Man Convicted Of Kidnapping, Sexual Battery
June 10, 2017
A man faces up to life in prison for attacking a woman last year in Escambia County.
A jury convicted Sammie Lee Smith IV, age 20, of one count of sexual battery with deadly force likely to cause serious personal injury, kidnapping, domestic battery by strangulation, and two counts of battery.
On June 9, 2016, the victim was standing outside with a co-worker at her place of employment when Smith showed up unexpectedly. Smith took her cell phone and retreated to his vehicle. The victim followed him into the vehicle to retrieve her phone. Once inside the vehicle, the defendant demanded the password to her phone. When she refused to give it to him, he started hitting her.
She then attempted to get out of the vehicle. Smith grabbed the victim and locked the doors to the vehicle. He then drove to an isolated area where he began to beat the victim, strangled her to the point of breathlessness, and sexually battered her. Eventually, Smith allowed the victim to leave the car. The victim returned to work and law enforcement was called. Smith was arrested several days later in Ft. Pierce, Florida, his place of residence.
Circuit Court Judge Edward P. Nickinson scheduled sentencing for August 29, 2017. Smith faces up to a life sentence with a minimum mandatory of 50 years in prison. Smith will be designated a sexual offender.
Lawmakers Sign Off On Florida Medical Marijuana Deal
June 10, 2017
Florida will have 10 additional marijuana operators — more than double the number of the state’s current vendors — within four months, under a medical marijuana proposal approved by lawmakers Friday.
The Legislature signed off on the compromise measure, which limits each marijuana company to 25 retail stores across the state, after failing to reach consensus during this spring’s regular legislative session on how to implement a medical-marijuana constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters in November.
Back in town this week for a three-day special session originally focused on funding for education and economic development, lawmakers — under intense pressure to revisit the marijuana issue — scurried to iron out differences that blew up a deal during the regular session.
After it became apparent that Republican legislative leaders were close to sealing a deal on the pot bill, Gov. Rick Scott added it to the special session, which ended late Friday afternoon.
A disagreement about how many dispensaries the pot operators should be allowed to run caused a potential deal to collapse six weeks ago.
The Senate had wanted to limit the number of retail outlets to 15 per operator, arguing that such a cap would give new businesses time to ramp up and compete with the state’s already active seven marijuana vendors. The House, meanwhile, preferred a much more expansive approach, with a cap of up to 100.
House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues, who shepherded the measure through his chamber, told colleagues Friday that lawmakers “have a responsibility and a duty” to implement the amendment, approved by more than 71 percent of voters, or else the regulatory framework would be decided by the courts.
The constitutional amendment made medical marijuana legal for what is expected to be hundreds of thousands of patients with debilitating conditions. That is a dramatic increase from the limited types of patients who have access to cannabis under laws passed in 2014 and 2016.
“The House did not get everything the House wanted and the Senate did not get everything the Senate wanted,” but the compromise bill is one “that both of us can live with and is actually very good policy,” Rodrigues, R-Estero, said before the House’s 103-9 vote in favor of the proposal (SB 8-A) Friday afternoon. The Senate later signed off on the measure with a 29-6 vote.
The legislation would allow local governments to ban marijuana storefront operations. But if retail outlets are permitted, cities and counties couldn’t impose limits on the number of storefronts, disparagingly called “pot shops” by critics.
Sen. Rob Bradley, who has been a key figure in the development of medical marijuana legislation for the past three years, acknowledged that the local government issue was sticky for some county officials as well as some “incumbent” marijuana operators.
But an even bigger source of contention — especially for Democrats — is that the bill bans smoking marijuana products.
Supporters of the constitutional amendment, known as Amendment 2, insist that it included a provision that permits smoking. That provision spelled out where smoking is banned.
“Nothing in this section shall require any accommodation of any on-site medical use of marijuana in any correctional institution or detention facility or place of education or employment, or of smoking medical marijuana in any public place,” the amendment reads.
House and Senate Republican leaders have refused to allow patients to smoke marijuana as a treatment option, citing a number of reasons, including concerns expressed by law enforcement officials.
But Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan, who largely bankrolled the amendment, has pledged to take the state to court over the issue.
“I do care about smoke, and I will sue them because of that,” Morgan, who is mulling a run for governor, told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “It clearly was called for in the amendment, and so what they’ve done for me is allowed me to step back up on my soapbox and go get what the people of Florida wanted when they passed this bill with 71 percent.”
