PANAMA CITY — An escaped convict has been charged with escaping prison nearly five months after his capture, according to court records.

Gregory M. Burdeshaw, 24, was charged with escaping from prison and ordered to be held without bond after being arrested Tuesday. He was on the run from law enforcement Oct. 10 and Oct. 11 after officers discovered his ankle bracelet and GPS monitor under a car in the parking lot of a local hospital, according Department of Corrections (DOC) reports.

DOC officers said Burdeshaw had been taken to the hospital  to be treated for a swollen wrist. About two hours later, when Burdeshaw was discharged, officers received an alert that his monitoring devices had been removed. They were found under a parked car. Burdeshaw was arrested the following day, officers reported.

Burdeshaw was initially arrested on principal to burglary charges as a minor and waived up to adult court. He was conditionally released until he violated probation in 2013 for being arrested on disorderly intoxication charges. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. If found guilty of escaping from prison, Burdeshaw could receive additional jail time.

LYNN HAVEN — Lynn Haven Police issued a warning Friday of a counterfeit check scam operating in the area and is asking for the public’s help in locating persons of interest who are being sought for questioning in this investigation.

On Wednesday, Daniel James Leonard cashed a counterfeit check that was made to look like a legitimate SunTrust Bank check drawn on the purported account of a local attorney. Leonard, whose last known address was in Orlando, is described as being a white male, 54 years of age, 5 feet, 6 inches, medium build, balding hair with a large moustache.

Investigation later revealed that the telephone system at the attorney’s office had been tampered with. Because of this, when the employee of the check cashing facility called to verify the questioned check, an unidentified co-conspirator was able to intercept the incoming call and falsely validate the issuance of the fraudulent check.

On Thursday, a black male, known at this time only as Theodore Thompson, entered the same local check cashing facility and presented another counterfeit SunTrust check drawn on the purported account of another local attorney. Thompson is described as being about 50 years old, 5 feet, 7 inches, medium build with short black hair. Again, the check cashing facility employee attempted to contact the listed number for the attorney’s office in order to verify the check, but this time was unable to reach anyone and refused to cash the counterfeit check. As in the previous case, it was subsequently determined that the phone system at this attorney’s office had been tampered with as well.

Leonard and Thompson are believed to be part of a larger group of individuals operating in this area who are using information readily available over the Internet to target local attorneys in the creation and passing of these fraudulent counterfeit checks. Businesses that specialize in cashing checks, grocery stores and convenience stores are particularly at risk.

Anyone with information on those responsible for these crimes is asked to contact Lynn Haven police at (850) 265-4111 or the CrimeStoppers Tips Line at (850) 785-TIPS.

LANARK VILLAGE — A former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy and Carrabelle police officer, on pre-trial release for allegedly stealing marine radios last fall off boats housed in a storage yard in Lanark Village, has been arrested for breaking back into the boatyard, authorities reported.

Spencer D. Massey, 44, of 1399 Third St. W., Carrabelle, was arrested by sheriff’s deputies and taken into custody Monday for retaliation against a witness causing property damage, a third-degree felony. He was being held in the Franklin County jail without bond.

According to a news release issued by the sheriff’s office, deputies responding to an April 16 vandalism at the Lanark Boat Yard discovered breakage to the conduit and service wires to several of the security cameras inside the yard.

Video evidence, which showed the incident took place April 14, was collected and forwarded to the laboratory and on April 23 the enhanced video was completed and returned to the sheriff’s office, where deputies viewing footage of the vandalism identified Massey as the culprit.

“It appears that there was no intent on committing burglaries or thefts in this new incident,” reads the news release. “It appears to be solely an act of retaliation against the boat yard for providing information (video) to law enforcement relating to the commission of the original burglaries.”

At the time of the most recent incident, Massey was on pretrial release for burglaries committed in September 2014 at the boat yard, which is operated at the Lanark Village Association (LVA) storage yard behind the fire station on Oak Street.

An investigation by detectives Duane Cook and Brett Johnson was helped in large part by surveillance video footage that fingered Massey as the culprit in the theft of marine radios and other portable items off several boats.

Massey worked for nearly 14 years for the sheriff’s office. He later worked for the Carrabelle Police Department from January to August 2013.

Dot Bless, who administers the 43 lots in the boat storage yard for the association, said the 2014 break-in was the third in three years. She said that after the yard was broken into in July 2013, the LVA installed a video surveillance system.

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Checks signed after the disappearance of John “Greg” Hughes were penned by a suspicious hand, family members testified Friday.

Barry Davis, 34, is currently charged with several offenses including the deaths of Hughes, of Santa Rosa Beach, and his girlfriend Heidi Rhodes, of Panama City Beach. The two were reported missing about two years ago. However, neither have been seen or heard from since May 7, 2012, the date prosecutors said they were killed at Hughes’ home by Davis.

During the second full day of the double murder trial, Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore called family members of Hughes to the stand to testify three checks written out to Davis for “moving expenses” and signed by Hughes after his disappearance appeared to be forged.

“That is not my brother’s signature,” said Amy Hughes, his sister. “He wrote in a more block style. There are loops in the J and G.”

Amy Hughes said John Hughes had been receiving disability checks and got a large settlement after an injury on a construction site. The incident left him not only fairly wealthy but also with a permanent disability to his writing hand. From then on he signed his name “J G H,” for brevity, family members testified.

Both sides quarreled over whether jurors should be able to hear the testimony. The jury was removed from the courtroom for their discussions. Defense attorney Spiro Kypreos argued Amy Hughes had not seen her brother’s signature for four years before his disappearance and had only actually seen him sign a check a handful of times.

“She said she saw (Hughes) sign about 20 to 30 documents over 17 years,” Kypreos said. “Maybe something more frequent would make someone more familiar with the changes in the signature.”

However, Amy Hughes said the signatures on the three checks, written for around $4,000 each to Davis, were consistently different from Hughes’ writing style she’d seen since childhood. And Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells allowed jurors to hear the testimony for a large part of Friday’s proceedings.

