PANAMA CITY — Someone is stealing rent checks from apartment dropboxes in Panama City, according to a police incident report.

Police responded Nov. 8 to Pelican Bay Apartments at 924 Florida Ave., where the apartment manager reported several monthly rent checks apparently had been taken. Residents’ checks had cleared with their banks, but not with the apartment. Some tenants’ payments were missing.

The apartment manager, according to the report, told police she found a sticky substance on the back of several checks left in the dropbox. Investigators believe someone could have used a device with an adhesive to retrieve the checks.

The Pelican Bay office had no security camera or working alarm system when the report was taken. Thursday, Pelican Bay apartments notified its residents of the thefts. The apartment manager said several other apartments in Panama City reported similar thefts at a recent county housing meeting.

An investigation is underway, and anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Panama City Police Department at 872-3100 or Crimestoppers at 785-TIPS (8477).

HILAND PARK — Authorities captured a north Florida murder suspect Monday morning.

The suspect, Stonie Shane Norris, was captured in the vicinity of Transmitter Road and U.S. 231.

Check back later for more details

Below is an earlier version of this story:

Authorities are searching for a murder suspect in Lynn Haven.

The Bay County Sheriff's Office and the Lynn Haven Police Department is searching for Stonie Shane Norris, a fugitive from Putnam County, officials wrote in a news release. Norris is wanted for Home Invasion Robbery and two counts of Attempted Murder.

After receiving information Norris could be traveling to Bay County, deputies checked on a possible location at a trailer park in Lynn Haven. A BCSO deputy spotted Norris in the area but he evaded apprehension, officials said. A vehicle reported stolen in Lake City, Florida, an F-150 truck, has been located and is believed to have been used by Norris. A weapon was found in the vehicle.

Norris was last seen in the area of Carla Lane and Aberdeen in Lynn Haven. The BCSO Air Unit, K-9 Unit, Patrol Deputies and LHPD officers are looking for Norris.

Norris is a white male, 6'2", 165 pounds, with a shaved head, possibly with facial hair. Residents in the area are encouraged to be vigilant and report anything suspicious to law enforcement immediately. Anyone with information on Stonie Shane Norris should call the Bay County Sheriff's Office at 747-4700.

PANAMA CITY — A man suspected of home invasion and attempted murder didn’t spend much time in Bay County before his presence was known to investigators.

In fact, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office believes Stonie Shane Norris was spotted within minutes of his arrival.

Norris, 37, was arrested early Monday after an overnight manhunt involving about 25 Bay County Sheriff’s office deputies and officers from the Lynn Haven Police Department, as well as the BCSO air unit. Though he eluded law enforcement overnight, police were on his trail almost immediately after he arrived in Bay County, BCSO spokeswoman Ruth Corley said.

“We received information Sunday … and began searching at that point. I don’t know how long he was here,” Corley said. “We believe that we were able to spot him within minutes.”

Deputies in Putnam County, south of Jacksonville, had been searching for Norris since two people were beaten in a home invasion robbery there early Friday. Authorities said he likely would be armed.

Attempts to reach Putnam County authorities were unsuccessful Monday evening. A news release from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office gave few details about the crime there, but Corley said Norris is suspected of beating two people during a home invasion robbery early Nov. 22.

Deputies were alerted to Norris’ arrival in Bay County on Sunday and looked for him at a Lynn Haven home. A deputy spotted Norris in the area, but Norris got away. A gun was recovered in a stolen truck Norris was believed to have driven.

The search continued overnight until a citizen reported seeing Norris in a creek bed in the 3900 block of U.S. 231 and Evergreen Cemetery. He was apprehended around 9 a.m. Monday in a nearby wooded area.

Norris didn’t put up a fight, Corley said.

“He went quietly,” she said. “He was soaking wet. He was lying under some pine straw. … I imagine he was pretty miserable.”

Corley said Norris had a relative and a friend in the Lynn Haven area. It’s not clear if he intended to stay in the area or pass through.

He was booked into the Bay County Jail to wait for a ride back to Putnam County.

PANAMA CITY — The former director of the Apalachicola Housing Authority (AHA) was sentenced Tuesday after she pleaded guilty in June to stealing government funds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Selena Noblit, 43, of Panama City, was sentenced to one year of probation, 192 hours of community service and a $100 fine for using the AHA’s American Express credit card for more than $11,000 in personal expenses, then using U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds to pay the credit card bills.

Court records show she spent the money on food, tools, children’s clothes, dental care and a theme park visit.