Morgan said the language in the amendment was intended to quash the specter of people smoking pot on the street.
“It was a way to put a sock in the mouth of these bulls— artists who were saying that,” he said.
Morgan brushed off questions posed by some lawmakers about whether the amendment expressly permits smoking, saying a 3-year-old “can figure out if you’re not allowed to smoke in public, what does that mean? You are allowed to smoke in private.”
“A judge and a jury will understand this perfectly,” he said.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Special Session Ends After Deal Reached
June 10, 2017
Hours after a special session about education and economic development seemed on the verge of falling apart, legislative leaders and Gov. Rick Scott on Friday struck a last-minute agreement salvaging their priorities but setting off renewed criticism over backroom dealing.
The agreement gave each of the three sides at the Capitol — Scott, the House and the Senate — something that could be called a victory.
Scott got essentially all of what he called for during the session: $215 million in additional spending on public education, $161 million for economic development and tourism marketing and $50 million for repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee.
Those moves reversed a series of stinging rebukes to Scott during this year’s regular session, which ended in May with the governor getting little of what he requested.
“I’m excited to travel the state and brag about what got accomplished in the special session,” Scott said at a joint press conference after the three-day special session ended.
At the same time, legislation approving Scott’s priorities hewed closely to the House terms, including an insistence that education property-tax bills not rise with property values. In the deal, the Senate received $60 million for higher-education projects that Scott vetoed in the Legislature’s original budget. The governor said Friday night that he would approve the projects this time.
Lawmakers also approved legislation setting the framework for the state’s growing medical-marijuana industry after a voter-approved constitutional amendment broadly legalized the product. Scott said he would “absolutely” sign the bill.
The deal emerged after a 30-minute harangue late Thursday from Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who told reporters that the Senate would need more concessions from Scott and the House for the session to end successfully.
That led many observers to predict that lawmakers might miss the Friday evening deadline to end the session, much as they needed overtime to finish the state budget in May following a similarly chaotic process.
“We call ourselves the cardiac kids,” said House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes. “We get you guys all worked up, and then we come to a nice smooth landing and we accomplish a tremendous amount of policy.”
Negron played down suggestions that his rant, somewhat out of character for the buttoned-down Senate president, provided a jolt to the negotiations.
“I think what happened is that we made a decision that there was a way for everyone to win, and most importantly for the people of Florida to win,” he said.
But private negotiations over the spending measures revived criticism from the regular legislative session that too much wheeling and dealing took place behind closed doors. The Florida Democratic Party slammed the outcome of the special session as the result of “dirty, backroom politics.”
“What we’re seeing here are three men and a handful of unelected staffers making major policy decisions behind closed doors without any opportunity for open discussion or public input,” Democratic Party spokeswoman Johanna Cervone said in a statement. “Why do we even bother electing the full Legislature if a handful of power-brokers will make all of the decisions in secret?”
Scott also brushed off suggestions that the path to a deal included an agreement to sign a higher-education measure (SB 374) favored by Negron, or a controversial and wide-ranging public education bill (HB 7069) that is a priority of the House. Those bills passed during the regular session.
The governor said Friday he was still considering whether to sign or veto the proposals.
The House still has not sent HB 7069 to Scott for his signature or veto. But the measure, which deals with everything from charter schools to teacher bonuses, played a major role in the education debates throughout the special session.
Senate Democrats on Friday called on Scott to veto the bill, saying it would help charter schools at the expense of traditional public schools.
Critics also said the bill would offset benefits of the extra funding approved during the special session. The extra funding amounts to a $100 per-student increase in the budget year that begins July 1.
“It’s an increase — but at what cost?” asked Rep. Cynthia Stafford, a Miami Democrat who pointed out that funding for education is still short of pre-recession levels when inflation is factored in. “The state has recovered, but education funding has not.”
by Brandon Larrabee, The News
Scott Signs ‘Stand Your Ground’ Change
June 10, 2017
A measure changing the state’s controversial “stand your ground” self-defense law was among 16 bills that Gov. Rick Scott signed into law late Friday.
T
he self-defense bill stemmed from a Florida Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that said defendants have the burden of proof to show they should be shielded from prosecution under the “stand your ground” law. In “stand your ground” cases, pre-trial evidentiary hearings are held to determine whether defendants should be immune from prosecution.
