction for John Sbordone for three performances this weekend.
Flagler’s Unemployment Back in Double Digits While Florida’s Stalls at 7.1%, Mirroring U.S.
Flagler County’s unemployment rate shot back up to 10.2 percent as 830 fewer people had jobs, one of the sharpest drops of the year, though seasonal fluctuations account for much of that drop. Florida added just 2,300 private sector jobs.
Car-Battery Explosion and Fire Injure 7 in Westminster Dr. House in Palm Coast; Drugs Suspected
Shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday, an explosion and resulting fire was reported at 33 Westminster Drive in Palm Coast, severely burning one person, sending four to a local hospital, with three others sustaining minor injuries. Authorities at the scene were suspecting drug activity in the house.
Black Man 101: Déjà Jim Crow All Over Again For African-American Parents and Their Sons
We already teach our sons to be “agreeable” and “non-challenging” with police. Must we now teach our sons to conform to some modern form of “Jim Crow etiquette” and defer to all potential bigots who come their way? Terrance Heath writes that the answer is as heartbreaking to give as it is to receive.
Home Invasion Suspect Who Bonded Out Days Ago Triggers Manhunt After Another Armed Robbery
Less than three weeks after Edmon Welch was charged with a home invasion in Bunnell, he was charged again with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following a two-hour manhunt in the Mondex involving Flagler County Fire Flight, K-9 units, Bunnell police and Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies.
Boycott Florida Movement Grows in Protest Of Stand Your Ground and Zimmerman Verdict
The boycott-Florida movement has quickly grown on social media and with such headliners as Stevie Wonder while Gov. Rick Scott and the state’s business groups downplay the effectiveness of the effort, which could nevertheless hurt the state’s tourism and convention business.
Middle School Boy Invokes Stand Your Ground in School Bus Fight With Girl, and Court Agrees
Showing the breadth of Florida’s “stand your ground” law, an appeals court Wednesday said the controversial legal defense can be used by a boy involved in a fight with a girl on a school bus. No weapons were involved. The boy making the stand your ground claim was arrested on a battery charge.
Commissioner to Lobbyist: Milissa Holland Joins Powerful Southern Strategy Group
In a pair of candid interviews, former Flagler County Commissioner Milissa Holland traced her personal and professional trajectories that took her from representing taxpayers in government to representing the special-interest clients of the Southern Strategy Group, one of Florida’s–and the nation’s–most powerful lobbying firms.
Vigilante Car Chase: 2 Men Jailed For Pursuit Through Shopping Center Parking Lots
Michael Marsh and Andrew Hubbard of Palm Coast face aggravated assault charges after pursuing another man in their car through Walgreens, Publix and Winn Dixie parking lots in Palm Coast Tuesday.
Some 600,000 Floridians Getting Rebates from Insurers Not Complying With Health Care Law
Because insurers are overspending on profits and administration instead of medical care, the amount that must be refunded in this state by Aug. 1 tops $54 million. That’s only half of what insurers had to pay in rebates to Floridians last year. Nationally, insurers are refunding $504 million.
A Tearful, Grateful Encounter Between 911 Operator and Grandmother Coached Through CPR of 2-Year-Old
Flagler County 911 operator Genice Caccavale rarely knows the aftermath of emergency calls. Today, she got to meet Alicia Fennell and 2-year-old Kelisa Bailey, whom Fennell brought back from a near-drowning Saturday as she followed Caccavale’s CPR instructions over the phone.
Bunnell’s Finance Director Resigns, Taking a Swipe at New Commission Majority
Bunnell Finance Director Cynthia Bertha–Cissy to friends and colleagues–blamed the new majority of the Bunnell City Commission for undoing City Manager Armando Martinez’s “hard work” as she explained her resignation. She is the third high-ranking administrator to either resign or be fired since that new majority took hold.
Broomstick Attack on Basketball Court Leads to Child Abuse Charges and Jail for 30-Year-Old
Several teenagers were playing basketball at the Espanola Community Center Monday evening when 30-year-old Anndra Macklin allegedly attacked one of the youths, and later got into a fight with another, a broomstick in one hand and a beer in the other.
Fail-Safe: Education Commissioner Recommends Artificial Prop-Up of School Grades
Education Commissioner Tony Bennett will ask the State Board of Education next week to prevent schools from dropping by more than one letter grade on the state report card in an effort to counter what superintendents say could be an alarming drop in grades.