Noblit was fired as the housing authority director, a position she held about four years, in July 2012, about a month after a federal grand jury returned an indictment against her. The theft was discovered in the course of an investigation and audit conducted by HUD and the Apalachicola Housing Authority.

The followoing month, Noblit’s husband delivered two checks totaling about $11,000 to AHA, according to records. Noblit told federal officials she always had intended to repay the money, but her finances became too co-mingled and she lost track of how much she owed.

Judge Robert L. Hinkle could have sentenced Noblit to up 10 years in prison.

PANAMA CITY — Attorneys preparing to try the case of a professional expert witness charged with perjury have a week to figure out if another professional expert witness is necessary and the trial should be delayed.

If John Lloyd’s trial, which is currently scheduled to begin Dec. 16, needs to be delayed, there’s no telling how long the delay would be, Judge Michael Overstreet said during a hearing Tuesday. Overstreet was not inclined to grant prosecutor Megan Teeple’s motion to continue, which was filed early Tuesday after Lloyd’s attorneys disclosed a new witness.

Teeple wanted time to depose the witness and, if necessary, hire yet another expert witness to rebut whatever the expert witness’s expert witness had to say. Overstreet pointed out there was no room in his schedule for months and that there was “no way” Lloyd’s case would be considered a priority over a homicide case.

“I’m not inclined to make other defendants wait so I can clear another week for trial,” he said.

Overstreet didn’t rule on Teeple’s motion; instead he asked Lloyd’s attorney’s to prepare a sort of sneak preview of the expert’s testimony and show it to Teeple by Tuesday. Teeple has until the next day to respond and determine if she still will need more time to prepare for trial; if she does, Overstreet said, there will be another hearing next week.

Earlier this month, Overstreet reinstated several of the perjury counts against Lloyd that he had dismissed in October. Overstreet dismissed eight of 13 perjury counts against Lloyd and then reinstated four of them, so Lloyd faces a total of nine counts of perjury in an official proceeding, each of which is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Lloyd was arrested after he testified on behalf of Timothy Foxworth, who was the only person with his infant son when the boy sustained near-fatal brain injuries that Foxworth told investigators were the result of a short fall. Foxworth was charged with aggravated child abuse and could’ve faced 30 years in prison, but was convicted of only child abuse and sentenced to less than five years in prison.

Prosecutors and police believed Lloyd’s testimony — that one of the three explanations Foxworth gave for his son’s injuries was plausible — made the difference that led to the less severe sentence, and Bay County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Lloyd after a short time.

PANAMA CITY BEACH -- Two homeless men were arrested on suspicion of beating a third homeless fellow who refused to chip in money for a beer run, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

Jacob Gosselin and Charles Strickland are charged with aggravated battery and principal to aggravated battery, respectively, after a man told investigators they jumped him and knocked his teeth out because he refused to cough up money for beer. The two suspects and the victim had been staying in a transient camp in a wooded area off Front Beach Road.

The victim, who is not identified in a BCSO news release, identified the suspects and reluctantly went to the hospital to be treated for a busted up face.

PANAMA CITY BEACH -- The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is collecting new, unwrapped toys and donations for Project 25, an annual toy drive conducted by the BCSO for more than 30 years to provide toys for needy children at Christmas.

Saturday, there will be a fundraiser for Project 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Harley-Davidson of Panama City Beach at 14700 Panama City Beach Parkway. The community is invited to take part and bring a new unwrapped toy or game. Those bringing a toy will be registered for in-store drawings to win a variety of Harley-Davidson items. Christmas treats will be served and there will be a cookout at noon with live entertainment. All toys from the event will be donated to Project 25.

Donations to Project 25 of new, unwrapped toys can be made Monday through Friday 8 a.m. 5 p.m. at the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at 3421 North Highway 77 in Panama City. Donations of money also are accepted.

FREEPORT — A DeFuniak Springs woman died and two Bay County residents were seriously injured early Thursday morning in a wreck in Walton County.

Killed was Alicia Marie Forest, 23, DeFuniak Springs, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Samuel Depriest, 21, Panama City Beach, was driving a 2003 Mitsubishi SUV south on U.S. 331 about two miles north of U.S. 20 around 12:30 a.m. and drove into the northbound lane to pass another vehicle, an FHP report said. For some unknown reason, the SUV never returned to the correct lane and collided head on with a northbound 1998 Mitsubishi sedan driven by Forest. She died at the scene, FHP said.

The SUV then was hit by a northbound 2007 Toyota Camry driven by 60-year-old Susan Marie Przybylek of Milton.