The bill (SB 128) shifts the burden of proof from defendants to prosecutors in the pre-trial hearings. Supporters of the bill, such as National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer, said shifting the burden of proof would better protect the rights of defendants.
“The `burden of proof’ bill restores the presumption of innocence in self-defense cases,” Hammer told The News Service of Florida this week. “It puts the burden of proof back on the state, where it belongs.” But labeled by Democrats as a “a shoot to kill” bill, critics have argued that the change could lead to cases ending before all the facts are revealed and that the bill would increase costs for state attorney’s offices.
Among the other bills signed Friday by Scott was a measure (SB 436) dealing with religious expression in schools. The measure, which the American Civil Liberties Union has described as “troublesome,” seeks to prevent school districts from discriminating against students, parents or school employees on the basis of religious viewpoints or expression. Sen. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who sponsored the bill, said during this spring’s regular legislative session the bill “isn’t protecting a faith. It’s protecting all people’s freedom to express their hearts.”
by The News Service of Florida
Tate Graduate Hamrick Completes Basic Military Training
June 10, 2017
U.S. Air Force Airman Jacob D. Hamrick graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio, Texas.
The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills.
Airmen who complete basic training also earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force.
Hamrick is a 2015 graduate of J.M. Tate High School.
Blue Wahoos Down Misssissippi Braves In Series Opener
June 10, 2017
Homer Bailey got the start Friday for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and got the win as part of his MLB rehabilitation from elbow surgery to remove bone spurs.
Behind Bailey’s strong outing, Pensacola downed the Mississippi Braves, which entered the game in second place, with a, 6-2, victory in front of a sellout of 5,038 at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Bailey, the seventh pick in the first round by the Cincinnati Reds in 2004, retired the side in the first inning throwing 11 pitches, eight for strikes. He struck out Ronald Acuna, who MLB Pipeline.com ranks as the No. 7 prospect in the Atlanta Braves organization, on an 87-mph slider.
He finished the fifth inning by getting the Mississippi lineup out 1-2-3, striking out Mississippi right fielder Connor Lien for the last out.
For the game, Bailey threw 64 pitches, 42 for strikes in five scoreless innings. He allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five.
Bailey was scheduled to pitch just four innings, he said. He joked that it was his first Double-A win since he was with Chattanooga in 2006.
“They asked how I felt and I said, ‘Man, I feel great,’” Bailey said. “Can you go another one? I said, ‘Yes’ I didn’t know how many pitches I had and I didn’t want to know.”
Bailey had been throwing at the Reds training camp in Goodyear, Ariz. He said he enjoyed playing in his first real game this season.
“The biggest thing was getting used to the lights and sounds against more advanced hitters,” said Bailey, who was happy he was “staying in the zone” with all four of his pitches.
He walked one batter, second baseman Luis Valenzuela, in the third inning on four straight pitches.
Pensacola manager Pat Kelly liked what he saw on the mound from Bailey and what he heard after the game. Bailey made a rehab start last year with the Blue Wahoos on April 26.
“He looked good,” Kelly said. “I know he was excited to see some competition and get under the lights. Last year, when he finished up he complained of forearm soreness.”
Bailey has been on the disabled list each of the last three seasons. He had a torn flexor tendon in his right forearm in 2014. Then in 2015, he tore an ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. It limited him to six starts in the 2016 season.
“All the signs tonight pointed in real good directions,” said the 11-year Major League veteran. “I can’t change things in the past. It’s about going forward.”
Meanwhile, Pensacola supported Bailey in his outing giving him a 4-0 lead. In the second inning first baseman Eric Jagielo leadoff with a single and scored when shortstop Blake Trahan hit a grounder into right field to put the Blue Wahoos up, 1-0.
Pensacola scored two more runs in the third inning when second baseman Alex Blandino doubled, his 18th of the season, to drive in both Gabriel Guerrero and Aristides Aquino to give the Blue Wahoos a, 3-0, lead.
In the fourth, Pensacola left fielder Tyler Goeddel leadoff the inning with a double on a grounder down the third base line and scored on a Guerrero groundout to second base making the score, 4-0.
Pensacola starter Keury Mella came in relief of Bailey and gave up two runs in the sixth inning to Mississippi. Braves catcher Kade Scivicque smacked a single to center field that scored both pinch hitter Jared James and Valenzuela to pull Mississippi within, 4-2.
