Daniel Noble, the troubled veteran who fired two shots from an Uzi-style assault weapon at European Village before several patrons wrestled him to the ground two years ago, will be allowed to leave Florida for Indiana and seek treatment at a Veterans Administration facility in Indianapolis pending his trial in Flagler County possibly later this year.
Noble served in Iraq and Afghanistan and is among the roughly 20 percent of veterans deployed to those war theaters who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “I can’t keep up with what goes on in court,” he wrote from the Flagler County jail five months ago, “it’s too fast for my brain damage and messes with my anxiety, and I only remember what I write down (which is usually 25% of what takes place).” He also reminds the court he is on 100 percent disability.
He has received treatment at the Indianapolis facility before. “He was having no significant problems when he was up there and in constant contact with them,” Noble’s lawyer, John Tanner (a former state attorney for the 7th judicial circuit), told Circuit Judge Matthew Foxman in a hearing Monday. Noble was not at the hearing. After he bonded out of the county jail in June he’s been getting treatment at the Veterans Administration’s Honor Center in Gainesville and at Wekiva Springs Hospital in Jacksonville.
“The VA center in Gainesville is adequate but it’s not premium,” Tanner said, claiming the center is “oriented to moving people out as soon as possible,” whereas the Indianapolis center keeps patients three to six months, rehabilitating them from “battle-induced PTSD.”
Christy Opsahl, the assistant state attorney, objected to the move. “My concern is he’d be going so far away,” she told the judge. “Gainesville and Jacksonville are one thing, but if he’s going to out of state to Indiana, that’s my concern, how are we going to enforce these conditions?” She was referring to a set of conditions in his bond order, which require close supervision. He is in the care of his father, Tom Noble. “How are we going to be notified if anything does go wrong? And then if there is a violation, then what?”
Opsahl said if there were a violation, the county would incur additional costs if the sheriff’s office had to go to Indiana to bring back Noble. The judge, however, said the U.S. marshal service might be used in that case.
“If it’s been determined that he’s in this need of treatment, and that’s the best facility, then yes,” Foxman said, he’d grant the motion over the state’s objection.
Foxman also asked Tanner: “The case, where do you see it headed?” Tanner allowed that he was working toward “presenting a rehabilitated, healthy individual who is not going to deny what happened,” though Noble apparently doesn’t remember what happened. “Truth is that I remember little that day and little of the days a week or more prior to then because I kept black’n out due to complications/side effects” from various medications, he wrote the court in 2014, in a six-page letter that on every page included in bold, “HIGHLY SENSITIVE MATERIAL!!!” and “Judge Walsh’s eyes only” (at the time, the criminal-court judge in the county was Judge J. David Walsh.)
Noble has also been adamant in previous correspondence with the court: “You will never, ever get me to plead guilty to anything,” he wrote the court in June 2015.
In March 2014, Noble had a confrontations with patrons at Europa, left, and returned with an assault weapon before Vassili Mironov, now 30 (and himself a Navy veteran), and two of his friends–Roman Dubinschi, 25, and Joshua Auriemma, 38–jumped Noble, fought him, took the weapon and neutralized him. Mironov was injured in the eye and both hands in the scuffle, when Noble managed to stab him.
Mironov and his friends have since been recognized for their bravery at the International Peace Festival in Orlando last year, but never in Flagler or Palm Coast: “Mr. Mironov charged the gunman, taking hold of his weapon to route the line of fire away from the crowd,” his award citation read. “During the struggle, the gunman stabbed Mironov in the face and cut both of his hands in an attempt to continue his deadly intention. The weapon fired but Mironov kept his hold inspite of his injuries. With assistance from two friends, Joshua Auriemma and Roman Dubinschi, Mironov was able to finally disarm the gunman and save countless lives while risking his own.”
Mironov has since hired Flagler Beach attorney Dennis bayer and filed suit against Europa for “negligent security.” He is also suing the Flagler Beach Police Department over an arrest soon after the European Village incident, subsequent to which the charges were dropped.
Noble was initially charged with attempted first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and held on $400,000 bond. But in April 2014 the state attorney filed only two counts of aggravated battery and a count of aggravated assault, dismissing the attempted murder charge. The second and third-degree felony charges still expose Noble to many years in prison.
That’s assuming he’ll be cleared to stand trial, after his stints in rehabilitation.
palmcoaster says
Being a veteran I believe Noble needs rehab. Judge did the right thing.
Michael Feldbauer says
Judge Foxman took the advise of experts in this field and made a decision that was in the best interest of the defendant and I believe the community. Many of of 12,000 Vets in Flagler County suffer from PTSD. As many may have read our county is in discussion about a Veterns Court that will focus on helping those Vets that have been involved with court cases like this. We owe our returning Vets the opportunity to get all the help they need.
Old Lady says
I hope he gets the help he needs.
Jw says
Being a veteran what does veteran even mean? I am more than willing to pay more taxes to take care of men and woman who saw and fought in the battle field. We throw the “veteran” word around like everyone who served fought in a war. I have watched my grandfather who was shot wide open in the gut in Japan during ww2 rot in a nursing home and he saw people in the tv since I could remember him. My uncle who was a navy seal in Vietnam for 2 tours, have emotional outbursts out of no where. Neither of the two killed anyone in America. Let’s re classify those who have seen real war and applaud and honor them a little more than calling them a veteran. if I were a juror I would want to read this guys military records and see some Reall evidence that he’s ptsd and not just a normal run of the mill lunatic like a lot of people in this world.
footballen says
The judge made a great call here but that is just my opinion. None of us have experienced the training and years of practicing law that the judge has. An awful lot of really smart people decided he is the man for this job. I am absolutely sure that I am no smarter than those who put him in his place nor him so I guess it really doesn’t matter what I or any of us really think.
