PANAMA CITY BEACH -- A Panama City Beach man has been charged with two counts of child abuse.

Daniel Patrick Holmes, 33, is accused of causing injuries to his child that required medical treatment. The Florida Department of Children and Families reported to police Thursday that Holmes had possibly injured his child. Panama City Beach police investigated and determined that the child was injured in at least two separate occasions of abuse. Further details in the case were not released.

Holmes was arrested Friday without incident. He is being held in Bay County Jail.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The band director of Surfside Middle School has been suspended following his arrest Friday on a child abuse charge.

Karen Tucker, school district spokesperson, verified Saturday that Daniel Patrick Holmes, 33, works at the middle school. Holmes is accused of injuring his child in two separate instances of abuse.

Tucker declined to verify Holmes’ position at the school, but he is listed on the school’s website as band director.

He was being held on $5,000 bond in Bay County Jail on Saturday afternoon.

A hearing is being scheduled with Bay District Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt to determine Holmes’ future at the school. Holmes has been informally suspended with pay pending the outcome of a police investigation, Tucker said, and will not be at Surfside Middle on Monday. Husfelt will decide whether to officially suspend Holmes with pay, allow Holmes to return to work, or recommend to the School Board that he be terminated. The School Board would make the final decision.

“As soon as we can Monday, we’ll have a meeting with him,” Husfelt said.

Holmes was reported to police Thursday by the Florida Department of Children and Families. His child had suffered injuries that required medical treatment and indicated abuse, Panama City Beach police reported. Further details on the incident have not been released. Husfelt said the school district has “no knowledge of any other complaints or charges against (Holmes)” in the past.

Holmes has performed in the Panama City area as a saxophonist with at least two local music outfits. According to the music groups’ websites, Holmes is also in the Alabama Army Reserve.

The Blotter is a lighthearted look at some of the unusual things found in local law enforcement reports.

A man called police to report his girlfriend for hitting him with her fists and a knife. When officers arrived they found the man outside on the phone with dispatchers.

What’s going on? She’s been beating him all day, he said, just look at his face. The officer didn’t see any injuries, no evidence of a beating.

Well feel the back of my head, he said. The officer refused to feel his head. The officer looked at the back of his head and found no injuries.

Did he need EMS? He did not need EMS.

He waited outside while the officer went inside to find the woman. She was naked in bed, unarmed, and she denied any violence.

The officer returned to the man.

Where is the knife? He didn’t know. Could he describe the knife? Of course he could: it was a “big sharp knife that comes to a point.”

They went inside to search for the knife, and the man had a change of heart. He didn’t want her charged with aggravated battery; he just wanted her to leave. The officer pointed out that, at that point, there was no evidence to support any charges against her, and he got upset.

After pointing to additional injuries that officers could not find and some shouting, the man was arrested for misusing the emergency dispatch system and taken to jail.

PANAMA CITY — Authorities have arrested a Graceville man accused of attacking his father with a machete Saturday.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home in the 4000 block of U.S. 77, where the suspect, 36-year-old Wendel Gene Seaman, had fled the scene in his father’s 1989 Chevrolet truck. The suspect’s father, Lloyd Seaman, had a laceration on the back of his neck, JCSO reported. His condition was unclear.

Investigators determined the father had returned home and was looking inside his refrigerator when his son struck him from behind with the machete. Wendel Seaman then allegedly bound his father’s hands with duct tape, but his father escaped and fled the home. The attack continued outside, and Wendel Seaman still had the machete when his uncle intervened and stopped the incident. At some point during the incident, according to JCSO, Wendel Seaman threatened to kill his father.

The suspect took a .223-caliber rifle from his father’s gun cabinet before fleeing in the burgundy and silver-colored truck, according to JCSO. The Florida Highway Patrol arrested Wendel Seaman on Sunday near Monticello in Jefferson County, and the stolen rifle and truck were recovered. Authorities believed he was possibly traveling to the Tampa area.

Wendel Seaman is being held in Jefferson County Jail, and will transported back to Jackson County to face charges of attempted felony murder, grand theft motor vehicle and grand theft firearm. 

PANAMA CITY — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of a man accused of killing his neighbor and stealing his things.

Deputies found Terry Brazil dead in his home on Dec. 27 last year. He had been shot, stabbed and beaten, and his car, several guns and collectable coin sets were missing.

