HNS REPORTS---MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2010
JARDIN JURY HAS NO VERDICT MONDAY, TO RESUME WORK TUESDAY
The twelve-member jury hearing the murder case of Robert Jardin spent almost seven hours deliberating Monday before adjourning for the night to a local motel. The sequestered panel will return Tuesday morning to resume the task of deciding Jardin's fate.
Earlier Monday evening, the jury returned to the courtroom to hear the cross-examination of Jardin read back to them by a court reporter after they asked to hear the testimony again. Then the seven men and five women said they wanted to eat dinner and return for another hour or so of deliberations.
Jardin is charged in the 2006 slayings of Patrick and Evelyn DePalma of Marsaryktown.
Monday morning prosecutor Pete Magrino asked jurors to find Jardin guilty in a closing argument with a portrait of murder victims Evelyn and Patrick DePalma as a backdrop. Magrino went through dozens of items in evidence as he recounted testimony connecting Jardin to the murder scene, asking each time "What else?' as he reminded the jury panel of yet another item. He also asked the jurors to recall Jardin's testimony in his own defense on Friday, noting Jardin's admission that he lied to law enforcement when first questioned about the DePalmas' slayings in 2006. Magrino said he counted six admitted lies before he stopped counting. And the prosecutor reminded the jury that the 35-year old mason and one-time strip club bouncer could be convicted of felony murder even if there was no direct evidence that Jardin participated in the killings, if the defendant participated in another crime at the scene. He pointed to the vacuum and stereo that were found in Jardin's possession and which witnesses identified as missing from the DePalma home.
Defense attorney Alan Fanter asked jurors to hold the prosecution to their burden of proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. He said the evidence was consistent with Jardin's testimony and that there was no direct evidence tieing Jardin to the murders themselves and arguing that even possession of the vacuum and stereo did not show he committed a crime at the murder scene.
Jardin admitted being in the home in his testimony Friday but claimed he was sickened when he saw the murder victims and found the stolen property in his truck the next day, after two other men threatened Jardin's children if he did not keep quiet.
If Jardin is convicted, the panel will then hear evidence on aggravating and mitigating circumstances in deciding on a recommended sentence of death or life in prison.
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COUNTY OFFICIALS HUDDLE ON DREDGE STRATEGY
With interim Public Works Director Susan Goebel back Monday from furlough, County Administrator David Hamilton and county lawyers plan to hold a strategy meeting in advance of Tuesday's County Board meeting. Hamilton has said he will brief commissioners at the meeting on the status of the troubled project.
According to e-mails exchanged last week with dredge contractor Orion Services, some of the equipment that arrived back on scene last week was being removed again. But an Orion official said only equipment needed for actual dredging work was being removed. Equipment for working at the spoil site would remain,
Under a modified dredge permit, actual digging in the channel can't begin again until new settling ponds are built at the spoil site off Shoal Line Blvd. and additional de-watering equipment and supplies, including a coagulant, are ready to receive dredged material. That modified permit was due to become final Friday if no challenge was filed, and lawyers said they would check Monday morning to make sure none was submitted at the last minute.
Monday's closed staff meeting is aimed at deciding how to respond to Orion's request for a change order that is more than 150 percent of their original project bid. The contractor says the scope of the project is now very different from what was expected when their bid was submitted last year.
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QUARRY PRESERVE UP FOR FINAL COUNTY APPROVALS
In what lawyer Jake Varn says will be a presentation lasting almost an hour, developers of the proposed Quarry Preserve will be in front of county commissioners Tuesday asking for the last approvals they need. The "new town" project for old mining property north of Brooksville is the subject of a proposed comprehensive plan amendment, development of regional impact approval, and a development order.
If approved, the former Florida Rock property could eventually see 5,800 living units, three golf courses, industrial and commercial uses and schools and parks on 4,280 acres. In a letter to the county, Varn says he and his client, Brooksville Quarry LLC, "have been working cooperatively with the Hernando County Planning Department staff and the Florida Department of Community Affairs for almost four years" to come up with the terms of a development order. Varn says "this high quality, master planned, sustainable community and new town will provide many direct and indirect benefits to Hernando County." He called it "the first new town development in Hernando County" and said it "will raise the bar for quality development" in the county.
Developers have worked out agreements to provide road and infrastructure improvements and said they expect the project to develop over a period of years, not right away. Critics have said new housing units are not needed in Hernando while several thousand existing homes remain available in an inventory that's grown exponentially since the housing crash several years ago.
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FAKE PRESCRIPTION SPOTTED, SPRING HILL MAN JAILED
A pharmacist at a Cortez Blvd. drug store who called a doctor for confirmation of an oxycodone prescription called sheriff's deputies when the doctor's office alerted him that the scrip was phony. An arrest affidavit says 27-year old Kenny Austin Carlson of 13584 Coronado Drive was charged with trafficking in drugs and using a fraudulent prescription to obtain a controlled substance. The affidavit says Carlson's scrip was for 270 oxycodone pills and 120 xanax pills. His initial bond was set at $30,500 on booking Friday at the Hernando County Jail.
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MAN CHARGED WITH TRYING TO CHOKE GIRLFRIEND
Sheriff's deputies say they charged 27-year old Luis Alfredo Ramirez of 1250 Sylvia Avenue in Spring Hill with felony domestic batttery by strangulation after he tried to choke his girlfriend with the lanyard from a key chain. An arrest affidavit says Ramirez got in an argument with his live-in girlfriend and wrestled her to the ground in an apparent attempt to get his keys from her. The affidavit says the keychain broke, and he then allegedly used the lanyard from the keychain to wrap around the victtim's neck, cutting her circulation and impeding her breathing until she released the keys. Deputies said Ramirez fled the Sylvia Avenue home, but they arrested him about five hours later when he returned. He was arrested early Saturday morning following the Friday night incident and booked into the Hernando Couunty Jail on no bond.
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BROOKSVILLE MAN CHARGED WITH DRUG TRAFFICKING
Brooksville police said Monday that they arrested a man over the weekend for trafficking in drugs and possession of oxycodone. Officers said they responded Saturday night to a report of a man in the roadway near Fort Dade Avenue and Cobb Road who was reportedly trying to stop passing vehicles. A police media release said they found 21-year old Donald Elkins of 4215 Bessemer Road in Brooksville, who allegedly had a pill bottle with almost nine grams of oxycodone. Police said they took Elkins into custody, and he was booked into the Hernando County Jail on initial bond of $55,000.
MAN FINDS STRANGER IN CAR, EATING LEFTOVER FOOD
A 24-year old Spring Hill woman was arrested Saturday night after deputies said a man found her sitting in his car and eating leftover food. An arrest affidavit says Nancy McAdams of 13451 San Antonio Road was sitting in the driver's seat of a man's car when he came out of a Commercial Way video store. The vehicle owner told deputies he didn't know McAdams, who had a detachable radio in one hand and a leftover diinner that was in the vehicle in the other hand. The affidavit said McAdams, who was described as "somewhat incoherent," first claims he mistook the man's vehicle for her own, but she later reportedly admitted her own broken-down car was in a nearby parking lot. She was booked into the Hernando County Jail on a vehicle burglary charge.
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