Despite not having any bodies, Elmore said he intends to introduce a series of witnesses in the course of the remaining trial, which is expected to encompass more than three weeks. During those testimonies, Elmore plans to have Tiffani Steward, Davis’ girlfriend, testify to seeing Davis submerge both victims’ heads in a bath tub after rendering each incapacitated. She has also told investigators Davis later said he’d cut up the bodies and burned them.

Investigators believe Davis intended to kidnap Hughes for a ransom, but Elmore spent much of the morning establishing the date when Hughes and Rhodes went missing and the suspicious appearance of a moving truck at Hughes’ home shortly after.

Rhodes’ sister initiated the missing person investigation May 24, 2012. Bay County Sheriff’s Office also became involved in the Walton County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, but no one had seen or heard from either since May 7 of that year.

Hughes’ neighbors said they last spoke with him May 4. Somewhere around a week later, a moving truck appeared at Hughes’ Santa Rosa home at 135 Arbor Lane on multiple occasions. The first instance on May 14, neighbor Patrick Davis approached Barry Davis, who was driving the truck. In the course of their conversation, he asked the whereabouts of Hughes, he said.

“He said he was in Barbados, and they were going to place his stuff in storage,” Patrick Davis said.

Barry Davis is charged with 12 other counts in connection with allegedly robbing Hughes’ home after authorities suspect the killings took place. Three other people were assisting in the move, including a young man Patrick Davis said he saw carrying a black, plastic garbage bag from the residence.

Another of the movers drove a white Chevy Escalade, which belonged to Hughes. But Hughes was nowhere in sight.

The trial continues Monday. Barry Davis faces the death penalty if convicted of the two counts of first-degree, premeditated murder.

PANAMA CITY — A local couple has been arrested on charges of neglecting an elderly person after officers discovered the deceased body of one suspect’s mother covered with several bedsores, according to Bay County Sheriff’s Office arrest reports.

William Craig Erickson, 56, and Candace Rae Erickson, 53, were arrested Wednesday at their home of 119 Sims Ave. after officers responded for a medical emergency. Medical personnel pronounced Diane Lee Silda, mother of Candace Erickson, died from natural causes. However, investigators said her daughter and son-in-law neglected several bedsores on the disabled 75-year-old Silda that went without medical treatment for an undetermined amount of time before her death, officers reported.

Neither of the numbers listed for the Ericksons were receiving calls or voice mail messages Thursday evening. The couple was released earlier Thursday on pretrial release under charges of neglecting an elderly or disabled adult.

While taking basic overall photographs of Silda’s bedroom, officers “observed a pungent odor in the room unlike that of other deceased person cases” and began to question the Ericksons. Investigators found bedsores on areas of Silda’s back and feet; the severity of each varied. However, officers said a few were of “significant depth to where muscle tissue was observed.”

The couple told investigators they had been treating the wounds with peroxide but had not spoken with a medical professional about the issue, BCSO said. Officers reported Silda was unable to walk, suffered from Alzheimer’s, and the Ericksons must have known about the severity of the wounds yet did not seek medical assistance for what seemed to be painful injuries.

“Having observed the injuries being quite severe in nature and the explanation to me that the injury would be painful, it shows a great bodily harm,” officers wrote. “Since Diane was not given proper treatment … it is believed their failure to provide appropriate medical treatment would be negligent and causing great bodily harm."

Candace and William Erickson were charged with neglect of an elderly disabled person causing great bodily harm. Their arraignments were scheduled for June 2.

TALLAHASSEE — After more than a decade of legal wrangling, a federal judge has ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to provide kosher meals to inmates, rejecting the state’s argument that the religious diet is prohibitively expensive.

Corrections officials already are serving the kosher meals but have refused to acknowledge they are required to do so under the federal “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act” law enacted in 2000.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the agency three years ago as part of a drawn-out fight over the kosher meals, an option not only for Jewish prisoners but for Muslim and Seventh-Day Adventists whose religions also proscribe dietary restrictions.

The lawsuit challenged corrections officials’ claim they were not required to provide the meals, as well as the rules the agency used to determine who was eligible to receive the meals. About 10,000 inmates receive kosher meals now being served at all of the state’s institutions, and corrections officials have no plans to discontinue the special diet, according to Department of Corrections spokesman McKinley Lewis.

“If you want a kosher meal, you can have a kosher meal,” he said.

The department started offering the kosher meals in 2004 to Jewish prisoners at 13 facilities and transferred inmates who were eligible for the meals to those institutions. The agency expanded the program to inmates of all faiths in 2006 but halted it the following year before reinstating it as a pilot project at a single prison in 2010, serving fewer than 20 prisoners.

A year after the lawsuit was filed, the department again began serving kosher meals and promised to have the meals available to all inmates by last July.

Last summer, the department switched to all-cold meals, consisting largely of peanut butter and sardines, served twice a day, prompting some inmates to complain the unappetizing diet was aimed at discouraging prisoners from signing up for the plan.

“…It is hard to understand how defendants can have a compelling state interest in not spending money that they are already voluntarily spending on the exact thing they claim to have an interest in not providing,” U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz wrote in a 31-page opinion issued Thursday.

“Furthermore, not only are defendants voluntarily spending the money on providing kosher meals, they have repeatedly represented that they are committed to providing kosher meals” and that the current religious diet plan is sustainable, both monetarily and security-wise, the judge wrote. “Thus, defendants’ compelling state interest argument is substantially dampened by its voluntary decision to provide kosher meals.”

The kosher meals cost about $3.56 per inmate per day, compared to $1.89 per day for regular meals. The department estimated that the costs for making kosher meals available to all inmates could total between $384,000 and $12.3 million, depending on how many inmates signed up for the program and decided to stick with it.

But even the department’s “worst-case scenario” estimate equates to just 0.005 of its total annual budget, Seitz wrote Thursday.

“Clearly, in pure numbers these amounts are not insignificant. However, in an overall budget of nearly $2.3 billion per year, these amounts are relatively small,” Seitz wrote.

