Troy Victorino and Jerone Hunter were convicted in the murders of six people in a Deltona home in a case that drew national attention. The case became known as the “Xbox murders” because it involved a dispute about some of Victorino’s belongings, including an Xbox video-game system. A panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled a unanimous jury is not necessary in the two men’s death-penalty re-sentencing.
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Montessori School Owner Kerri Huckabee, 54, Arrested on 3 Felonies in Dispute with Flagler Beach Neighbors
Kerri Ann Huckabee, 54, the long-time owner of the Montessori school in Flagler Beach that moved to Bunnell in 2018, was arrested on three felony charges, including a second degree felony, and for kicking two police officers, and was booked at the Flagler County jail. The arrest was the result of long-running antagonism toward her neighbors on South 23rd Street since they moved in in 2018.
Don’t Blame Us Seniors for the Affordability Crisis. Blame Developers.
A Hammock resident rejects the claim that Palm Coast’s and Flagler County’s seniors “contribute least” as they buy up homes, or that they are to blame for the housing affordability crisis. Rather, developers convince your fearless leaders that they cannot make any money unless they cram in as many houses on a property as possible. They convince commissioners to change zoning frequently, for profit.
College Football Reflects America As it Really Is: Indefensible In a Civilized World
It’s college football season in Florida and you know what that means: trash talking, martial metaphors, peculiar rituals involving animals, bizarre clothing in colors not found in nature, bad grammar, mansplaining, and racism. College football reinforces some of our least attractive stereotypes — those Black kids sure are fast! — and extreme gender roles, as well: huge dudes on the field knocking the living hell out of each other, while small (though quite athletic) women with incongruously large bows in their hair cheer them on.
Sean Barry, 33, Found Hanging at County Jail and Dies at Hospital. He’d Been Waiting for a Drug-Treatment Bed.
Sean E. Barry, a 33-year-old resident of Butternut Avenue in Bunnell’s Mondex, died at AdventHealth Palm Coast on Thursday afternoon, five days after he was found hanging in an apparent suicide attempt at the Flagler County jail. Barry was not at the jail on a criminal charge, but on a Marchman Act motion his sister had filed with the court in early August as she sought to get him the drug treatment help he needed.
Flagler County Approves Higher Taxes, Palm Coast Stays Level, But Claims of ‘Historic’ Rollback Are Inaccurate
Palm Coast and Flagler County government this week adopted their budgets and tax rates for the 2023-24 fiscal year with little controversy and so few people in the audience at final hearings that you could count them on one hand. The county raised taxes, the city kept its taxes flat. Palm Coast going back to the rolled back rate was not unique, as some council members claimed or thought.
At Root of Palm Coast’s Affordable Housing Crisis: We Got Our Own. Screw the Rest.
We have a housing crisis in Palm Coast. Too few houses, too few apartments, discriminatory zoning and homesteading laws that make the problem worse. We who live in our sprawling, property-tax-sheltered single-family houses not only see these laws as entitlements. We want the door to more development closed behind us. We got our own. Screw the rest. So just when we need it most, affordable housing is becoming a dirty word.
Up to 210 Homes Approved on Old Kings Road South of SR100 But Polo Club West Neighbors Have Worries
The Palm Coast Planning Board recommended approval of a rezoning of 62 acres on Old Kings Road some 2.5 miles south of State Road 100 that will clear the way for up to 210 small homes, hours after the Palm Coast City Council annexed the property into the city, from the county. The property is adjacent to Polo Club West, an upscale equestrian community where residents have been worried about the effects of a more dense development on their privacy and property values.
‘Faith’ Bridge Over SR100 Goes from Maligned to Acclaimed as It Opens, But in the Absence of Its Champion
Flagler County and city officials inaugurated the formal opening of the $12.3 million pedestrian bridge over State Road 100, five years in the making, with speeches and a dedicatory run by the Flagler Palm Coast High School track team. But its leading champion, Faith al-Khatib, was absent.
UCF May Close Three Campuses
The state university system’s Board of Governors on Wednesday will consider proposals by the University of Central Florida to close three campuses no longer in use. The proposals involve the South Orlando Campus, the UCF Leesburg campus and the UCF Palm Bay campus.
School Board Trio Will Hire an Attorney to Help Them Fire Board’s Attorney of 17 Years
The Flagler County School Board has assigned fellow-board member Will Furry to hire a labor attorney–at the district’s expense–who will then shepherd them through firing Kristy Gavin, the board’s attorney, without risking a lawsuit. Board members Sally Hunt and Christy Chong pushed the idea of outside counsel. Board Chair Cheryl Massaro joined them in assigning Furry.