According to court records, those items were found when deputies with a warrant searched the Fountain home of Philip Brock, 57, who was later arrested and charged with burglary and first-degree murder. Investigators found a role of tape of the kind used to bind Brazil’s wrists near a bedpost in a wooded area near Brazil’s house with Brock’s DNA. The bedpost had Brazil’s DNA.

Prosecutor Larry Basford will not seek the death penalty if Brock is convicted, leaving life in prison as the only possible sentence. Basford doesn’t comment on pending cases.

In pretrial motions, defense attorney Kim Dowgul argued that Judge Brantley Clark should suppress evidence because of problems with the investigation, which she described as sloppy. She also argued Brock’s statements should be suppressed because investigators coerced Brock and violated his Miranda rights.

Clark sided with the state, finding Brock’s statements were “wholly voluntary and spontaneous,” and evidence was collected lawfully. His ruling was celebrated by investigators, who took offense to Dowgul’s arguments.

Dowgul declined to comment.

Basford and Dowgul will begin this morning selecting 12 jurors to decide Brock’s fate. The trial could take several days. Dowgul and Basford have filed the names of more than 100 witnesses who could potentially be called to testify.
 

A 22-year-old Georgia man is facing charges after confessing to a vehicle burglary that occurred in the parking lot of the First Watch Café in Panama City Beach Sunday.

Panama City Beach Police arrested John Glen Antley of Austel, Ga. on charges of burglary and grand theft after the victim of the crime provided police with a possible location of the suspects.

Antley was located in a vehicle but fled once officers attempted a traffic stop. Once apprehended, the suspect confessed to the crime and was booked in the Bay County Jail where he will await first appearance. 

PANAMA CITY BEACH — A scuba diver with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office spent Monday afternoon searching a golf course water hazard after receiving another report of a mutilated cat found in the road in the upscale Bay Point neighborhood.

It was the second mutilated cat reported to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office to date, and although investigators are unsure if they are related, neighbors have reported to Bay Point’s private security several incidents involving animals in the neighborhood, according to a deputy’s report.

One person reported seeing someone stop a vehicle alongside a water hazard on a golf course in the neighborhood and toss a bag into the water, so a deputy donned scuba gear and spent a couple hours Monday searching the pond before calling it off around 3 p.m. Investigator Albert Willis said the search was conducted to “cover all our bases.” No evidence was found.

Deputies took custody of the cat’s corpse Monday. One reason investigators have not been able to determine how Skeeter, a cat found dead and mutilated in a Bay Point road Sept. 1, met his demise is they didn’t see the remains. Like Skeeter, the cat found dead Monday morning was only partially recovered, and authorities don’t know whether the animals are being killed by human or animal predators.

Investigators have been in contact with an expert who might be able to answer what killed the cat once an examination of the remains has been performed. Two veterinarians who saw photographs of Skeeter’s remains said they believed he might have been killed by a fox, but they wouldn’t make an official determination without first examining the remains, BCSO spokeswoman Ruth Corley said last week.

Several neighbors have said they believe a person is responsible for the deaths of several house cats.

The deputy who responded to Bay Point on Monday morning reported finding little blood.

“It looked like the animal was killed in another location and placed in the road,” the deputy wrote.

The deputy talked to a homeowner, who said he hadn’t heard or seen anything unusual, but it wasn’t the first time a dead cat had been left in the road in front of house.

Skeeter, the house cat reported dead last week, was recovered in two different locations on separate days. The cat recovered Monday was found in a different location than either portions of Skeeter.

One of the men accused of robbing a woman in her home at gunpoint after she won $90,000 in a lottery was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday, according to the State Attorney’s Office.

Rossi Armstead, 23, will not receive credit for good behavior during the first 10 years of his sentence for principal to home invasion robbery with a firearm, principal to kidnapping and grand theft because it was minimum mandatory sentence.

Mytrice Walker pleaded earlier this year to enlisting Armstead and Kelvin Mack to rob her cousin after she learned her cousin had won $90,000. She was sentenced to six years, and Mack is scheduled to go to trial later this year.

Armstead was convicted at trial in July of entering the woman’s house Aug. 30, 2012, as she slept. He woke her up, stuck a gun in her face and demanded her lottery winnings. When she told him she kept her money in a bank and not in the house, they forced her teenage daughter to attempt to withdraw money from several ATMs. They finally left the house with $150.

A 22-year-old Georgia man is facing charges after confessing to a vehicle burglary that occurred Sunday in the parking lot of the First Watch Café in Panama City Beach.