While nearly 10,000 prisoners — about 10 percent of the total inmate population — receive kosher meals today, corrections officials expect participation in the program to decline to about 1.5 to 2 percent. In the five prisons where the meals have been served for a full year, the participation rate dropped by one third.

The department, which has spent more than $400,000 in legal costs fighting the lawsuit, last year contended that the kosher meals were prohibitively expensive.

If just 1.5 to 2 percent of the total prison population joined the program, the department would spend up to $1.7 million a year, not including extra costs for disposable utensils and plates, lawyers for the department wrote in a brief last year.

“For a cash-strapped agency like the Department of Corrections, these amounts are not a ‘relatively minor expense,’ given other crucial needs that compete for funds,” Florida Assistant Attorney General Lisa Kuhlman Tietig wrote.

But the department’s lawyers failed to show the cost of the program has affected prison operations in any way, Seitz wrote Thursday.

“There is no evidence that any program s have been cut, that any staff has been cut, or that there has been any harm to any aspect of defendants’ operations,” she wrote.

Seitz also ordered the department to stop using a “zero-tolerance” policy that removed inmates from the kosher meal plan if they were caught eating regular meals or purchasing non-kosher food from the canteen, something corrections officials already abandoned.

And Seitz also ruled prison officials can’t kick inmates off of the kosher plan if the inmates miss 10 percent or more of their meals in a month, another policy the department has discontinued.

Seitz criticized the department for complaining about the costs of the special diet but not using its own policies to restrict who receives the meals.

“Defendants have at their disposal an alternative means to contain costs without burdening the religious exercise of those prisoners with a sincere religious belief requiring them to keep kosher. To date, however, defendants have actively chosen not to use these alternative cost reduction methods,” she wrote.

Information is provided by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office on people arrested on charges April 22-29. Those arrested can contact The News Herald if charges are dropped or if they are acquitted. Addresses are those given by the defendant during arrest.

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Aeric David Clark, 32, 5825 Titus Road, Panama City, burglary

Frank Robert Catalano, 36, 7019a Chippewa St., Callaway, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver, possession of controlled substance without prescription, possession of weapon or ammunition by felon

Justin Travis Long, 22, Knoxville, Tenn., robbery

Justin Dwayne Jackson, 27, 7421 Gilbert Road, Panama City, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver,

Cristi Nicole Lauderdale, 27, 2614 North Cedar Lane, Cedar Grove, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver

Spencer Wade Hall, 19, 143 S. Berthe Ave., Callaway, burglary

Carlos Victor Hernandez, 19, kidnapping/false imprisonment

Shashana Leah Ervin, 23, 809 Frank Nelson Drive, Panama City, aggravated battery with use of a deadly weapon

Jamar  Velec-Castillo, 21, 9902 S. Thomas Drive, Panama City, possession of controlled substance without prescription

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Jivaro Dwitt Smith, 24, 2918 Brandenton Ave., Panama City, abuse child without great bodily harm

William Allen Lundgren, 42, 836 Harrison Ave., Panama City, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill

Frank Brian Yunger, 35, 3116 Meadow St., Lynn Haven, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver

Sharon  Robinson, 26, burglary, grand theft

Adam Gregory Simpson, 31, 1815 Bowman Lane, Panama City, aggravated battery, robbery

Jonathan Mack Norsworthy, 33, 1603 Buchanan St., Southport, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver

Alonzo Al Johnson, 50, 4810 W. Hwy 98, Panama City, sexual assault, robbery

Tabahri Jerrod Donar, 22, 2014 E. Eighth Court, Panama City, possession of controlled substance without prescription

Zachary Ryan Tibedeau, 22, 3809 Quarts St., Panama City Beach, aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability

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Erica Nicole Thomas, 28, Cairo, Ga., aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill

Lee Cross Daniels, 27, 220 E. First Court, Panama City, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill

Ronald Drew Goodwin, 22, 216 Wabash Ave., Panama City, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill

Charles Michael Lambert, 46, 12809 French Lane, Fountain, aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability

David Ethan Anthony Kopko, 47, 2123 Dorthy Ave., Panama City, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill

Ladasia Shanae Kelley, 19, 1114 Lisenby Ave., Panama City, felony battery or domestic battery by strangulation, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill

Joseph Alan Cook, 31, 5622 Hathaway Road, Panama City, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill

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Countlanand Boyer Williams, 40, robbery

Robert Edward Hill, 37, 5009 E. Ninth St., Panama City, burglary

Tonya Marie (Redd) Montin, 32, 2800 Airport Road, Panama City, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver, possession of controlled substance without prescription

Stephanie Sue Dunbar, 38, possession of new legend drug without prescription with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver , possession of controlled substance without prescription

Sharon Denise Cobb, 43, 604 Satsuma Ave., Panama City, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver, possession of opium or derivative with intent to distribute, manufacture, sell or deliver

FORT MYERS (AP) — A Fort Myers woman was arrested after deputies say they found her running naked through a neighborhood chasing her boyfriend with a knife.

Police told The News-Press of Fort Myers that 20-year-old Rolchika Washington was arrested after chasing her boyfriend, 26-year-old Guerson Lapimarede, after an argument over money Tuesday morning. After a physical altercation, Washington armed herself with a knife and chased Lapimarede through the Pine Manor neighborhood in Fort Myers.

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Washington's roommate called 911 after seeing her run toward Lapimarede.

Washington has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Lee County jail records show that Washington was released early Thursday on $10,000 bail. Jail records didn't show whether she had an attorney.

GRACEVILLE — Four people have been arrested after an investigation of drug and firearms possession by a felon, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

Daniel Carroll, 34, and his wife, 32-year-old Devona Seale, both of Graceville, were arrested without incident Friday after a two-hour negotiation at another couple’s home where Carroll and Seale had holed up in a bedroom.

At one point, Carroll said he would either shoot himself or force deputies to shoot him, a Sheriff’s Office news release said. He and Seale eventually surrendered.

Carroll was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance and violation of state probation, along with existing arrest warrants.