Flagler 911 Operator Genice Caccavale in Remarkable Drowning Rescue of 2-Year-Old by Phone
2-year-old Kelisa Bailey was visiting her grandmother Alicia Fennell late Saturday afternoon when she briefly ended up in a pool and stopped breathing. Fennell brought her back to life as she followed the instructions of 911 operator Genice Caccavale.
Anxieties Over Profiling and Vigilantism as Bunnell Marchers Protest Zimmerman Verdict
Fewer than two dozen people gathered on South Bacher Street in Bunnell Sunday afternoon for a protest march following the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. The group turned its gathering march into an impromptu town hall on the trial, its meaning and its implications for blacks, whites and gun laws.
Zimmerman’s Gunshine State: White Man’s Verdict, Black Men’s Burden
Zimmerman is a free man, but his legacy should not be that he was “right” to do what he did. He should be viewed as the sad, angry embodiment of the fear and paranoia that would have us believe that owning a gun and using a gun are equal and inseparable rights.
Edifice Complex: Palm Coast Council Should Forget About Gang of Six’s Geezer Gimmick
The Gang of Six–the former Palm Coast City Council members wanting to build a new city hall–are showing their age with the outdated nature of their idea, argues Merrill Shapiro. The council should forget their proposal and focus on the challenges of a rapidly changing city and society.
Jaquez Roland Is Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Sharps Liquor Zip-Tie Robbery
Flagler County Judge Melissa Moore-Stens sentenced Jacquez Roland of Palm Coast to 40 years in prison without parole Friday, the harshest possible sentence he faced after being found guilty of armed robbery, grand theft and false imprisonment at the end of a four-day trial on May 23.
Sheriff: Violence Not Expected in Flagler Reaction to Trayvon Martin Verdict, But Cops Preparing Anyway
As the jury may begin deliberating Friday in George Zimmerman’s murder trial of Trayvon Martin, state and local law enforcement agencies, including Flagler’s police forces, have been coordinating a response to potentially violent reactions to the verdict.
Florida Supreme Court Green-Lights Trial Challenging Fairness of GOP Redistricting
The 5-2 ruling, which fell along common ideological lines on the court, allows a coalition of voting-rights groups to continue trying to prove that the Senate maps drawn in 2012 violate the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards added to the Florida Constitution two years earlier.
Love Triangle Gone Awry Said To Be Trigger of Gruesome Killing of Ed Scott Mullener
Details of the police investigation into the torture and killing of Edward Scott Mullener in Palm Coast’s Hammock on June 13 point to a love triangle between Mullener, Antoinette Heart and Justin Boyles. Boyles and Charles Danny Massey face first-degree murder charges.
2 Palm Coast Men Charged With 1st Degree Murder in Torture and Killing of Edward Mullener
Justin Adam Boyles, 24, and Charles Danny Massey, 38, both of 6 Holly Road in Palm Coast, allegedly beat and tortured Edward Scott Mullener of Palm Coast in mid-June before setting him on fire in his car in Flagler Estates. His smoldering car was discovered the morning of June 14. They face first-degree murder and kidnapping charges.
A 63-Year-Old Woman Cycling Up U.S. 1 Is Killed in Collision With SUV Near Belle Terre
Deborah I. Dunn, who was riding inside the white-lined shoulder on U.S. 1 Wednesday evening, is the second cyclist killed on Flagler Roads in three months, in circumstances similar to those that took the life of cyclist Frederick Martinez on State Road 100 in April.
Palm Coast Proposes to Increase Its General Fund Budget by $700,000 and Add 9 Positions
For the first time in seven years, property values have increased in Palm Coast, if only fractionally. Even so, residents will likely see a small property tax rate increase that for most would mean a slightly higher tax bill as the city continues to balance tight budgets with residents’ demands for services, and loosen the tight belt somewhat.
Upset By a Man Taking Pictures of His Girlfriend at the Pier, He Shows a Gun–and Is Arrested
26-year-old Thomas Wood was arrested and jailed Tuesday evening after he threateningly displayed a gun to another man taking pictures of the Wood’s girlfriend at the Flagler Beach Pier, according to a Flagler Beach police report. Wood did not have a permit for the gun.
Florida Lottery Sets Record With $5 Billion In Sales as Gambling’s Attraction Grows
A little more than 62 percent of the money is paid out to winners, while $1.41 billion will go to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund, though that hasn’t kept local school boards’ budgets from being cut. The voter-approved Lottery grew from $1.8 billion in sales in 1989, its first full year.