Depriest and passenger Dorothy Depriest, 75, Panama City, were taken to Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System with serious injuries, FHP said.

Przybylek was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital of the Emerald Coast with minor injuries. Her passenger, 32-year-old Amber Cristin Przybylek of Philadelphia, Pa., had minor injuries but was not taken to the hospital.

The FHP investigation is continuing, but the report said alcohol was not a factor in the crash and everyone involved was wearing seatbelts.

MARIANNA — A Jackson County judge acted with “judicial vindictiveness” when he sentenced a woman to woman to 20 years in prison for her role in a dangerous meth lab explosion, according to recent decision by an appeals court.

That doesn’t mean Judge William Wright was vindictive in the sense that the word is commonly understood when he sentenced Alicia Baxter to 20 years in prison; it means the circumstances of the sentencing create the “presumption that the sentence imposed is improper,” the court said.

Read the ruling

The 1^st District Court of Appeal threw out Baxter’s sentence in a decision issued Wednesday. She is to be resentenced by a judge who has not been involved in her case or the case against her co-defendant.

Judges in Florida are not prohibited from engaging in plea negotiations as long as they are impartial arbiters. Wright’s off-the-record comments during the negotiations “seem to reflect something other than a dispassionate stake in the proceeding,” the DCA wrote.

That, coupled with the disparity between the offer and Baxter’s eventual sentence, create a reasonable likelihood Baxter’s ultimate sentence was imposed in retaliation for exercising her right to a jury trial rather than pleading guilty, the court found.

“This case is difficult because it is clothed in the emotionally-charged language of ‘judicial vindictiveness,’ a doctrine so altered from its roots that — as here — relief may be warranted even if the trial judge was not ‘vindictive’ as that word is ordinarily used and defined in the dictionary,”  the ruling said.

Baxter and her boyfriend started a fire in a Marianna hotel room when their shake-and-bake meth lab exploded. Baxter’s boyfriend was burned and the hotel, which was booked to capacity, was evacuated.

She was charged with attempting to manufacture a controlled substance, possession of a listed chemical and arson of an occupied structure. Her boyfriend faced similar charges, and they were both offered similar plea deals: a year in the county jail followed by several years of probation. Her boyfriend took the deal.

Baxter accepted the deal too, and Wright sentenced her as he said he would, but she withdrew her plea before the end of the hearing. Wright warned her she faced a possible maximum sentence of 50 years if she went to trial. Baxter said she understood.

“It’s withdrawn. Set it for trial,” Wright said. “There ain’t no more talking.”

That day, Baxter left the courthouse and threw up while her public defender talked with Wright. She wanted to take the deal, the attorney said, but Wright decided not to go with through with another hearing that day because Baxter was ill.

The next day, Baxter returned to court and apologized, saying she had been nervous. At some point that day, Wright told her attorney he’d changed his mind and wouldn’t accept the plea. Baxter was eventually convicted by a jury. Her sentence was 20 times greater than her boyfriend’s.

Throughout negotiations, Wright made off-the-record comments to attorneys that “cops didn’t like” the deal Baxter was being offered, and that the offer had been extended for the benefit of Baxter’s public defender, the court said.

The 1^st DCA found that Wright’s eventual decision that everyone should just do their jobs was commendable.

GRACEVILLE — A Graceville man is in custody and charged with slaying two people on Thanksgiving night.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office arrested Joseph Gilley after reports of possible gunfire at about 10:45 p.m. Graceville Police Department department received the initial report.

Killed were Alicia Scouffield Sapp, 31, and James Gilley, age unknown. An officer said Sapp was the suspect's girlfriend and James Gilley was the suspect's father.

A Graceville police officer was flagged down by a resident and notified of a possible shooting. When the officer arrived on the scene at 5267 Peanut Road, he found two people dead apparently from gunshot wounds, according to police reports. A vehicle owned by one of the victims also was missing.

Officers tracked the vehicle and later found it abandoned.

Following a manhunt for the suspect, Gilley was found at a relative's residence and taken into custody with the assistance of FDLE criminal investigators, Jackson and Apalachicola Correctional tracking teams, the Medical Examiner' Office and the State Attorney’s Office, police reported.

Check later later today for more details.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge has rescheduled the trial of a man charged with kidnapping a woman in Florida with plans to force her to work as a prostitute before she escaped and went to police in Mississippi.

Authorities say Jacobo Feliciano-Francisco and another man abducted the woman from her yard in Panama City Beach on June 27 with the intentions of forcing her into prostitution in Baton Rouge, La.