Seale was charged with possession of a controlled substance and resisting an officer.

Carroll and Seale were at the home of Steven Wilson, 50, and Penney Wilson, 44, in Graceville, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

While in their home negotiating with Carroll, deputies saw marijuana plants growing on the back porch, the Sheriff’s Office reported. After Carroll and Seale were arrested, deputies searched the house and recovered 29 marijuana plants, about a half-gram of methamphetamine, suspected meth oil, drug paraphernalia and five firearms.

The Wilsons were charged with possession of marijuana, cultivation of marijuana and possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

PANAMA CITY — The undercover federal agents were getting closer to “Duck Dynasty.”

By September, the agents had gradually upped their quantity requests to one of Bay County’s heroin point men to about 4½ ounces.

 “How much per can of top-of-the-line dog food if I get 4.5 cans,” investigators intercepted from a text conversation between “Duck Dynasty” and his alleged source in Miami. “Is it still 29 a can or does it get cheaper?”

The text was one of the last before the October arrests of Jeremey Walker, aka “Duck Dynasty,” Kelvin Jackson, Lisa Kelly and Dawinna Linder. Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputies pulled the group over at about 9:40 a.m. near Youngstown in a mover’s truck. They reported finding 124 grams of heroin and 90 oxycodone pills during the search with the information provided by the DEA.

A few weeks later, BCSO would record its largest street seizure of heroin — about 56 grams, worth thousands of dollars — after the death of 28-year-old Justin Roberts, which investigators said was connected to heroin use. Narcotics officers netted three arrests in wake of Roberts’ death, but a family was still left without a son and brother.

The cases were some of the first signs “Mexican mud,” as heroin is called in some circles, had finally washed onto Bay County shores. And BCSO drug specialists do not see an ebbing of the tide in the near future.

“I think we’ve been successful at plugging some of the leaks in the past,” said Capt. Faith Bell with BCSO’s Special Investigations Division (SID). “If we keep it out this time, though, we’ll be lucky.”

Bell has seen the evolution of drug trends in Bay County since a time when options were much more black and white, predominantly marijuana and cocaine. Most of the developments have been caused by social policies while others have been caused by scientific developments. Now, a veritable rainbow smorgasbord of illegal pills, powders and plants have flooded the market.

But out of all of the illicit substances to afflict a community, a heroin epidemic is the lowest one can sink, according to Bell. Cities from across the country have felt the crippling effects on residents and surges in drug-related crimes, such as burglaries, that the highly addictive heroin brings about.

“The whole country is experiencing this,” Bell said. “Until recently we’ve just been somewhat immune.”

Meth: Before the options for one’s drug of choice in the Panhandle became so extensive, South American and Mexican cartels could make large sums of money solely from marijuana and cocaine. Those were the years before the passage of medicinal and recreational marijuana use laws in some parts of the country diminished their stranglehold on supply. During that time, heroin and methamphetamine emerged as products markedly cheaper to manufacture and highly more addictive.

In Bay County in 2002, authorities started seeing an increase in methamphetamine labs and people in possession of methamphetamine just before the area went “full-blown meth,” Bell said. Other than raiding methamphetamine labs when they’d spring up and pinching lower-rung users to gain access to career players, nothing seemed to stem the methamphetamine boom — until 2005.

That’s when Florida passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005, limiting the amount of pseudoephedrine one can purchase in a time period before flags are raised in a state database. Pseudoephedrine is a chemical used in the production of methamphetamine, but it also is in common cold medicine that is readily available in most drug and grocery stores.

“Up until then, they were making ounces at a time,” Bell said. “After the Combat Meth Act, we started seeing much smaller quantities on the streets.”

But, with the action created by the Combat Meth Act, an equal and opposite reaction occurred in the drug world. “Shake ’n’ bake” kits literally exploded into Bay County. One month, fire crews responded to dozens of house fires caused by methamphetamine explosions.

“The big difference is the volatility of shake-’n’-bake kits,” Bell said. “They can only make enough for a personal supply, but they are placing themselves in a more dangerous situation.”

While methamphetamine has persisted as a problem in Bay County, authorities were able to tamp down the production size. But the form would soon evolve into an extremely cheap and high-powered product flooding in from Mexico known as “ICE.”

Pill mills: Many drugs started showing up with more prevalence in Bay County after the turn of the century, but the seeds of demand for heroin were sowed by the pill mills’ mass distribution of opioid byproducts at 2000’s end, according to BCSO officials.

A documentary called “The Oxycontin Express” from 2009 featured the travels of pill addicts down a bustling pill pipeline to south Florida, called the “Columbia of prescription drugs” in the movie. Patrons traveled by ground and air from all over the country to Florida to obtain exorbitant prescriptions from 93 of the top 100 oxycodone-dispensing doctors in the United States.

Bay County was not spared by the pill frenzy. Once deaths from overdoses started to pile up in the county, BCSO sent officers to investigate the practices in person.

“There were hundreds of cars outside these places with license plates from all over,” Bell said. “These people who claimed these serious injuries would be running from their cars in the rain to get their pills.”

At the time, BCSO just asked the local pharmacies not to fill suspicious prescriptions. Most complied. And in 2011 Gov. Rick Scott vowed to eliminate pill mills and signed legislation to regulate pill dispensing. But the taste for opioids, a derivative of opium, would linger on in Bay County.

“Any savvy drug dealer is going to fill that demand,” Bell said.

Heroin: BCSO recorded the largest street seizure of heroin on its books March 4 following the death of a local man from an overdose. BCSO made three arrests and seized about 56 grams of heroin followed the death of Roberts, and BCSO expects other arrests in connection with a heroin distribution ring within Bay County.

Few details have been released about Bay County’s heroin distribution ring because of the sensitive nature of the investigation. Officials have said the general route ICE and heroin travels originate in Mexico and South America.

Cartels in each country have specialized in the cheapest to manufacture and most addictive products to market to North America. At some point, the drugs find their way to Miami or Atlanta before traveling toward Bay County.