Panama City Beach Police arrested John Glen Antley of Austel, Ga., on charges of burglary and grand theft after the victim of the crime provided police with a possible location of the suspects.

Antley was located in a vehicle but fled once officers attempted a traffic stop. Once apprehended, the suspect confessed to the crime and was booked in the Bay County Jail where he will await first appearance, police said.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut man who killed a vagrant with an ax and ate his brain and eyes has been committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Connecticut after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Tyree Lincoln Smith, 36, was ordered committed Monday by a three-judge panel in Bridgeport Superior Court. The panel in July found him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Smith apologized for killing Angel Gonzalez, whose mutilated body was found in a vacant apartment in Bridgeport in January 2012, a month after he was hacked to death. Smith fled to Florida and was arrested in Lynn Haven while visiting a friend.

"I'm really sorry for what I did, that I couldn't be myself," Smith told the judges. "It really had nothing to do with the other person."
The apology surprised relatives of Gonzalez who were in the courtroom, the Connecticut Post reported.

"We waited two years to hear Tyree say he was sorry," said Talitha Frazier, who wore a T-shirt with Gonzalez's photograph. "What he said today caught me off-guard, but I feel he meant what he said."

Judges John Kavanewsky, John Blawie and Maria Kahn were urged by a prosecutor and social worker to protect society from Smith.

"He poses a significant danger to himself and the community," psychiatric social worker Julie Jacobs testified.

State's Attorney John Smriga added, "I am concerned there is an expectation he would do this to other people if he was allowed to be free."

Smith, who grew up in Bridgeport and Ansonia, Conn., was committed to the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown.

His cousin, Nicole Rabb, testified in July that she saw Smith on one evening in December 2011 carrying a bloody ax and chopsticks and wearing pants that appeared to have blood on them. She said Smith told her he killed a man with the ax, ate his brain and eyeballs and drank sake in a local cemetery.

A psychiatrist testified that Smith heard voices that told him to eat Gonzalez's brain to better understand human behavior and eat his eyes to gain vision into the "spiritual realm."










 

Tyree Lincoln Smith, 36, was ordered committed Monday by a three-judge panel in Bridgeport Superior Court. The panel in July found him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

PANAMA CITY BEACH - A Southport woman was killed in a crash on U.S. 98 at Governor Drive Tuesday morning, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Brenda L. Cox, 52, was in a 2013 Kia Soul stopped and facing west in the left lane of U.S. 98 when the back of her vehicle was struck by a 2007 Ford F150 being driven by 23-year-old Scott A. Thomas, troopers wrote. The impact sent Cox’s vehicle into the back of a 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe being driven by Cynthia L. Bunce, 44, of Youngstown, officials wrote.

Cox was killed as a result of the collision and Bunce suffered minor injuries. Thomas was not injured, officials wrote.

The wreck is under investigation and charges are pending, troopers added.
 

PANAMA CITY — Around the time Terry Brazil was killed, Phillip Brock offered to sell precious metals that he said he had buried in his yard, according to testimony on the first day of Brock’s trial on a count of first-degree murder.

Brock told Timothy Steedman he had “bullion” for sale several days before deputies discovered the body of 65-year-old Brazil in his Fountain home on Dec. 27. Brazil had been shot, stabbed and beaten to death, and several of his guns and coin sets were discovered by deputies at Brock’s home nearby. Brazil had been dead for several days before he was found.

Steedman testified Tuesday that he asked Brock how much he wanted for the bullion and Brock said he didn’t know. A few days later, Steedman offered about $30 an ounce for the metal.

Deputy Jason Daffin testified about finding a roll of duct tape and a bed post in a wooded area not far from Brazil’s home. DNA evidence on the bed post was connected to both Brock and Brazil.

Several people testified that Brock lived in a home without running water or electricity. He never had much money, and a former love interest who lived with him said she never saw any guns at his home.

Deputies found nine guns when they searched it.

If he’s convicted as charged Brock, 57, will face life in prison. His trial is expected to conclude Friday.

BAYOU GEORGE — The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a Bayou George man missing since 6:15 a.m. Monday.

Family members contacted the BCSO that day at 1:48 p.m. when Arthur Moore failed to return to his home on Stauber Lane in Bayou George.