She escaped through the bathroom window of a house in Hattiesburg, Miss., that night and went to the police department, according to court records.

The woman had been a witness in a prior human trafficking case, which led to numerous convictions in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Feliciano-Francisco, also known as Uriel Castillo-Ochoa, is charged in U.S. District Court in Panama City with five counts, including kidnapping and retaliating against a witness. He pleaded not guilty on Aug. 12.

He had been scheduled for trial Dec. 9, but it has been changed to March 10.

His attorney requested the delay, saying she needs more time to prepare for the trial. The lawyer did not immediately respond to a message left by The Associated Press.

Authorities said the victim was in her yard in Florida when Feliciano-Francisco and an unidentified man forced her into a car and drove to Feliciano-Francisco’s house in Hattiesburg. Investigators say Feliciano-Francisco sexually assaulted the victim and planned to force her to work as a prostitute.

Feliciano-Francisco was arrested at the house that night.

As part of the investigation, another man named Ruperto Moncillo Flores, was arrested on Interstate 59 in Jones County, Miss., the day of the abduction. Investigators say that Flores was transporting a woman from Georgia to Louisiana when he was told to stop in Hattiesburg and pick up the kidnapping victim, but his van broke down and he was arrested on the side of the highway.

Flores pleaded guilty in October in federal court in Hattiesburg to one count of transporting a woman across state lines for prostitution.

The charge against him was related to the woman in the vehicle with him at the time of his arrest. He never made it to pick up the kidnapping victim.

Authorities said there was no evidence to suggest that he knew the woman in Hattiesburg had been abducted, only that he was to pick her up and take her to Louisiana for the purpose of prostitution.

During Flores’ plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Williams said the kidnapping victim heard her abductors call someone to take her to a “house of prostitution” in Baton Rouge, La. Williams said Flores, of Lawrenceville, Ga., was arrested when his van broke down before he made it to pick up the kidnapping victim in Hattiesburg.

The woman with Flores when he was arrested told police that Flores was taking her from Georgia to Louisiana for prostitution. It led to the charge against Flores — a violation of the Mann Act. Flores is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 16.

GRACEVILLE — James Gilley was the kind of guy who’d look out for his neighbors. If someone paid a visit to Terry Springer’s house while he was out, Gilley would’ve given Springer a description of the visitor and the visitor’s car right down to the tag number, Springer said.

Springer will have to watch out for himself now. Gilley was found dead late Thanksgiving, along with 31-year-old Alicia Sapp, who listed Panama City as her home on Facebook. They’d both been shot to death in Gilley’s house at 5267 Peanut Road.

Joseph Gilley, James Gilley’s 31-year-old son, was arrested early Friday in connection with the homicides after a five-hour manhunt that involved several law enforcement agencies.

“That’s messed up,” Springer said, “to kill my ‘Pop’ like that.”

Springer, whose back yard butts up against the yard behind the house where Gilley lived, didn’t know Gilley’s given name; he just called him ‘Pop’ when they get together in the yard over beers and bonfires. Games of horseshoes extended from one yard the other, and Gilley would cut Springer’s grass, or lend a boiler for a cookout, and expect nothing in return.

“He ain’t never met a stranger,” said Springer’s friend Terry Westly, who also knew Gilley only as Pop.

At the store just down the road, a cashier who was too busy with work for an interview said she called Gilley “Mr. Squeaky” because of his voice. She said he had recently bought the van that his son took after Gilley, whose age could not be verified Friday, had been killed; before that he would drive his lawnmower to the store and help her restock iceboxes.

Graceville Police have not released details from the investigation such as a possible motive or evidence they have recovered. What police have said is a neighbor flagged down an officer at about 10:45 p.m. Thursday to report gunshots. The officer found the bodies of Gilley and Sapp dead from gunshot wounds. The elder Gilley’s van was missing, and Graceville police, along with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a tracking team from the local prison, tracked it to where Joseph Gilley allegedly abandoned the van.

Gilley was arrested without a struggle around 3:30 a.m. Friday at the home of another relative. He is being held on murder changes.

This is not Gilley’s first arrest. He was released from prison in October 2012 after he served less than two years for theft and burglary.

GRACEVILLE -- A man suspected of killing his father and girlfriend remained in jail in Jackson County Saturday after his first appearance hearing.

According to information from the Jackson County Correctional Facility, Joseph Gilley, 31, has been charged with two counts of murder in the first degree and is being held without bond.