In 2011, ICE became the big thing in Bay County. But as 2014 came to a close and 2015 began, heroin has taken main stage as a creeping epidemic.

“We’ll be lucky if we can stop it with what all is going on in the country,” Bell said. “But I don’t see us being able to.”

Heroin deaths nationwide have nearly quadrupled since 2000, according to a National Centers for Health Statistics report released in early March. Bay County already has seen several in the past few months, though figures are unclear since many still are pending toxicology tests.

Many EMS crews across the country now carry Narcan pens in their ambulance to combat heroin deaths. An injunction of Narcan, an opioid agonist, immediately counteracts the effects of heroin overdose, snatching the user from death. But it isn’t always appreciated.

“They’ll sit up angry that you took away their high,” Bell said, “as if they weren’t heartbeats away from death.”

Narcan is a prescription drug, which creates difficulties with Bay County EMS being able to readily use the medication. Each year since the heydays of the pill mills, authorities have seen only a fraction of heroin-related deaths compared to deaths caused by prescription medication, but due to the unpredictable nature of a heroin injection and the increasing presence of the drug, officials are not optimistic the ratio will stick.

“This year I think that will turn on its head,” Bell said. “I’d be surprised if it didn’t.”

Authorities also have said they intend to heavily prosecute those arrested for bringing heroin into the county. In the case of “Duck Dynasty,” Walker pleaded to drug possession and trafficking charges and was handed down a five-year prison sentence. Jackson, the man who ran the drugs from Miami, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for trafficking.

The cases against Kelly and Linder are pending.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — A Destin man was killed in an early morning crash Friday, police reported.

Chad Dale Hamilton, 42, was traveling east on Front Beach Road on a 2008 Harley-Davidson approaching the right turn lane near the Casa Loma hotel, 13615 Front Beach Road, according to a Panama City Beach Police news release. Hamilton's motorcycle left the roadway, jumped the curb and entered the overflowing lot of the motel.

Beach Police said Hamilton was thrown from his bike and struck a parked trailer. Emergency personnel found him with no vital signs and were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

He was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, police reported. The investigation was listed Friday morning as ongoing.

PANAMA CITY — Students at Florida State University Panama City will be able to pursue studies in crime scene investigation, as of Aug. 1.

The school is offering a bachelor of science degree beginning in the fall semester. FSU professor Charla Perdue and Bay County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Lt. Koren Colbert will teach classes in the program. Colbert has been with the BCSO for 25 years, while Perdue received her criminology degree in 2003.

Perdue said the program complements the school’s existing underwater crime scene investigation program, which started in 2000. Anything students can be taught to do in the water they also can be taught to do on land, Perdue said. There are 11 required main courses in the program and students must complete a semester long internship with a public safety and security related agency.

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What separates FSU Panama City’s program from other crime scene programs, Perdue said, is students will be taught in investigation skills that employers are looking for.

Along with a lecture classroom, there is a separate lab room with microscopes, fingerprinting kits and various machines that measure blood alcohol levels and hold biological samples.

“If a student gets a job in a small town with little or no technology they know how to sketch and photograph a scene with precision,” Perdue said. “If they get a job with a larger agency with a bigger budget that has access to 3D laser scanners to document a scene, our students can do that as well.”

Colbert said part of the hands-on experience students will get is working with buried bodies and skeletal remains in mock investigations.

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Crime scene investigation can be challenging and difficult work, Colbert said, with the worst of humanity often seen in the field.

“It really takes a unique individual to deal with the circumstances involved in crime scene investigation,” Colbert said.

When investigating a scene, Colbert said, you have to see it as a piece of a puzzle and methodically document the evidence. A crime that took seconds to commit, Colbert said, can take weeks and months to examine.

PANAMA CITY — Construction on the flyover for U.S. 98 and 23rd Street likely won’t begin until September, but Panama City is preparing now.

The project will be bid May 20 followed by a preconstruction meeting before a groundbreaking is scheduled, according to Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) public information specialist Donna Green. None of the closures will happen until May 20, Green said, but likely much later — closer to construction.

The Panama City Commission gave its final approval for six road closures along the route at its meeting Tuesday. The roads will be closed as necessary once construction starts, under the direction of FDOT. Construction should last through 2017. Below are the planned closures; timing of some of the detours depends on where work is being done at the time:

1. Alabama Avenue

• Length of detour : Less than 0.1 mile
• Location: Just south of U.S. 98
• Length of closure: Permanent
• Detour: East on 18th Street and then a left turn on Brown Avenue.
• Impact: Residents who live on Alabama Avenue, south of the closure area, say they are happy the route is closing — accessing U.S. 98 from that outlet is basically impossible now and everyone already takes the detour. “I actually think it would be better,” said Nelda Wrenn, who lives at 1726 Alabama Ave.

2. Brown Avenue South

• Length of detour: 0.3 miles
• Location: Just south of U.S. 98
• Length of closure: Three to five weeks
• Detour: Left on 18th Street and a right onto Stephens Avenue.
• Impact: “It’s hard to get out now,” said Kenny Stephens, who lives at 1703 Brown Ave. “During construction it will be hard to get in and out.” At a previous FDOT meeting, Stephens suggested a much longer detour around the proposed overpass by expanding Liddon Avenue North. FDOT officials were not receptive to that idea, he said.

3. Brown Avenue North

• Length of detour: 4 miles
• Location: Just north of U.S. 98
• Length of Closure: Three to five weeks
• Detour: Right on 19th Street, right on Baltimore
• Impact: The closest residences are about a half-mile north on Brown Avenue.

4. Hannah Avenue North

• Length of detour: 0.4 miles
• Location: Just north of U.S. 98
• Length of closure: Eight to 10 weeks
• Detour: Right on 19th Street, right on Brown Avenue
• Impact: With Hannah Avenue being so close to the project, Felipe Betancourt, 1902 Hannah Ave., is more worried about noise than inconvenience of driving. He will have to go out of his way to go to Panama City Beach for work, but he already takes 19th Street to get to places in Panama City. Betancourt even pondered whether the project will increase his property value.