Flagler District Shelves School-Cop Posting in All Elementaries, Reverting to Previous Plan
Not expecting another case of a parent privately paying for a school cop, the Flagler County School Board Tuesday evening gave its approval to the district’s new contract with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office to provide six school resource deputies at high and middle schools only, and seven crossing guards, for the duration of the school year.
Tropical Storm Chantal Is Depressed: More Soggy Than Worrisome Weekend for Flagler
Tropical Storm Chantal is on track to skirt the east coast of the Florida Peninsula this weekend, passing offshore of Flagler County, but as a tropical depression. The National Hurricane Center’s forecast so far raises few alarms about the storm’s severity, except for heavy rainfalls in the Antilles.
Palm Coast Council Sniffs at Gang of Six Push for New City Hall, Opting for Rental Analysis
At least three council members are opposed to a new city hall, citing timing and the absence of a referendum, and in one case ridiculing a proposal put forth by aged and former council members pushing for a new building. But council members want clearer numbers about their options as the city’s three-year lease on its City Market Place digs nears expiration in November 2014.
As Democrats Dither, Local Republicans Hail Scott’s 4th Visits to Flagler in 2 Years
It wasn’t long ago that Flagler County Republicans were an embarrassment of internecine warfare as fringes and factions threatened to tear the party apart. Dave Sullivan, chairman of the Republican Executive Committee, has kept the local party cobbled together, capping the achievement with Scott’s visit for a fund-raising dinner this evening. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to be a non-entity.
Downton Abbey Makes Room for Bunnell as City Celebrates Centennial in Lavish Style
Bunnell city commissioners dressed in period costumes, the commission reenacted the very first meeting of the Bunnell Town Council in 2013, and a time capsule was buried, not to be opened until 2063, as Bunnell marked its one hundredth anniversary under a sun borrowed from the days of Genesis.
Weekend Mayhem: Machete Attack Over Voodoo, Child Abuse, Hit-and-Run; 3 Jailed
Three unrelated but violent incidents in Palm Coast capped a July 4 weekend by landing three of their alleged perpetrators–Jordan Marrero, Sean Goodison and Roodlyn Mompremier–at the Flagler County jail. All three incidents took place within a span of seven hours on Friday (July 5), between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m, but one of the suspect was not arrested until the next day, and another suspect remains at large.
As Flagler Beach Residents Bear Biggest Burdens of Changes, Commissioners Duck
More visitors and more businesses have vastly increased costs on Flagler Beach residents, but when the county stepped up with proposals to reduce those costs through some fire-house consolidation, City Commission Chairman Steve Settle said no thanks–before the commission had even considered the proposals. It’s an example of a commission that doesn’t have city residents’ best interests at heart, argues Rick Belhumeur.
Let Texas Secede
When it comes to Texas, let’s not be too eager to dismiss this secession talk, argues Steve Robinson. A sovereign nation of Texas would put it in the company of oil kingdoms like Saudi Arabia and eye-for-eye justice like Pakistan and North Korea.
Independence Day Weekend Ruffles Tricolor Blasts From Palm Coast to Flagler Beach
Palm Coast celebrated July 4 with a complete reading of the Declaration of Independence at Heroes Park before Flagler Beach let loose with its parade, its booze, food and fights, though only one person ended up incarcerated against his will, and mostly for his benefit.
It Ain’t Texas: Florida Supreme Court Reverses Two Death Sentences, Citing Mental Issues
In two separate decisions that illustrate the fallibility of death sentences, the Florida Supreme Court this week overturned the death sentences of Michael Shellito, 37, and Ralston Davis, 28, ruling in both cases that the murderers’ mental state at the time of the killings should have played a larger role in theirs sentences.
Despite Adding 600,000 Jobs in 3 Months, U.S. Unemployment Remains at 7.6%
The U.S. economy added 195,000 jobs in June, and revised numbers increased April’s and May’s totals by 70,000 for a combined three-month job creation of nearly 600,000 jobs, but the unemployment rate remained at 7.6 percent, only 0.6 percent lower than it was a year ago.
Florida Supreme Court Again Hammers Insurance Industry in Three Rulings
Florida Supreme Court justices ruled against insurance companies and in favor of policyholders and medical providers. The cases divided the court and, ultimately, all had financial implications for insurers and the other parties.
Another Floridian Goon With a Gun
The story of Jerome Hayes’s murder of Fred Turner on I-4 Saturday in a supposed case of “mistaken identity” evokes rage at the case of yet another Floridian hothead–following in the footsteps of George Zimmerman, Jacksonville’s Michael Dunn and Flagler Beach’s Paul Miller– whose temper would not have been an issue had it not been loaded in the chamber of a firearm.