But Mella settled down and got the last 10 batters he faced out, striking out three to earn the first save of his professional career.
“I really liked the way he threw in the eighth and ninth inning,” Kelly said.
Mella also helped himself at the plate hitting a double in the seventh inning that scored shortstop Blake Trahan and capped the scoring, 6-2.
Braves Andres Santiago made his first start this season with Double-A Mississippi Braves and gave up four earned runs in 3.2 innings. The righty has appeared in 11 games, all in relief, with Triple-A Gwinnett, Low-A Rome Braves and High-A Florida Fire Frogs since the Atlanta Braves picked him up March 20.
Pensacola is 35-26 and remains in first place in the Southern League South Division where they’ve been in all but six days this season.
Plans Approved To Rebuild Historic Homes, Church Ravaged By Tornado
June 9, 2017
The Century Architectural Review Board gave approval Thursday to repair or replacement plans for seven tornado ravaged residential properties and a church in the Alger-Sullivan Historical District, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989.
The historic district includes 45 buildings on about 230 acres, and is roughly bounded by Pinewood Avenue, Front Street, Jefferson Avenue, Church Street and Mayo Street. Numerous structures in the historic district were damaged or destroyed by the EF-3 tornado that struck Century in February 2016.
The Architectural Review Board approved the replacement of six homes — located at 300, 307, 402, 403, 407 and 416 Front Street — and the repair of one home at 410 Front Street.
The board also signed off plans to reconstruct the 114-year old Century United Methodist Church, which was damaged beyond repair by the tornado. It is expected that the $550,000 project might be completed within nine months.
All of the replacement homes on Front Street will meet the neighborhood’s historical qualifications and will cost about $100,000 each. The homes are being paid for by with SHIP — State Housing Initiative Program — funds administered by Escambia County.
Pensacola architect Carter Quina designed the replacement homes to historically accurate with modern amenities and compliance for the disabled. He also designed the Century United Methodist Church project.
Now that the Century Architectural Review Board has signed off on the properties, plans next go to the Century Town Council for final approval before construction can progress.
Click here for a previous article to learn more about the church project, photographs and architectural drawings.
Pictured top: Century United Methodist Lay Leader J.R. Jones, Rev. Janet Lee and architect Carter Quina discuss church reconstruction plans Thursday morning before the Century Architectural Review Board. Pictured below: Plans for six homes to be replaced on Front Street. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Driver Who Hit And Killed 10-Year Old Bicyclist Won’t Face Criminal Charges
June 9, 2017
No criminal charges will be filed against the Escambia County man that struck and killed a 10-year old bicyclist near Helen Caro Elementary School last month, the Florida Highway Patrol said Thursday,
Frederick Kelly Wilder, 47, was issued a traffic citation for failure to stop at a stop sign. The FHP investigation found no criminal elements to the crash.
Delilgha Rosa-Clark of Pensacola died at Sacred Heart Hospital from injuries she received after being hit by a SUV on Merlin Road at Oak View Drive May 18. She was riding her bicycle to school without a helmet, according to troopers.
Wilder of Pensacola was in his 2015 Ford Edge approaching the intersection when he failed to observe and yield the right of way to Rosa-Clark on her bicycle. The girl was within a marked bicycle lane on the way to school, troopers said.
Senate Pushes For New Budget Concessions
June 9, 2017
The House and Senate edged closer to an agreement on education funding Thursday, one of the main goals of a special session scheduled to end Friday, even as the Senate president seemed to set out new demands for a final deal.
In an unusual, lengthy discussion with reporters following debates on education, economic development and medical marijuana, Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said his chamber would not agree to a budget deal struck by Gov. Rick Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, without concessions.
Negron repeatedly pointed out that, during the regular session that ended in May, the House had opposed economic development and education funding that Scott requested. Those issues prompted the special session that began Wednesday.
The Senate president also pushed back against the “fake narrative” that he was involved in negotiations leading up to Scott’s decision to call the session, saying the House and the governor hammered out the agreement.
“We’re glad that they’re coming together and that they’re reaching common ground, but we’re not just going to rubber-stamp an agreement that two parties made without our priorities being taken into account,” Negron said.
Corcoran has been just as insistent that Negron was a part of the discussions. Negron told reporters Thursday that his requests to have his name taken out of a proclamation on the special session and to not provide a quote in a press release about the announcement were evidence that he didn’t agree to the deal.