5. Hannah Avenue South

• Length of detour: 0.3 miles
• Location: Just south of U.S. 98
• Length of closure: four years
• Detour: right on 18th and left on Brown Avenue.
• Impact: Wrenn feels Alabama is too close the intersection at U.S. 98 and 23rd. Hannah is a block closer. The Passport Inn off Hannah Avenue closed as a part of the project.

6. Collegiate Drive

• Length of detour: 1.6 miles
• Location: North of U.S. 98 up to the water’s edge
• Length of Closure: Four to six months
• Detour: Left onto 23rd Street and left onto Collegiate Drive
• Impact: The closure will effectively eliminate the main route most people take to get to either Gulf Coast State College or Florida State University Panama City. Because the road is closed all the way up to the curve, drivers from PCB cannot access Collegiate Drive through Carl Grey Park.

BONIFAY — Holmes County led the state by a huge margin in the number of outdoor-grown marijuana plants seized last year.

According to the March 2015 report on the state marijuana eradication program the previous year, 7,704 outdoor-grown plants — 73 percent of the state’s total — were chopped down by law enforcement from 59 different grow sites in the county. A distant second place for plants seized was Walton County, with 421 plants.

“Some of those sites range from two or three plants to 800 or 900 plants in a site,” said Lt. Tyler Harrison of the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office.

--- DOCUMENT: 2014 STATE MARIJUANA REPORT

Authorities discovered outdoor marijuana grow sites during an aerial spotter school in August. The special training brought law enforcement in from all over the state to practice how to visually identify marijuana growth from a helicopter.

The school was put on by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement. Together, the agencies coordinate efforts with federal, state and local agencies to take down marijuana cultivated indoors and outdoors before it’s passed on to dealers.

The agencies released the 2014 report last month generated from the efforts of Florida’s Domestic Marijuana Eradication Program.

The location selected for last year’s spotter school was originally planned to cover Holmes, Washington and Bay counties. Students were to spend a day searching each county from the sky, but the effort never left Holmes County after what was found on the first day.

“After flying for a few hours, they realized there was more dope than they could get in three days here,” Harrison said.

The available helicopter and manpower on the ground made it possible for multiple agencies to do a heavy sweep of the county. Spotters are trained to recognize marijuana plants with the naked eye, even in heavily wooded areas. When a visual confirmation is made, the air crew communicates an estimated amount and a location a crew on the ground.

Approaching marijuana plants deep in the woods can be dangerous for deputies. Harrison said he’s seen traps set that were designed to puncture tires or injure anyone who gets too close to the grower’s investment

“You just go slow and look for it,” he said.

Harrisonsaid it’s a common practice for cultivators to plant marijuana on the land of unsuspecting property owners. When plants are discovered, HCSO does not notify the property owner.

In 2013, only 226 plants from two sites were taken. Outdoor plants recovered in 2012 totaled 1,602 from 11 sites.

The report indicated no arrests were made in Holmes County in the confiscation of that much cannabis last year. Harrison said arrest numbers are low because no growers had been caught in the marijuana patch when law enforcement arrived.

Arrest numbers rise significantly with the number of indoor sites discovered, since law enforcement can more easily prove to whom the plants belong.

For some, harvesting cannabis is the grower’s only occupation.

“A lot of the time, it’s the person’s only source of income,” Harrison said. “They choose to not have a job because it’s easier to work during the summer months and kick back and sell their product in the winter months.”

Plants found can be anywhere from tiny to 12 or 14 feet tall. Harrison said the national average for the estimated street value of a single plant can be up to $1,000. That means pot found in Holmes County last year was worth about $7.7 million, although Harrison said it likely wouldn’t have brought in that much. 

The 2014 annual report showed the second-largest haul of marijuana cultivated outdoors was 421 plants seized in Walton County from seven sites. Washington County seized a significant amount, taking 134 outdoor plants from six sites. Bay County had much less seized, five plants from one site.

The program helps each county fund the hunt for marijuana. Holmes County requested and was reimbursed $35,000 last year to help offset HCSO’s investigation costs.

The warm climate and rural atmosphere contribute to wider outdoor growth in North Florida. More urbanized areas see an uptick in the number of indoor-grown marijuana seizures. Miami-Dade topped the chart with 5,631 indoor plants seized from 124 sites.

Over the past 30 years, the program has detected more than 34,000 indoor and outdoor grow sites, aided in the arrest of 17,930 cultivators and kept more than $3 billion worth of marijuana off the street. 

--- DOCUMENT: 2014 STATE MARIJUANA REPORT

When law enforcement is left with a huge pile of marijuana they’ve chopped down with machetes, they dispose of plants, which have been counted and logged into evidence, by dowsing them in diesel fuel and setting them on fire in a pit, where the marijuana is burned to nothing, and then the pit is filled back in.

Pot by the numbers: How area counties ranked in marijuana seizures:

County, Indoor sites, Indoor plants, Indoor arrests, Outdoor sites, Outdoor plants, Outdoor arrests

• Bay: 0, 0, 0, 1, 5, 0
• Calhoun: 0, 0, 0, 1, 14, 0
• Franklin: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
• Gulf: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
• Holmes: 0, 0, 0, 59, 7704, 0
• Jackson: 0, 0, 0, 7, 52, 3
• Walton: 1, 64, 1, 7, 421, 4
• Washington: 1, 30, 2, 6, 134, 0
• STATEWIDE: 384, 20987, 447, 198, 10530, 72

PANAMA CITY — A 7-year-old girl died on Sunday from a gunshot wound to the head in what police said was an accidental shooting, the Panama City Police Department reported.

PCPD received a 911 call at 10:30 a.m. Sunday reporting a child had been shot at the Andrews Place Apartments, 1914 Frankford Avenue, according to a police report. Upon arrival, PCPD officers found the girl had been struck in the head by a bullet fired by her father from a handgun, according to police.

The child was transported to Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart, where she later died, police said. PCPD reported “it appears the shooting was accidental.” No other details of the incident were initially reported by the PCPD.

