Weekly Crime Reports: August 23-29, 2010

The following incident and arrest information was compiled using official documents, reports and affidavits obtained from government and law enforcement agencies. This feature is not inclusive. It is a sampling of reported incidents in the Flagler County area. Note: The U.S. legal system provides the presumption of innocence to those charged with a crime until guilt is proven in a court of law.

Kangaroo Robbery

Just before 9 p.m. on Aug. 22, a deputy responded to a call at the Palm Harbor Parkway Kangaroo Express convenience store in reference to a general panic alarm. Upon arriving, Flagler County Sheriff’s Corporal Lutz and Deputy Gimbel had already made contact with a witness who confirmed that the store had just been robbed. The witness said that the suspect came in the store and appeared to be holding his collar up over his face. She said that the suspect walked over to the refrigerator coolers and lowered his collar. The witness said that a second person walked in the store at the same time so she focused her concentration on her. The witness said that when that customer left the store the suspect ran from the coolers to the front counter and said: “Open the register and give me the money.”

The witness said that she stepped towards the register and tried to push the panic alarm button, but the suspect held out a knife and pushed it towards her saying: “I’m
not playing, if you don’t listen it will only get worse.” The witness said she gave him the cash from the register. The amount taken: $73. Several additional deputies came to the scene and took a copy of the surveillance DVD. The suspect was described as a black male, wearing a multi-colored flannel shirt with a black undershirt, white sneakers, brown/khaki shorts, possible tattoos on his arms, approximately 45 years old, with short grey hair, and approximately 6 foot tall.

Passed Out Drunk at the Wheel of His Car on Old Kings Rd.

At 8 p.m. on Aug. 22 a deputy was dispatched to a suspicious vehicle. A witness had reported that a green Mustang had pulled over on the side of the road with its lights on and that it looked like the driver was passed out or sleeping.

The deputy observed Gary Watts, 52, a white male of 2, Chervil Way in Palm Coast, passed out in the driver seat of a green Ford Mustang at the intersection of Old Kings Rd. and Matanzas Woods Pkwy. After several attempts to get the driver to wake up, the deputy opened the driver side door. Watts slowly acknowledged the presence of the deputy. It took several attempts, but Watts finally turned off the vehicle and handed over the keys. Even though the deputy had the keys, Watts still tried to drive the vehicle away from the scene. With the assistance of a second deputy, the officers took Watts out of his car.

Watts was unable to stand on his own two feet without leaning against his vehicle. While leaning against his vehicle Watts fell to the ground. He was unable to provide any identification, but his security guard name tag that he was wearing said “Gary Watts.” Watts handed his wallet to a deputy, who found his Florida driver’s license. Since Watts was not able to stand on his own feet, a field sobriety test was not conducted. Watts was placed under arrest and transported to the Flagler County jail, where he provided two breathalizer samples. The first showed an alcohol level of .335, the second, .336, well over the legal limit.

Robbery on Shady Oaks Dr.

At 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 22, a burg;ary was reported at 500 Shady Oaks Dr. in Palm Coast. Two roommates live in the house. One of them had left without locking the door. A 36-inch RCA flat-screen television, a 32-inch Proscan flat-screen television, an XBOX 360 with controllers, a Play Station 3 with controllers and an Apple Mac Book Pro were all reported stolen. The serial number for the Mac was W884IOEBIGO. No others erial number was provided.

Violence at McDonald’s on Old Kings

Two victims, Jenny Guerrero, 24, and Crissy McHale, 19, reported a physical disturbance at the Old Kings Road McDonalds at Palm Coast Parkway On Aug. 22. A deputy noticed a bruise about 1 to 2 inches in diameter on Guerero’s forehead, but neither woman wanted an ambulance.

Guerrero said the two of them were at a friend’s house at Farraday Lane. McHale, who’s pregnant, got hungry. She was craving McDonald’s. Guerrero said a black man and another named “Oompa” drove the two of them to McDonald’s in a tan in color minivan. Guerrero didn’t know the actual names of the two men. Guerrero and
McHale were sitting in the middle section of the mini van. Guerrero said she could hear the driver’s girlfriend speaking to him on the phone, yelling and screaming at him the whole way to McDonald’s for taking the women there.

While sitting in the drivethru lane at McDonald’s, a white four-door sedan pulled directly next to the mini van, driven by a man. A woman was in the passenger seat. A man and a woman were sitting in the back. The white female in the passenger seat–short, dirty blonde-brown hair, wearing a white shirt–stepped out and approached the minivan. She opened the rear door of the passenger side and started yelling and cursing at Guerrero and McHale, pulling Guerrero out of the vehicle. By then the other occupants of the sedan were out of the car. The front seat female and rear seat female (sisters, apparently) began hitting, punching and slapping Guerrero several times around the head and neck. in the head and neck area. The beating over, everyone got back into the vehicle and left. Including the minivan Guerrero and McHale had been driven in. Guerrero and McHale were left stranded at McDonald’s. The sheriff’s report does not note whether the placed an order.

McHale related the same events as Guerrero, noting that while Guerrero was being punched and slapped, McHale attempted to get up out of her seat to help her, but that a male in the sedan pushed her back down into the seat. McHale said she tried to again get up out of the seat, but the male punched her. A McDonald’s employee corroborated the story. By the time the employee had fetched a manager, the incident was over.

Guerrero attempted to find out some of the suspects’ names by calling a mutual friend. While attempting to do so, the tan minivan she’d been driven in pulled up. “That’s the girl, that’s her right there,” Guerrero said. A deputy went to the minivan and saw a black male driver and a white female passenger with an infant in a car seat in the back of the vehicle. Guerrero identified the male as the one who’d driven her, and the woman as the one who’d allegedly assaulted her. Guerrero and McHale both wanted to press charges against them. The woman in the minivan, however, said “nothing” had happened. “Nothing happened?” the deputy asked. “Nothing happened,” she replied. The woman, who is either 16 or 17, was placed under arrest.

The black male driver was Karl Brown Jr., 18, of Fairhill Lane. Brown was able to make contact with the father of the juvenile girl who’d been placed under arrest, and who by then was in a patrol car. When the girl’s father arrived, he demanded that she be taken out of the car. “I know my rights and that fact that she is a juvenile,” he said. “I demand you take her out of your car right now.” A deputy told him that the girl would be taken out of the car once the paperwork was done. He said he could sign charges against the other female because she was over 25 years old and that his juvenile daughter could never beat her up. To do that, a deputy told the father, he would have to go to the State Attorney’s office, which got him upset. He wanted to press charges right there. Rebuffed, he said he would sue the county. He prevented the juvenile from signing the papers, saying his lawyer had advised him against it.