But a spokeswoman said later that records that could prove Negron was mentioned in earlier drafts of those documents might not exist, or that Negron’s office might not have a copy if they did.
In exchange for agreeing to the deal reached by Scott and Corcoran, Negron said the Senate would like the House to override a slate of vetoes Scott issued on higher education projects. The Senate voted Wednesday to overturn those vetoes.
Negron said the Senate also wants to ease Medicaid cuts to hospitals by providing $100 million in funding.
At the same time, he declined to make a successful conclusion of the special session contingent on the Senate getting its way.
“I don’t do legislating by making bold pronouncements or by making ultimatums,” Negron said. “What I’m saying is that the Senate priorities, particularly on higher education, have to be considered and affirmed and respected. The hospital funding is something that we can discuss with the governor, discuss with the House, on moving forward.”
Earlier in the day, Corcoran had dismissed the hospital funding issue as something that fell outside of the guidelines for the special session. And he suggested that overriding the higher-education vetoes would go against the House’s small-government philosophy.
“If you believe in less government and less spending, then you don’t override on more spending and more pork,” he said.
The posturing took place even as the chambers seemed to move closer on education funding, one of the key issues in the special session. Scott vetoed the state’s main formula for public school spending last week, saying it was inadequate; lawmakers are trying to pass legislation to shovel at least $215 million of additional money into education.
The Senate on Thursday batted away efforts to gut a controversial, wide-ranging education bill approved by lawmakers during the regular session. Democrats and some Republicans wanted to take funding away from that measure, HB 7069, and redirect it to the education formula.
Several senators disagreed with the bill at the time it was passed, but relented to reach a final budget deal with the House. The bill was a top priority of Corcoran.
Again on Thursday, supporters of keeping the legislation intact said that to undo it might cause the special session to fall apart.
“If we try to get too cute, then we may blow the whole thing up, and then we have come up here for naught,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, “And I think that would be very unfortunate.”
Scott hasn’t signed HB 7069 yet. Those pushing to keep the legislation as is said lawmakers could come back in the future and fix it.
But Sen. Gary Farmer, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat who urged changes to HB 7069, said there were no guarantees.
“Let’s not wait for that fix next year that will never come,” Farmer said. “That’s a unicorn, folks. It doesn’t exist. It’s not happening next year, and it may never happen.”
The Senate voted twice, by a 22-15 margin each time, to reject Farmer’s amendments. Other attempts to tweak the funding deal were defeated or pulled from the floor before votes.
The current version of the budget bill (SB 2500-A) moves the Senate closer to the House’s position. It would not draw on increased property tax revenues, a non-starter for the House.
But the Senate would still take a two-step approach to funding schools, by overriding Scott’s veto of the funding formula and approving additional spending in a separate bill.
House leaders all but ruled out that approach. Corcoran said the Senate’s approach “doesn’t make any sense,” and the House education budget chairman also rejected it.
“Our bill is pretty straightforward. … I don’t think we need to complicate it any further,” said Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah.
Talking to reporters earlier Thursday, though, Latvala seemed just as unwilling to yield.
“It’s the same amount of money. … All they have to do is override the veto and vote on our bill and you have half of what we came here to do, done,” he said.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Burglars Hit Jay Elementary, Several Alabama Schools
June 9, 2017
Authorities are searching for two suspects that broke into Jay Elementary School Thursday morning and may be responsible for additional school burglaries in Alabama.
About 6:55 a.m. Thursday, two individuals broke into the Jay Elementary School on Alabama Avenue. During the burglary, money and computers were stolen.
The suspects area white male and white female. They were last seen driving a late 1990’s white Cadillac with a trailer hitch and a sunroof.
The pair is also believed to be responsible for school burglaries in Brewton, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores.
About 5 a.m. on June 6, a white male and white female forcefully entered T.R. Miller High School in Brewton and Brewton Elementary School. Similar burglaries were reported at Orange Beach Elementary School and Gulf Shores High School.
If anyone has information related to this crime or the identity of these individuals, Contact the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 983- 1100 or the Santa Rosa County Crime Stoppers at (850) 437- STOP. Santa Rosa County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $3000 for information leading to the arrest of these individuals. Callers can emain anonymous.
Images for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Below are additional photos from Alabama schools:
