The two teen-agers involved in a home-invasion robbery in Palm Coast’s P Section in December 2020 will plead to felony charges that could have resulted in life in prison, but will instead carry a penalty of a maximum of 15 years, and possibly as little as 10–the mandatory minimum. The prosecutor will push for 15. Defense attorneys will aim for 10.
The two boys, who are held at a juvenile detention facility, appeared by video link today in a hearing before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, who was in his Bunnell courtroom, to work out the plea arrangements with their attorneys. The pleas will be formally entered in March, and they will be sentenced a few weeks after that.
The case stems from one of the more violent incidents in Palm Coast in the last few years, involving seven victims at a residence on prospect Lane, some of whom were beaten, several of whom were injured. The victims were three women, ages 20, 20 and 47, two men, 22 and 23, and two boys, 16 and 17. The assailants took $1,300 in cash and items of value. The violence was captured on home surveillance cameras. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office captured the three assailants within hours. A fourth assailant was not captured. (See: “Federal Felon and 2 Teens Arrested in Armed Home Invasion-Robbery on Palm Coast’s Prospect Lane.”)
Darius Watts is 17 years old. He was 15 when he was one of three people arrested on charges of home-invasion robbery on Prospect Lane in Palm Coast. The others were Korie Jones, 15, and Carlos Dupree, 34. Dupree intends to take his case to trial.
Watts was 9–it was two days after his ninth birthday–when he was first arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, interfering with a school administrator’s functions and battery, according to his juvenile detention record. He was 10 when he was arrested for criminal mischief and damaging property. At age 12, he was arrested again for disturbing the peace at school and resisting an officer. At age 13, he was arrested on his first weapons charge: firing into a building. At age 14, was arrested on a charge of stealing a gun.
Then came the most serious charges in that incident in December 2020 on prospect Lane: Home invasion robbery, armed burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, and two other felony charges since dropped.
Until that incident, Jones had no juvenile justice record in Florida. Like Dupree, he is from St. Louis. But he faces the same charges that Watts does, and would plead to the same arrangement.
Attorney Richard Price is representing Jones. All charges would be dismissed by the home invasion robbery and false imprisonment charges. “We’ll be asking the judge for the lower end of that agreement,” Price said. Price was appearing from his own office, by video link. He told Jones that the day of the sentence, he would have his family present, pleading to the judge for leniency. He also faces an undetermined number of years on probation: it could be for life.
Watts was more perplexed by the offer. He did not seem to be on the same page with his attorney. “I did briefly discuss that with him in Duval County Jail yesterday. I’m not sure if he’s willing to accept that or not,” Anthony Leonard, his attorney, told Perkins. (Leonard is a court-appointed lawyer with the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel).
“The only choices remain are an open plea or going to trial,” the attorney told Watts. “And as I know you’re adamant about not going to trial, so that leaves the one option, it would be an open plea.” An open plea would expose him potentially to a much steeper sentence: since there was an allegation of a gun firing, he could have a minimum sentence of 20 years in an open plea.
“When did you come to see me?” Watts asked his attorney.
“I will come to see before your next court date,” Leonard told him. Watts wanted a continuation of the hearing. That wasn’t going to happen. He paused, hummed, asked for the deal to be explained to him again. He was being asked to decide his fate in a matter of seconds, or a few minutes. Clearly, his attorney had not spent much time with him, though he’s been incarcerated for over a year. The attorney explained again, barely veiling the pressure on Watts to plead to the terms presented, now. “If you do not accept the offer and you go to trial, you’re facing up to life, the judge can give you life on these charges,” his attorney said. He told him he’d visit him in ail to explain it all in person.
“All right. All right. I’ll do that,” Watts said.
His plea hearing is scheduled for March 9 at 1:30 p.m. That of Jones is scheduled for March 7 at 1:30 p.m. The boys will turn 18 soon after they begin their prison term. Whatever their sentence, they will be eligible for over a year of credit for time already served, in addition to early release after serving 85 percent of their sentence. Theoretically, if they are sentenced to 10 years, they could be out in seven and a half, in their mid-20s.