Gilley was charged in the slayings of James Gilley and 31-year-old Alicia Sapp in a house on Peanut Road in Graceville.

Gilley was arrested early Friday after a five-hour manhunt that involved several law enforcement agencies. He was arrested without a struggle around 3:30 a.m. Friday at the home of another relative.

A Florida State fan who police say tried to come to the aid of a woman involved in an altercation inside a Gainesville bar Saturday was arrested after police say he began threatening people with a machete.

The incident was quelled by an out-of-town police officer in FSU garb who managed to calm the man.

Brant W. Brown, 37, identified by Gainesville Police as an intoxicated FSU fan, went up to a man and woman arguing inside the EndZone Bar and Grill, 1209 W University Ave., and invited the man outside to fight, according to a report.

Several Gator fan bystanders stopped Brown, who invited all of the Gator fans to meet him outside in the parking lot, the report said. Brown went outside, followed by the manager, who was calling 911 and giving police Brown’s description. Brown got a machete from his truck then threatened and charged at the manager, who retreated.

The woman in the original altercation went into the lot and Brown then threatened her with the machete, the report said. Brown covered the tag on his truck and fled on Alligator Alley, police said.

He stopped behind Mother’s Pub & Grill at 1017 W University Ave. and got out brandishing the machete. An off-duty Pembroke Pines police officer wearing an FSUshirt was able to calm Brown before Gainesville police arrived and arrested him.

Brown was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, resisting arrest, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
 

TALLAHASSEE, A Florida legislator is getting sued because his dog bit someone in the face.

Christopher Kent filed a lawsuit last week in Leon County against Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. Gaetz is the son of Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.

Kent's lawsuit alleges that Gaetz's dog bit him while he was at a restaurant near the Capitol. The lawsuit contends the dog bite left Kent with injuries that ultimately forced him to withdraw from law school at Florida State University. The lawsuit asks for damages but does not include an amount.

Gaetz on Monday acknowledged that his dog, Scarlet, did bite someone last May. But he said he was unaware of the lawsuit until reached by a reporter. He would not discuss the extent of the dog bite.
 

NEW ORLEANS — Jury selection began Monday for the Justice Department's case against a former BP drilling engineer charged with deleting text messages and voicemails about the company's response to its massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dozens of potential jurors filled a New Orleans courtroom for the start of Kurt Mix's federal trial, which is expected to last up to three weeks.

Mix, 52, of Katy, Texas, was indicted last year on two counts of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors claim he deliberately deleted strings of text messages to and from a supervisor and a BP PLC contractor to hamper a grand jury's investigation of the spill.
Mix is one of four current or former BP employees charged with crimes related to the nation's worst offshore oil spill. His case is the first to be tried.

The charges against Mix aren't related to any of the events leading up the April 2010 blowout of BP's Macondo well, which triggered an explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Mix was part of a team of experts who scrambled to seal the well, which spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. Mix, who worked on BP's unsuccessful attempt to stop the gusher using a technique called "top kill," had access to internal data about the amount of oil flowing from the well.

On May 26, 2010, the day the top kill began, Mix estimated in a text to a supervisor that more than 630,000 gallons of oil per day were spilling — three times BP's public estimate of 210,000 gallons and a rate far greater than what the company said top kill could handle.

BP repeatedly notified Mix that he was obligated to preserve all of his spill-related records. But the indictment says he deleted a string of text messages to and from the supervisor, Jonathan Sprague, from his iPhone on Oct. 4, 2010.

Mix also allegedly deleted a string of text messages he exchanged with a BP contractor named Wilson Arabie in August 2011, several weeks after federal authorities issued a subpoena to BP for copies of some of Mix's correspondence.

In a court filing, Mix's lawyers said the deleted messages were "predominantly — and arguably entirely — innocuous and insignificant in substance."

"And in the lone text message directly referencing the Macondo Incident ('Yup, but taking another spanking'), Mix merely acknowledged what was already well known to government officials, the press corps, and millions of Americans watching CNN at the time: namely, that the ongoing top kill effort did not appear to be staunching the flow of oil from the Macondo Well," the defense attorneys wrote.

The indictment also accuses Mix of deleting one voicemail from Arabie, one voicemail from the supervisor and one voicemail from an unidentified caller that went through BP's general switchboard.

Each count of obstruction of justice carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Three other current or former BP employees await trials on spill-related criminal charges.

BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges stemming from the rig workers' deaths. Prosecutors say they botched a key safety test and disregarded high pressure readings that were signs of trouble before the blowout.