Rezoning Enabling Up to 850 Homes in Seminole Woods Causes Sharp Debate Before Palm Coast Approval
The Palm Coast City Council today approved on a pair of 4-1 votes land use changes that clear the way for up to 850 housing units on 375 acres on the west side of Seminole Woods Boulevard, three miles south of State Road 100. The proposal, for a project called Cascades, drew sharp opposition from City Council member Theresa Pontieri and an equally sharp defense from the developer, Jeff Douglas of Douglas Properties. The exchange drew in the mayor and other council members and reflects a recurring debate in Palm Coast over the speed, density and purpose of development.
A Mixed Bag in New Rankings of Florida’s Colleges and Universities as DeSantis Polarization Dims Luster
Florida universities, which have been in the center of national polarization for months, have seen a mixed bag in U.S. News & World Report college rankings, with both positive and negative views and some changes in the methodology. Florida has been bombarded by the anti-woke rhetoric and action of Gov. Ron DeSantis and conservative politicians who are pushing higher education reforms and policies such as post-tenure reviews that have been blasted by faculty unions.
Fractured Leadership: Few Questions Asked, Fewer Concerns Raised Ahead of Segregated Assemblies, Investigation Reveals
Bunnell Elementary school’s leadership environment that enabled a trio of teachers to hold assemblies targeting only Black students last month was disjointed, incurious, careless and oblivious to the optics of segregating Black students in the name of improving test scores, regardless of their academic standing, a pair surprisingly limited and identical internal investigations reveal.
‘Savannah Asked Me To Never Be Silent.’ A Survivor of Brenan Hill’s Violence Speaks.
Brenan Hill was convicted on Friday for the murder of Savannah Gonzalez, 22. Shanell Torchia was a previous victim of Hill’s violence, and the mother of his child: he was a fugitive from justice, and the charges she had filed, when he shot Gonzalez. Torchia speaks out about her experience, her friendship with Savannah, and the dangerous leeway granted abusers.
Crazy and Cruel Sell Well in Florida. So Scott Is Running Again.
In response to the NAACP, the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign warnings that travel to Florida could be hazardous to people of color, LGBTQ people, or people who just believe in decency and tolerance, Scott posted a huffy hunk of mansplaining on that X-thing that everyone still calls Twitter, warning “socialists and communists” and suchlike to stay out of Florida.
Felony Charge for Mom Who Left Child Alone With Dead Man After Night of Sex and Drugs at Hammock Resort
The State Attorney’s Office filed a third-degree felony child neglect charge against Amy M. Kemper, 32, of Richland Place in Palm Coast on Thursday. The charge is in connection with an incident at the Hammock Beach Resort on Sept. 9 involving drugs and group sex in the proximity of Kemper’s 11-year-old child, and that ended with the death of a 60-year-old man, according to her arrest report and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Florida Under DeSantis Is Ground Zero of Voter Disenfranchisement
DeSantis and the malleable Florida Legislature have cracked down on political protest, asylum seekers, the LGBTQ community, and women and trans men who might need abortions, among others. In elections litigation alone, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition sued the state in federal court in Miami alleging the state has erected barriers to felons hoping to regain their voting rights under 2018’s Amendment 4, which the organization sponsored.
City Repertory Theatre’s Audacious New Season Runs from ‘Perfect’ Love to Witch’s Cat to Freud’s Lingerie
Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre’s news season includes heady classics rarely staged in East-Central Florida: “Educating Rita” and Edward Albee’s unnerving “The Zoo Story.” There are acclaimed but off-the-radar, even experimental works: “Vinegar Tom,” Caryl Churchill’s Brechtian take on 17th-century witchcraft trials, and Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s bizarro, undirected “White Rabbit Red Rabbit.” Contemporary works include “Edges: A Song Cycle” and the comedy “Hysteria,” wherein Salvador Dalí meets Sigmund Freud.
Third Cyclist Killed in 6 Weeks, on Narrow CR 302, as Flagler County’s 2-Wheel and Pedestrian Fatalities Rise
A 51-year-old Palm Coast man cycling on County Road 302 early this morning died in a crash involving two vehicles, the third cyclist to die on Flagler County’s roads in six weeks. County Road 302 is a narrow two-lane road with no shoulders, no bike lanes and no street lights.
Jury Finds Brenan Hill Guilty In Murder of Savannah Gonzalez, and Faces 25 Years to Life in Prison
A jury of four women and two men found Brenan Hill guilty of second degree murder and two other charges in the shooting death of Savannah Gonzalez, 22, after deliberating two hours and 45 minutes today. He faces life in prison when Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, who presided over the five-day trial, sentences him at a later date.
Malacompra Beach Annexation Into Palm Coast Draws Frosty but Not Fatal Response from Joint Committee
The joint local government committee of county and city representatives that met for the second time approached at arm’s length Palm Coast City Council member Theresa Pontieri’s proposal that Palm Coast annex into the city the county beach and access at Malacompra Road.