The Dupree case will not be pleaded out, Spencer O’Neal, his attorney, said today in a separate hearing. Dupree did not appear in court, in person or by zoom. O’Neal said he’d not been able to see him in three weeks because of Putnam jail restrictions due to Covid. But, O’Neal said, Watts and Jones “sit in different shoes than my client does. So I don’t know that we’ll be able to resolve his case with a plea.” He added: “The depositions have been done, the cases prepared. We don’t really have anything else left to do except play the game.”
In November, Dupree wrote Judge Perkins a one-page letter from the jail in Palatka, describing himself as the father of six children and the son of “a murdered father” (when Dupree was 9) and a mother, twin brother and sister who were “killed due to medical malpractice, leaving him to fend for his 6-year-old brother by himself. He said he was shot and stabbed when he was 18 and was hospitalized for “depression, schizophrenia and anger problems.” The loss of his parents and siblings, he said, led him to make “a lot of bad decisions.” But he wanted the judge to see him as who he was, “not how this situation portrays me.”
Dupree and another inmate–since sentenced to prison for murder–assaulted a jail corrections officer who had been searching their Koran. (All books, including religious materials, may be searched by jail personnel.) The officer, Edward Wallace, ended up hospitalized after sustaining two dozen blows from the two inmates. Dupree’s fellow-inmate at the time was Marion Gavins Jr., 18. He was sentenced to 45 years for the shooting death of Flagler Palm Coast High School student Curtis Gray in 2019.
Dupree got three more third-degree felony charges from the incident with Wallace and was transferred to the Putnam jail, pending trial in Flagler. Today, the court scheduled the home invasion case for docket sounding, the last step before trial, on May 3, for trial the week of May 16.
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Jimbo99 says
The more time these individuals serve the better for them really. The list of crimes is just more heinous as they grow older. Regardless of 15-20, 45 or life. When they serve & are released, the prison has made them harder, failed to provide them with any skills to even have a chance at being back in society. They would need to win the lottery really, the game of life is pretty much a done deal in another 20+ years, if it wasn’t pretty much over before they graduated grade or HS. I don’t mean that to say that as human beings they are to be given up on. The reality is they will violate probations, somehow get a gun & the illegal drug dealing & other crimes will be their options for survival. Depree is already writing those letters to a judge. It happens to anyone though, those that appear to have better opportunities, quite often hit even glass ceilings in their careers & lives.
The Unvarnished Truth says
Home invasion is just one step below murder. Anybody who barges into a person’s home with the intent to do harm deserves whatever maximum punishment available (preferably Stand Your Ground)…
Concerned Citizen says
I don’t know about anyone else in this county but I’m getting right sick of these silly pleas being bargained.
Time and time again we are seeing serious and violent charges being plead down to nonsense sentencing. And why? Is there no concern for the victims of these crimes? Judges and DA’s only seemed concerned about clearing docs and calendars as quickly as possible.
Low bonds, pleas and probations are for first time offenders on low level offense. Those who show some sort of remorse and want to change for their bad choices. These dudes should be charged as adults. They made adult choices that night. And they should get the max sentence allowed. Time for Judges to do their damned jobs.
Remember this type of stuff next election cycle.
Jimbo99 says
Originally, this story indicated there were 4 people that fled from the car after the high speed crash. We have 3 of those 4 apprehended that are facing court dates for whatever comes of this. Who & where is the 4th one. Until they cooperate, why would a deal be made like this ? Where the car crashed occurred at Palm Coast Parkway & Cobert Lane it’s 5.3 miles North of Prospect Lane as the most direct route & going North on Belle Terre per Google maps. Other routes add mileage, but unless they lived elsewhere in Flagler County, driving that only makes sense to zig-zag thru Flagler county.
Steve says
I’m thinking these Criminals should be kept off the street as long as possible.
Mark says
Career criminals getting another slap on the wrist. When will the courts learn that these people need to be removed from society for at least 6o years. All charges should be prosecuted, not dropped.