Former BP executive David Rainey is charged with concealing information from Congress about the amount of oil spewing from the well.
 

PANAMA CITY — A Panama City trucker was sentenced to more than nine years behind bars Monday after he pleaded no contest to a count of vehicular homicide for driving his semitruck into the back of a moving Jeep.

Judge Michael Overstreet sentenced Dennis Fuller, 44, to nine years and three months in prison, and his driver’s license will be revoked for three years after he’s released. Fuller pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter; the state didn’t pursue additional charges of DUI manslaughter and DUI with serious bodily injury.

Analysts with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found methamphetamine and marijuana in a sample of Fuller’s blood drawn after the March 19, 2012, crash on U.S. 98 west of Mexico Beach. The crash killed Chris Herudzinksi and sent Dana Becker and Jadwiga Stojkowski to the hospital with serious injuries.

But attorney Waylon Graham, who represented Fuller, said those analysts could not testify that the levels of drugs in his blood were high enough to have caused Fuller to have been impaired at the time of the crash.

“I honed in on the experts concerning the drugs, and basically they were kind of shaky,” Graham said.

That hurt the state’s case on the two DUI counts, but eyewitnesses who said Fuller was driving very dangerously before the crash strengthened the state’s vehicular homicide case, said prosecutor Bob Sombathy.

“We had some good witnesses who said this guy was driving all over the road,” Sombathy said.

Fuller was weaving off the road and back on again at high speeds and attempting to pass other vehicles in dangerous circumstances before he smashed into the back of an eastbound Jeep. Becker and Stokowski were in the two front seats, and Herudzinski became entrapped in the back seat.

“To quote the witnesses, his driving was ‘horrible,’ ” Graham said.

Because the conviction was not for DUI but for vehicular homicide, Fuller still will be of working age when he’s released, so the fact that he will be eligible for a driver’s license was a small victory, Graham said.

“In the end, based on all the evidence, it was a very fair plea,” Graham said.

The three victims were from out of state and didn’t attend the sentencing hearing Monday, Sombathy said.

PANAMA CITY — A 23-year-old man faces a list of criminal charges after he allegedly dragged a police officer while trying to flee the scene of a traffic stop, according to Panama City Police.

Angelo Maldonado is charged with drug possession, possession of ammunition by a felon, fleeing and eluding police, aggravated assault on a police officer, battery of a police officer, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and a handful of traffic violations.

An officer who attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle Maldonado was driving was dragged briefly after Maldonado took off, police said. Maldonado also hit a marked police car in an attempt to force it off the roadway during the chase, which happened around 2:15 p.m. Monday, police said.

An officer sustained minor injuries during the incident. Maldonado was booked into the Bay County Jail to await a court appearance.

CALLAWAY — Two Panama City men were charged with possession of synthetic drugs, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

Roommates Michael Walraven and Edward Wilson were both charged with possession of synthetic narcotics with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia after deputies found what they described as 21 bags of synthetic drugs packaged for resale in a backpack in a car during a traffic stop Sunday.

A deputy noticed the car Walraven, 24, and Wilson, 23, were traveling in had an expired tag when it stopped at a gas station. Both men were behaving nervously, so a K-9 deputy sniffed the vehicle and alerted to an odor of narcotics, authorities reported.

A man who recently arrived in DeLand from Mexico was arrested and charged with sexually battering a woman who cannot speak or hear, police said.

Juan Corona-Martinez, 27, was charged with sexual battery with no physical force. According to a DeLand police report, officers were called to Florida Hospital DeLand on Nov. 19 where the 37-year-old woman was taken after she reported to a friend that she had been raped.

The woman told police she and Corona-Martinez were at a home with friends celebrating a birthday. The gathering ran out of wine, Corona-Martinez offered to buy more and invited the woman to come along, investigators said. Once they got the wine, the woman asked that they go to her house and invited two other people to come along. But the couple had an argument and left. The woman stayed alone with Corona-Martinez at her home, police said.

The woman said she asked Corona-Martinez if he was hungry and warmed food on the stove for him. That was when Corona-Martinez started kissing her on the neck. The woman said she told the man no but that he continued and they ended in up her bedroom where Corona-Martinez sexually battered her, police said.

Corona-Martinez told police the woman started hugging him when they were returning from the store after getting the wine and that the woman willingly had sex with him at her home. Corona-Martinez told police the woman was upset because her lesbian lover had left her, investigators said.

DeLand police noted in the report that Corona-Martinez is in the United States illegally and that he was a flight risk if released from jail.