Florida’s ‘Voucher’ System Adds 123,000 Students Attending Private School at Public Expense
Nearly 123,000 new students have received private-school vouchers after state lawmakers this year passed a major expansion of voucher programs, while a group that administers the programs says they will not bring an “exodus” from public schools as critics have predicted.
Brenan Hill Takes Stand in His Defense, Weeping, then Seething that Shooting Savannah Gonzalez Was an ‘Accident’
It was not an exactly calm man the jury saw when Brenan Hill took the stand this afternoon in his own defense. Not the sort of man who helped himself much in his trial on a second-degree murder charge that could send him to prison for life if he is convicted: when the prosecution cross-examined him, he was angry, exasperated and at times barely responsive.
Ed Danko Attacks City Staffer With Baseless Claims in Public Meeting, Drawing Sharp Rebuke from Mayor
Palm Coast City Council member Ed Danko verbally attacked and disparaged the city’s resiliency and sustainability officer in a public meeting on Tuesday, baselessly calling her presentation “propaganda,” questioning why she had a job, and sparring with Mayor David Alfin, who brought him under control.
Kwentel Moultrie Pleads to Murder, Will Serve 45 Years in Prison on Series of Convictions
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.
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.
Palm Coast Council’s Pontieri Makes Startling Move to Annex Malacompra Park: ‘Our Citizens Are Entitled to Their Own Beach’
In a startling proposal that may revive city-Hammock conflicts dormant since the mid 2000s, Palm Coast City Council member Theresa Pontieri on Tuesday said the city should consider annexing the county’s Malacompra Park so Palm Coast can have its own beach. The idea did not get a warm reception from fellow council members or others.
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.
Flagler Beach Will Consider New Impact Fees for Fire, Police, Parks, and Library, and Higher Fees for Water and Sewer
The Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday will vote on what could be the single-largest tax increase on development in the city’s history. The city is considering adopting higher impact fees on water and sewer connection, and imposing new impact fees for police, fire, parks and recreation services, which it has not had until now.
Florida Wants ‘Marsy’s Law,’ Designed for Crime Victims, to Prevent Death Penalty Appeals
Nearly five years after voters passed a constitutional amendment about victims’ rights, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office Monday urged the Florida Supreme Court to use the measure to make it harder for Death Row inmates to get stays of execution.
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.
Flagler County Joins St. Johns in Banning ‘Floating Structures’ Used as Unregulated Party Stores on Waterways
A month after St. Johns County did so, the Flagler County Commission last week banned all floating structures used on county rivers, lakes or inlets “like a neighborhood convenience store on the water,” as a county memo describes them, and that the county considers unregulated nuisances that at times damage the surrounding ecology.
Dead White Males Return: Behind Florida GOP’s Push for Christian-Leaning Classic Learning Test Instead of SAT
The new Classic Learning Test has been pushed by conservative politicians and religious activists as an alternative to the SAT and ACT, and will now be accepted as a measure of admission in Florida colleges and universities. Of the 12 private institutions in Florida that now accept the CLT, 11 are religiously affiliated.
Even A Great Superintendent Can’t Fix a Clueless School Board
If you think the appointment of LaShakia Moore as superintendent will make a difference, think again. Moore’s biggest job will be to run interference to save what’s left of this district from the Huns, because the problem was never with the administration or the ranks. It’s with the majority of a board that doesn’t know its role, doesn’t know its limits, and doesn’t know education from flip-flops.
Should You be Worried About Monster Hurricane Lee? Models and Emergency Chief Say No, But Erosion a Concern
For the last several days, Hurricane Lee, the most powerful storm of the season yet and a potential record-breaker, has been as if making a beeline for Florida, from the middle Atlantic. But models and Flagler County’s emergency management director say the hurricane in five days will make an abrupt turn north well before it comes near the Florida Peninsula. Still, the dangerous storm is expected to cause more erosion on an already weakened Flagler County shore, with hurricane season just beginning to peak.
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.
Bunnell Elementary Principal Evensen Resigns, Saying She ‘Certainly’ Does Not Deserve What’s Happening to Her
Donelle Evensen this morning announced her resignation as Bunnell Elementary principal five weeks after being named to the position, and not quite three weeks after being placed on leave following her approval of an assembly where faculty segregated Black students. At no point in either letters does Evensen take responsibility or offer any regret for the tenor of the assembly or the misjudgments that led to it.
Flagler County Bans Beach Bonfires in Turtle-Nesting Season, Joining Prohibitions Long in Place in 3 Towns
Thirteen years ago, after much controversy, the Flagler Beach City Commission banned bonfires on the beach during turtle season. Beverly Beach and Marineland have similar bans. But it was only on Monday that the ban extended to the rest of the county’s beaches–18 miles of shoreline in all–as the County Commission voted 5-0 to approve an ordinance.