The family grew concerned when they realized Moore walked away from the home without taking additional clothing, his cellphone, wallet, vehicle, keys, cigarettes and medications, BCSO said in  a news release. Moore needs his medication due to serious health problems and normally avoids going out in the heat, the release said.

Moore is 70 years old, 6 feet tall and weighs about 210 pounds. He has thinning brown/grey hair with brown eyes. He was last seen on Stauber Lane in Bayou George wearing a brown button-up shirt with “Faded Glory” on the back and blackish thin sweatpants. He has a mustache with a few days of beard growth. Moore has surgical scars on his right knee and his back.

Anyone with information on the location of Arthur Moore is asked to contact the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at 747-4700 or Crime Stoppers at 785-TIPS.

PANAMA CITY BEACH -- Bay County Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant in Bay Point Tuesday in connection with an ongoing investigation into the deaths of at least two housecats whose mutilated remains have been discovered this month.

The sheriff’s office wouldn’t release any information about what they searched beyond that it was in Bay Point. It’s unknown if any evidence was seized in the search. No arrests have been made, spokeswoman Ruth Corley said.

On Monday, the rear-half of a cat was found lying a roadway in the gated community, about a week after halves of a pet cat named Skeeter were recovered on separate days in separate areas.

It’s not clear whether the cats were killed by human or animal predators. The remains found Monday have been sent to an expert for an opinion.

Also on Monday, a deputy with scuba gear searched a water hazard on a neighborhood golf course after receiving a tip that someone had thrown something into the water, but nothing was recovered.

Coyotes and foxes are known to prowl the area, but neighbors have said that several other cats found in similar condition have been reported to Bay Point security recently. Several neighbors believe the injuries on the cats indicate the cats were killed by a blade rather than claws and teeth.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The Bay County Sheriff’s Office has charged a Bay Point resident with animal cruelty, though the man has not been connected to the recent deaths of two cats in the community.

Brian James Rutherford, 55, 555 Wahoo Road, was arrested Tuesday night for an alleged incident of animal cruelty earlier this year. In March, according to a Bay County Animal Control incident report, Bay Point residents reported Rutherford was luring cats and trapping them in a small cage, beating on the cage with a piece of wood afterward. Rutherford also allegedly sprayed the trapped cats with a high-pressure water hose. Animal Control reported investigating two reports of such activity, to which Rutherford admitted. 

After the mutilated bodies of two cats were found at Bay Point this month, investigators turned their attention to Rutherford. His home was searched Tuesday and a small animal trap was recovered, officials said, but investigators did not find evidence linking Rutherford to the recent cat deaths.

“We do not have evidence at this point to tie him to anything further, but our investigation is continuing,” BCSO Maj. Tommy Ford said.

In the incident report, a Bay Point resident claimed Rutherford said he was “taking it to the next step” with the cats and was “building something special” for them. Several cats from the neighborhood had gone missing, the resident said. In May, Rutherford contacted Animal Control after trapping a black and white cat at his home. The cat was released to Animal Control.

Investigators are not ruling out that animals such as coyotes or foxes may be preying on the cats that have been found mutilated.

“We have not been able to make a firm determination whether it was animal activity or intentionally done by someone,” Ford said.

The remains of the second dead cat, which were found Tuesday on Pompano Road, have been sent to the University of Florida to determine the animal’s cause of death. It was unclear when those results would be available. 

Meanwhile, deputies are working with Bay Point security to increase patrols in the area. They’re also seeking leads from Bay Point residents, whom Ford said are likely unnerved by the recent cat deaths.

“That kind of thing certainly gives people an uneasy feeling, so we are taking things seriously,” he said.

Anyone with any information on the possible mutilation of cats in Bay Point is asked to call the Bay County Sheriff’s Office or Crime Stoppers at 850-785-TIPS (8477).

PANAMA CITY — Several people who knew Philip Brock have testified that they never knew him to be a gun enthusiast or coin collector, but when investigators searched his mobile home they found more than 10 guns and thousands of dollars worth of silver and gold coins that belonged to Terry Brazil.

Investigators also found a concealed weapons permit at Brock’s home in Fountain that belonged to Brazil, and Brazil’s Cadillac was parked outside, according to testimony the jury heard during the second day of Brock’s trial on a count of the first-degree murder of Brazil.

Brock has pleaded not guilty. If he’s convicted he faces life in prison.

Brock told investigators he was watching the car for Brazil while he was out of town. Despite his cooperation during the investigation, Brock gave inconsistent statements, said Cpl. Marc Bailey, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office case agent for the investigation.