The investigation is ongoing, PCPD reported. Anyone with information is asked to call the PCPD at (850) 872-3100 or CrimeStoppers at (850) 785-TIPS.

A man died and his passenger was injured in a single-vehicle crash Monday morning in Jackson County, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

Juquan Jerome Goodson, 23, of Grand Ridge was pronounced dead at the scene at around 5 a.m., according to a report. Passenger Dequantaye Jerod Burns, 23, of Sneads was seriously injured and taken to the Jackson County Hospital, FHP reported.

Goodson was driving a 2006 Mitsubishi at a high rate of speed on southbound State 69, when he entered into a right-hand curve and lost control, according to FHP. The vehicle traveled into the west ditch, rotated clockwise and impacted a concrete power pole, FHP said.

Goodson and Burns were not wearing seatbelts, according to the report. Alcohol results also are pending, according to FHP.

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — As investigators sought information on the whereabouts of a missing Santa Rosa Beach man and Panama City Beach woman, the man who later would be accused of their murder told officers the two owed money to dangerous creditors.

Barry Davis, 34, later would be arrested and charged with the deaths of John “Gregory” Hughes and his girlfriend Heidi Rhodes. The couple was reported missing in 2012. However, they were not seen again after May 7 of that year, the last date the couple was heard from by family members.

During Monday’s portion of the “no body” double murder trial, prosecutors presented audio recordings from their ensuing encounters in June with Davis along their investigation. Former WCSO investigator Steve Sunday said he recorded the interviews without Davis’ knowledge because he was not under arrest at that point. Davis told investigators that Hughes was sought by nefarious characters, to whom he was indebted for his drug habit.

“He’s always getting into some (expletive),” Davis said on the recording. “He’ll get strung out, say he quit, and then after a few days he’ll be backsliding.”

Davis told investigators the two men were friends and the last time he saw Hughes was about a week before the first recording. He and a few other people helped Hughes load up a moving truck to get out of town, but where they went after that he didn’t know. However, several neighbors who saw the moving truck said neither Hughes nor Rhodes were there at the time.

In the latter interview — a phone conversation Davis also wasn’t aware was being recorded — he told WCSO that Hughes had mentioned going on vacation.

“He said something about Barbados — he was on vacation in Barbados,” Davis told investigators. “And the sad thing is, he told me he was going to quit.”

In the interviews with Davis were glaring contradictions.

Davis said he had not spoken with Hughes for about a week before the interviews. During that time, though, Davis cashed three checks written from Hughes for upward of $3,000 apiece. Hughes family testified that the signatures on those checks did not belong to Hughes. To add to that, jurors also saw video of Davis using Hughes’ debit card at several different convenience stores following his disappearance.

Sunday said as they interviewed Davis he knew of the checks and video surveillance. He didn’t mention that to Davis.

“I didn’t want to put my cards on the table,” he said.

Authorities also found some of Hughes’ possessions in a storage unit rented in Davis’ name; and Tiffani Steward, Davis’ girlfriend, was later arrested for dealing in the stolen property of Hughes’ on Craigslist.

Steward is expected later in the trial to provide the only testimony from the night of the couple’s alleged death.

Steward has told investigators that she and Davis were invited to Hughes’ Santa Rosa home on May 7. At about 9 p.m. she and Rhodes drove to a grocery store to pick up margarita mix. When they returned Hughes was motionless and bleeding on the floor. Steward said Davis then choked Rhodes until she was unconscious, investigators reported.

Davis then allegedly bound both their hands and feet with duct tape and submerged their heads in the master bathtub where he left them for some time. Steward said he would later tell her that he’d chopped their bodies into pieces and burned them, WCSO said.

Defense attorney Spiro Kypreos has cast doubt on Steward’s story since she faced prison time for aiding Davis after the alleged deaths. He has told jurors that several of the state’s witnesses obtained immunity from prosecution by agreeing to testify. Steward, at least, could have faced prison for her role in helping Davis cover up the murder and thefts he is accused of, he said.

Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore spent a large part of the morning attempting to demonstrate to jurors that Hughes and Rhodes had not simply left the country.

Brian Rhodes, son of Heidi Rhodes, said he spoke with his mother twice a week before the phone calls suddenly halted May 7, the date authorities claim Davis killed the couple. Sunday said cellphone activity dropped off after that date while mail began to pile up in Hughes’ mailbox. No moving companies in the area had leased a truck to either. Border protection authorities also said neither had left the country, Sunday said.

When investigators arrived at Hughes’ home, they found an accumulation of cleaning supplies near the front door. The rest of the house was barren save for a large pool table.

“All the rooms were empty,” Sunday said. “It was bare.”

Davis faces 12 charges of theft and fraud in addition to the murder charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. The trial, scheduled for roughly more than three weeks, continues Tuesday.

Authorities with two agencies responded to five medical calls on Sunday believed to involve the ingestion of a synthetic drug that induces bizarre, dangerous behavior, the Bay County Sheriff's Office reported.

Medical calls began at around 10 a.m. and the final response was made at 7:23 p.m. in Parker, police said. Two of the five individuals taken to the hospital remained in the intensive care unit, as of Monday, BCSO reported.

BCSO reported it was unclear what substances were taken by the men. Parker Police recovered a substance from a vehicle, possibly synthetic marijuana, BCSO reported, and it was sent to a lab for analysis.

Anyone with information on these cases or the sale of synthetic drugs is asked to contact the BCSO at (850) 747-4700 or CrimeStoppers at (850) 785-TIPS.

The narratives from a BCSO police report follow:

The first medical call occurred at about 10 a.m. Deputies arrived at a residence at 2512 Joan Avenue, Panama City Beach, to find a white male stumbling and falling to the ground. The man had his eyes rolled back into his head and attempted to speak, but deputies were not able to understand him.

The white male became so unstable he was placed on the ground where he went into a seizure. EMS responded and he was placed into an ambulance and became extremely combative towards EMS workers. He was secured and transported to a local hospital.