Vassili says
Actually I have quite a few friends in the Veterans community of Palm Coast and most of them suffer from PTSD like myself. Although we all have that in common we don’t go out and try to shoot up an unarmed crowd of people and then try to blame our condition on it. Yes there are many days that are unbearable and some where we are just hanging in there. In Daniels Noble case. He’s just a racist bigot who did what he did out of hate and now is trying to wiggle out of this situation by using his PTSD diagnosis. If you read the letters that he wrote to the judge that are mentioned in the article you’ll see that he’s actually very sound of mind and quite innovative saying that it was him who was defending himself. Also as Pierre wrote about how we were never recognized for what we did by the city of Palm coast but by an outside source. And then there was a story of how a Flagler deputy tried to save a drowning woman from her car and failed. Well he was commendated and awarded by the city of Palm coast and its Major. Not trying to be sore about all of this but when I was arrested on bogus charges at Flagler my lawyer presented the security footage that showed me completely innocent and the prosecutor still proceeded to try to charge me for six months even though none of the witnesses who claimed I started everything never showed up since they knew about the footage having been released. Some of the people close to me even tried to contact the Major, the city council and governor Rick Scott about why I was being treated this way. No answers from anybody. I guess I’m just a second class citizen…. Doesn’t matter if I’m a disabled veteran as well, stopped a mass shooting and now struggles with an even worse case of PTSD after being the victim of a hate crime just because of my heritage. Sorry if this is dragging on but I’ve stayed quiet for too long. Thank you Daniel Noble for the psychosis and daily panic attacks you’ve given me just because you found out that I have a Russian name. Thank you for the weekly psyche visits and the Survivors guilt which plagues me everyday…. Thank you Flagler beach for trying to ruin my life by arresting me for no reason. Thank you authorities of Palm coasts city council for not even blinking an eye after all this happened. I guess If my name would have been Spencer Stone I might’ve been treated differently. But no. I’m a second class citizen even after giving four years of my life to the armed forces. If you don’t like what I’ve said that’s fine. It’s just my version of things and the true version. Well at least I’m still alive. Even though I sometimes don’t feel that way. Life goes on.
” Having PTSD does not mean you’re broken.
It merely means you were put to the test and didn’t fall apart”
Oh WOW says
Vassili: Hang in there. Sorry that you were treated that way. Reach for the Moon. Wishing you the best.
Also A Veteran says
I am also a veteran and I find this story very disturbing. People got hurt and and others would have died had it not been for the gentlemen who bravely stepped in. This guy is so obviously playing the veteran card and astonishingly it’s working, not just on the judge but also on the sympathizers in this comment section. What about the the 2 recent mass murderers of the police officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas? Most ignorant people want to blame the BLM movement but did anybody catch the minor detail that both of them were veterans? Should we feel sorry for them and blame the government for their atrocities?
Being a veteran means being humble. It means being accountable for your actions. It means that you are a person of strength and character. It does NOT mean that you go around like you are a delicate wounded minority who wants sympathy and attention. It’s not about wearing the T-shirt or ballcap or slapping bumperstickers on your pickup truck proclaiming your veteran status.
This person is a deranged lunatic who was about to become a mass murderer had he not been stopped. Stop giving him sympathy because of his veteran status. Obviously he needs treatment but he needs to be held accountable like anybody else should be!
Vassili says
You hit the nail on the head. Humble enough to know I’m not better than anybody, but wise enough to know I’m different from the rest.
carol says
This is BS, double standards???
another vet says
I know way too many vets who never saw or heard a shot fired claim ptsd because its getting to be a free pass to be an ass
GWOT Veteran says
Having PTSD does not make you a ticking time bomb just waiting to go out to shoot people, having spent many years deployed myself, I have seen my share of both real cases as well as the bogus PTSD claims from pog’s who never saw combat or even went on patrols a single day of their tours.
The actual cases, the guys who just can’t adjust to civilian life after the mental trauma of combat, are being let down by the VA time and time again, there is no doubt that this can break some people and these guys need all the help they can get.
Just because some veterans are afflicted by PTSD does not mean that you should expect every veteran you meet to have a raging case of PTSD and treat that person as a victim, many of us do not have it, myself and others like me spent well over a decade seeing and doing very bad things, those memories will always be there and they are not pleasant but they are by no means a cause for PTSD for all of us and certainly not an excuse to shoot anyone.
The fact is some people are simply broken and/or mentally unstable to begin with and once you add the element of combat, or even the stress of being deployed, some of this group of people can snap and become dangerous.
Vassili says
What I don’t understand is why they dropped the attempted murder charge and the first degree assault by deadly weapon charge. Because I did kind of feel a knife sliding into my face and being shot at my feet trying to wrestle the muzzle away from the public while I was loosing several pints of blood that kept gushing out of my face wound. But again this is politics I guess. I was getting charged on bogus stuff for 6 months which was keeping me from getting a job. I bet that I’m the end he’ll just get probation….