Brock first said he didn’t know where Brazil had gone, but he later said he had gone to Michigan to sell guns with a man called Tony Owens. Brock’s description of Owens also varied, Bailey said.

Investigators looked into several people named Tony, and even got a DNA sample from another Tony Owens, but never found anyone relevant.

On Wednesday, jurors heard testimony that connected Brock through DNA to a bed post and a roll of duct tape similar to the kind around Brazil’s wrists when his body was found in late December last year.

Dr. Michael Hunter, medical examiner for the 14^th Judicial Circuit, was able to look at the bedpost, and he testified Thursday that it could’ve caused Brazil’s head wounds. Brock was beaten, shot once in the abdomen, cut and stabbed.

Prosecutor Larry Basford had not rested when the jury was dismissed for the evening Wednesday, and the trial will not continue Thursday because of scheduling conflicts, so Judge Brantley Clark asked jurors to return Friday morning.

NEW ORLEANS — BP has urged a federal judge to reject a $111 million budget request by the court-supervised administrator of the company's multibillion-dollar settlement with Gulf Coast businesses and residents following its 2010 Gulf oil spill.

In a court filing Wednesday, BP attorneys said claims administrator Patrick Juneau refused to cut his office's fourth-quarter budget request by at least $25.5 million after the company complained that it was excessive.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ordered the London-based oil giant to pay more than $130 million for Juneau's third-quarter budget despite the company's objections.

BP said Juneau's latest budget proposal isn't reasonable, either, and shouldn't be approved. The company claims Juneau's office has failed to adequately manage its outside vendors' inflated expenses.
 

PORT ST. JOE — A hearing scheduled for Monday to hear a motion to dismiss murder charges against Walt Butler was canceled after the motion was withdrawn without a reason provided by defense attorneys.

Butler’s attorneys filed a motion May 21 for the dismissal of criminal charges in the shooting death of Everett Gant and cited Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law,” which justifies the use of deadly force if someone believes force is necessary to prevent death or harm to themselves or another.

The motion said that Butler believed he was entitled to immunity from arrest and prosecution.

A pre-trial hearing was set for Monday morning at the Gulf County Courthouse.

With the withdrawal of the motion, Butler’s pre-trial hearing was set for Oct. 8.

Last July, Gant approached Butler’s Pine Ridge apartment after Butler had been accused of using racial slurs directed at children in the apartment complex.

Butlershot Gant between the eyes with a .22 rifle and left him bleeding on the doorstep before calling 911 and sitting back down to finish his dinner.

He expressed inconvenience that he had been arrested, saying he could not understand the problem as he “only shot a (racial epithet),” according to the arresting affidavit.

Six weeks after the shooting, Gant died from the injuries.

PANAMA CITY BEACH -- A Panama City Beach man was arrested Thursday night after an altercation with another man ended in a stabbing, according to Panama City Beach Police.

Arrested was Danny Robert Helton, 39, 505 Dogwood St. He was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Police said the victim was stabbed in the lower back during a dispute involving a woman.

The victim, whose identity was not released, was taken to a local hospital, while Helton was taken to the county jail.

CALLAWAY — A firefighter was hospitalized Friday morning after suffering heat exhaustion while battling a major house fire in Callaway.

Fire crews from Callaway, Springfield, Parker, Bay County and Panama City responded to the fire in the 6600 block of Fox Lake Drive shortly after 10:30 a.m. The two-story home was showing heavy black smoke, according to Callaway Fire Department Chief David Joyner, and the fire was spreading.

“It slowly progressed while we were inside,” Joyner said. “Basically the upper half of the roof got fully involved.”

Firefighters were forced to change from an offensive to defensive strategy as the fire spread. The fire was knocked down about noon. Heat from the blaze melted the vinyl siding of a home next door, but no other damage to that residence occurred.

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The 47-year-old firefighter who suffered heat exhaustion was able to walk himself to an ambulance, Joyner said, and was taken to a hospital. He is expected to be released Friday night. No other injuries were reported.

A man who lived at the home was upset and said his five children were going to return from school to find nothing left. He did not give his name. The home is likely a “total loss,” Joyner said.

The Callaway Fire Department and State Fire Marshal are investigating the cause of the blaze. Investigators believe the fire originated in the kitchen.

News Herald writer Chris Olwell contributed to this report.