MikeM says
Same old story. Same faces.
ASF says
Maybe somebody (even his own lawyer) should explain to Mr. Dupree that being a victim does not entitle one to victimize others without consequence. Oh, well..I guess it will be up to the court system to do that (or not.)
A.j says
MikeM, the story may be the same, but other people of different skin tones committed crimes too. The faces are different. I don’t know if you were trying to say only Black Men committed or what, white people committed crimes also, you know I am telling the truth. Please don’t try to paint the picture that only people of color committ crimes.
MikeM says
No . Not only black men commit crimes. All races commit crimes. But why do blacks commit more crimes than other races.
Everyday in the news it is mostly black crime. Black on black . Black on white. Black on Asian. It is certainly way more disproportionate than any other race on black.
Why is that ? I really want to know.
Concerned Citizen says
AJ
I know you run around thinking others are all racist.
But in this case he simply stated we keep seeing the same people in the papers. Time and time again the same people are out here regardless of skin color committing the same crimes. And end up with ridiculous bonds and sentencing. Regardless of ethnicity our Judges need to start supporting our Law Enforcement Agencies. And start giving out real sentences. And stop letting folks bond out so easy on serious charges.
A.j says
MikeM are you sure Blacks committ more crime than any other race? I don’t buy that for one penny. The White media will want us to believe that but hoe can that be true, when there maybe 23 million Bkacks in this country. Yes white media will magnify the crimes of other races and minimize or don’t report the crimes committed by the perfect white race. I will say Whites committed more crimes than blacks but is reported less. Blacks committing crimes isn’t right but neither is Whites committing crimes. Black on white crimes, man look at the history of this perfect white country, Kkk, The lynching years, churches bombed in Alabama, Emmit, school riots, look at Mims Fla. Look at the Four in Fla. Look at Tulsa Oklahoma. Look at Rosewood Fla. and so much more, the Hanging Bridge in Mississippi. Crimes that was not reported. The common denominator is The White committed all these crimes against Blacks. You know MikeM they got away with 99 % or more of the crimes they committed. Today police killing unarmed bkack men, reclining, White Karen’s say they don’t feel comfortable we as black men fit the description and we look suspicious. They call the cops, we are arrested or killed. Black men in weight room white man call because he thinks we don’t belong there, we live in the apartment complex the cops questions us .why, because we are suspicious. I’ve personally went to J.C. Penny and was followed by some old white man, ignored his old behind and went about my business. I csn write a book about the crimes perfect white people committ. The insurrection was that a crime by nonthinking white people following som loud mouth liar. I don’t believe Bkacjs committ more crimes than white people. I’ll believe a blizzard will drop 10 inches of snow on Palm Coast Fla. before I believe that white demonic lie. Reclining is what I meant to write earlier, you know, a part of a city that the banks will not loan money. Mostly Bkack folk, just saying, white banks. A Doc. go to the Bank to cash her check, she has to go through all kind of hoops just to get her check cashed or deposited. She is Black. A guy a SunTrust asked me about a medium size check, didn’t want to.make a bad show we continued the transaction and I left. White America thinks Blacks can’t have anything nice without stealing or selling drugs. In their eyes we are lazy, welfare dependent, hsve a lot of children and don’t take care of our children, sell drugs steal uneducated and a step below them. How many people did Black men hang? How many houses did they bomb, how many white farmers did Black America deny them money. How many Black Farmers did congress deny money?
A.j says
My spelling is not prefect but I hope you get the point. Blacks committ crimes but so do Whites and more because there are more Whites in this perfect white country than Blacks, just saying.
A.j says
O, MikeM I forgot about the school shootings in this country. Most of them are committed by Lilly white perfect young men. Blacks are guilty but they don’t committ that kind of crime like America’s perfect Lilly white young males do. People are killed,hurt, and they get angry. Minn. last year or the beginning of this year, South Fla. 2014, just the tip of the iceberg. America’s Pure White Young Males will continue to committ this horrible crime because they can and will. I close this section.