At about noon, deputies again were called to Joan Avenue. Upon arrival, deputies observed another white male crawling on the roadside, talking to himself, and exhibiting the same symptoms as the man picked up earlier in the day from the same location. EMS transported this second man to a local hospital.

Shortly after 4 p.m., deputies responded to 7205 Thomas Drive, PCB, behind a condominium, and found a man in medical distress resisting assistance from EMS workers. As deputies approached, the man began to curse. When he, too, began to convulse, EMS workers and deputies were able to get him into an ambulance and he was transported to a local hospital.

At 6:30 p.m., deputies responded to Byrd Drive, Panama City, in reference to a black male running into and underneath the ambulance sent to help him. The black male was restrained to a back board for his safety and was yelling. A woman living nearby stated to deputies the black male attempted to attack her in her front yard as he walked on the street, shouting bizarre things at her.

Deputies felt the black male was a threat to others and himself. He was placed under a Baker Act to receive medical and mental health care.

At 7:23 p.m., the Parker Police Department also responded to a medical call. The driver of a vehicle appeared to be intoxicated and medically distressed, exhibiting many of the same symptoms deputies observed at the four earlier medical calls. The driver was transported to a local hospital. PPD officers found a substance they believe could be a controlled substance or synthetic marijuana.

PANAMA CITY — All it took was a look, a perceived slight, for Marlon Sequeria to get stabbed three times with a screwdriver on Tuesday morning.

Sequeria was on the phone outside of the Greyhound Bus Station at 917 Harrison Ave., trying to gather enough money for a trip to St. Petersburg. The 18-year-old Tallahassee native said he was looking to start a new life with family members in the Tampa area.

An unidentified man arrived and started asking other would-be travelers if they wanted to buy an MP3 player, Sequeria said. According to Sequeria’s description, he was dark-skinned, although his race is unknown, short and wearing a red shirt and track pants.

Sequeria said the man, about 25 years old, confronted him because Sequeria was looking at him funny. When he called Sequeria a kid, Sequeria responded that he was a grown man and started to posture for a fight.

“You grown?” Sequeria said the man asked him, while retrieving an 8 inch screwdriver with the handle wrapped in a yellow plastic bag that was concealed in his pants.

When he put the tool in Sequeria’s face, the fight started, according to witnesses. The two grappled before ending up on the bus station floor, Sequeria said. The man gained the advantage and thrust the screwdriver into Sequeria’s right side three times. It didn’t end up puncturing the skin, leaving marks akin to bad bug bites.

“It felt like I was kicked with combat boots,” Sequeria said.

At that point Michael Luoman, of Dallas, and Cory Cravens, of Panama City, stepped in to take the screwdriver out of the man’s hand and held him down. Sequeria then kicked the man while he was down.

“I would have done the same thing,” Luoman said.

The man was able to scramble to his feet. He picked up the screwdriver, which Cravens had thrown against the wall, and it looked to Sequeria like he was going to attack again. Luoman believes the man saw a police car approaching north on Harrison, which is when he left the building and headed north on foot.

“He wasn’t running but he was walking with a quick step,” Luoman said.

Panama City Police are investigating the incident and searching for the alleged attacker.

PANAMA CITY — An investigation into the accidental shooting death of a 6-year-old by her father will be turned over to state prosecutors to determine whether charges should be filed, according to Panama City Police Department officials.

Panama City police, citing public records exemptions, refused to release the names of the victim or her father.

But court documents filed by Cynthia Votta this week and obtained by the News Herald state the victim was her daughter, 6-year-old Izabella Votta, and the shooter was 29-year-old Evan Hernandez of Panama City.

--- DOCUMENT: READ THE REDACTED REPORT AND SEE THE EXEMPTIONS»»

PCPD reported its investigation into whether Hernandez will face criminal charges in connection with a Sunday shooting was turned over Tuesday to 14th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office. Hernandez is being investigated after police responded to what they called an “accidental” shooting that left his 6-year-old daughter dead.

Hernandez was only confirmed as the shooter through Bay County Court documents. According to court records, Hernandez was in another room of the apartment “practicing form in front of the mirror and the gun … accidentally went off and went through the mirror and the wall and fatally injured the daughter,” his attorney reported.

However, PCPD withheld information regarding the incident Tuesday, including the names of those involved, citing public records exemptions.

Police Chief Scott Ervin did not immediately return calls for comment. PCPD responded Tuesday to requests for information with no comment.

“Several of you have asked for updates regarding the tragic death of the six year old girl shot by her father,” wrote Lt. Mark Laramore, police spokesman. “We are consulting with the State Attorney’s Office for advice on what can be made public record. When we can release information we will. We will not be commenting on the ongoing case.”

Officials with the State Attorney’s Office said Tuesday they had not received documentation from the incident to begin a review process of the case.

PCPD officials heavily redacted an incident report released Tuesday evening, citing a series of exemptions to public record records requests.

In the incident report, PCPD restated that the agency received a 911 call Sunday at about 10:30 a.m. reporting a child had been shot at the Andrews Place Apartments, 1914 Frankford Ave. Upon arrival, PCPD officers found the girl had been struck in the head by a bullet fired by her father from a handgun, according to police.

The child was taken to Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart, where she later died, police said. PCPD reported “it appears the shooting was accidental,” according to a press release. No other details of the incident were initially reported by the PCPD.

A court document filed Tuesday in response from Hernandez to the child’s mother’s motion for emergency custody of their younger child, said Hernandez was in another room of the apartment “practicing form” when the gun discharged and struck the daughter.

--- DOCUMENT: READ THE REDACTED REPORT AND SEE THE EXEMPTIONS»»

Hernandez and the girl’s mother, Cynthia Votta, had been in and out of child custody court since 2011, according to court records. Hernandez was awarded sole custody in 2013 after Votta moved out of the home without the children, court documents indicated. In September, a circuit court judge ratified Hernandez’s award of custody.

The girl, one of two children at the center of the dispute, had been diagnosed with leukemia at birth and receiving treatments, court records stated.

According to the court records, Hernandez extended a request to have Votta participate in funeral decisions. Funeral plans have not yet been released by the family.