Flagler School Board’s Sally Hunt Hijacks New Superintendent’s Triumph with a Hit List of Resentments
The highlight at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Flagler County School Board should have been the triumphal appointment of LaShakia Moore as superintendent, a rare unifying moment for an often divided school board. It was briefly all that, until School Board member Sally Hunt hijacked the occasion with what amounted to a hit list for coming meetings: School Board attorney Kristy Gavin. School Board Chair Cheryl Massaro. The school board’s own conduct. “Bullies.” “The media.”
$12.3 Million Pedestrian Bridge Over State Road 100 Gets Its Grand Opening on Sept. 19
The tin-tented, recently rust-painted and frequently derided pedestrian bridge over State Road 100 will get its public grand opening celebration the afternoon of September 19. A coat of darkening chemicals was applied to the tipi-like stainless steel tent over the bridge to diminish its reflection’s almost blinding effect at sunup and sundown, depending on which direction one was traveling.
With K-12 Health Standards Mum on Abortion, Younger Floridians Seek More Influence Ahead of Court Case
The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Sept. 8 on the abortion issues and could reverse the course the court set more than 30 years ago. Some young Floridians are turning to the future of reproductive freedom in Florida, as through Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that launched a pro-abortion initiative to add a constitutional referendum on reproductive freedom to the November 2024 ballot.
LaShakia Moore Appointed Superintendent in Historic Vote, But Occasion Is Marred by Grievances
The Flagler County School Board this evening voted unanimously to appoint LaShakia Moore superintendent, eliminating the “interim” part of the title she had held since July 1 and making her the first Black superintendent in the county’s history. But it wasn’t entirely a joyful occasion.
Witnesses Say C.J. Nelson Jr. Had ‘Handled’ Jammed Gun Before Shooting of 18-Month-Old Girl
C.J. Nelson Jr., the 21-year-old resident of 2 Ranwood Lane arrested the night of the fatal shooting of an 18-month-old girl at that house Sunday, was said by “more than one” witness in the house that he had been handling the gun that fired the fatal shot, and that he had described the gun as “jammed” before the shooting, according to his arrest report.
In Commanding Control of Her Interview and the Board, LaShakia Moore Appears Poised to Be Voted Superintendent
LaShakia Moore this morning was fully in control of a Flagler County School Board that has often been unmoored and adrift for much of the past year as she parried questions and asserted how she would handle her first hundred days as superintendent, if the board were to appoint her into that role this evening. There seems to be little doubt that this evening’s vote will be anticlimactic, and that come 5:15 p.m., Moore will be voted the new, permanent superintendent.
Judge Rules Unconstitutional DeSantis Plan That Eliminated Black Representation
Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh ruled that a congressional redistricting plan pushed through the Legislature by Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the Florida Constitution and needs to be redrawn. The judge sided with voting-rights groups in a lawsuit focused on a North Florida district that in the past elected Black Democrat Al Lawson but was dramatically revamped during the 2022 redistricting process. White Republicans won all North Florida congressional districts in the November elections.
Channeling George Wallace, DeSantis Uses Education to Keep Blacks Down
Despite those idiotic “Build the Wall” campaign ads, he didn’t seem to be a Trump-style racist when he took office in 2019. There was hope he’d acknowledge our sad history and move us toward a more equitable society. But he didn’t. And he isn’t. Maybe the Napoleonically ambitious DeSantis decided white nationalism was his ticket to the Republican presidential nomination. His racism is less overt than Trump’s or George Wallace’s but almost as damaging.
Flagler Sheriff’s Corrections Deputy Colin Haggerty Arrested for Boating Under the Influence on the Intracoastal
Colin Haggerty, a 38-year-old Flagler County Sheriff’s corrections deputy, was arrested and charged with boating under the influence of alcohol on Saturday (Sept. 2) in the Intracoastal just north of the Hammock Dunes Bridge.
Stop Blaming Line Workers for Poor Service. It’s CEOs’ Fault.
Ever get mad at a delivery driver for bringing your pizza late? Stop, and consider: It’s late because an overpaid boss is probably making two employees do the job of 10 as chronic but unnecessary and often intentional understaffing plagues many of America’s largest retailers and fast food corporations.
Sisco Deen, Giant Archivist and Historian of Flagler County from One of Its Original Families, Dies at 83
Claude Sisco Deen, Flagler County’s premier archivist and a leading historian of local families and culture, died Thursday evening in Palm Coast a little after sunset. He had been the research maven behind Flagler County’s centennial in 2017, was that year’s Flagler County Veteran of the Year, and built unparalleled databases of local family histories and historical documents.