CALLAWAY -- County officials stressed Monday that animal control officers will respond to dog bites in a timely manner.

On Sunday a teenager was bitten by a German shepherd / doberman mix breed and was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. After speaking with the dog’s owner by phone and confirming that the animal was quarantined an animal control officer declined to go to the scene Sunday night, choosing instead to schedule a visit for Monday.

Under the interlocal agreement between the county and several local cities animal control officers are required to go to the scene of a bite if someone is attacked and the animal is still roaming the area uncontrolled.

County spokeswoman Valerie Sale said animal control officials honored the letter of the law but missed the spirit of the agreement. Things will be different in the future, she added.

“In almost all cases we will send out an animal control officer for bites,” she said. “We should have gone out in this instance.”
According to an incident report the teenager repeatedly shoved the dog in the head until it bit. The teen was taken to a local hospital, treated and released. The owner chose to give the dog to animal control officials. Under animal control policy a dog involved in a bite case cannot be adopted and will be destroyed after a 10 day quarantine period.
 

PANAMA CITY — Dr. William Sybers, the former medical examiner for the 14th Judicial Circuit who was the focus of a 2001 murder trial and then a 2003 plea agreement charging him with killing his wife by lethal injection in 1991, succumbed to lung cancer in Central Florida on Saturday. He was 81.

Sybers is survived by his wife, Judy, and children Dr. William A. Sybers Jr., and Jennifer McShane, and stepsons Brad Ray and Shaun Ray.

Sybers’ death comes 11 years after he said he reluctantly accepted a plea agreement for manslaughter in the death of Kay Sybers, a deal he said he took because of his failing health and a desire to avoid a second trial. He maintained his innocence throughout the process, including the day he entered his plea in 2003.

“I’m going to spend more time with my daughter and my wife,” he said after his sentencing. Later, he told The News Herald, “I finally realized I could lose again. There’s no way I could go back to prison. It was too horrible.”

Sybers’ case was in both the local and national spotlight and still can be found circulating on late-night reruns as it captured the attention of investigative network shows like “Dateline NBC.”

Kay Sybers died May 30, 1991, in the Sybers’ home and it drew suspicion when someone notified the Florida Department of Law Enforcement they suspected foul play. The case was investigated for years by different agencies and prosecutors before an indictment was returned in 1997 charging Sybers with first-degree murder, saying he killed his wife with an injection of an unknown poison.

Between the indictment, the circumstances surrounding the death and the plea deal six years later, the case involved enough twists to sustain national attention, starting with the fact that Sybers was the district’s medical examiner at the time of his wife’s death.

Prosecutors alleged and Sybers admitted to being in an affair with Judy Ray at the time of the death. William Sybers and Judy Ray became husband and wife three years after Kay Sybers’ death.

Kay Sybers’ body was embalmed without an autopsy at her husband’s request, something he said he did based on what she previously had requested but something the state said he did to hide evidence of poisoning.

Prosecutors initially charged that Sybers used potassium as the poison, but a judge ruled that the science behind that wasn’t sufficient to be used at trial. Prosecutors later switched to succinylcholine as the poison and that evidence was allowed at trial despite defense objections.

The state sought to disinter Kay Sybers’ body from an Iowa grave after the indictment to obtain additional tissue samples for testing. After a week-long hearing in Iowa, that request was denied, a decision ultimately upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court. Kay Sybers’ family supported Sybers and testified against the disinterment.

Sybers’ son, Timothy, committed suicide after the indictment and before the trial, and the state said he couldn’t live with the thought that his father killed his mother.

In 2001, the trial was moved to Pensacola due to pretrial publicity. After three weeks of testimony, a jury found Sybers guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison. That verdict was overturned in 2003 when an appeals court ruled the evidence surrounding the succinylcholine was not scientifically accepted and should not have been allowed at trial.

As part of the final plea deal, Sybers did not have to serve any additional jail time.

LYNN HAVEN -- The Panama City man seriously injured Thursday in a motorcycle crash died Sunday, according to Kent Forest Lawn Funeral Home.

Alan Lee Paul was 35. He was married and had four children, according to his obituary.

Paul was riding a motorcycle on State 390 near Alabama Avenue around 8 p.m. when a truck pulled out in front him and there was a collision. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition that night. 

PANAMA CITY -- Attorneys for the federal government and three former leaders of a failed local bank spent all day Monday selecting nine women and five men to spend the next two weeks serving as jurors in a case that could land the bankers in jail.

Frank Baker, Terry Dubose and Elwood West are charged with conspiring to dupe a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation program out of millions of dollars in 2010 in an effort to avoid personal losses.

Each man has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud the FDIC, seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of lying to the FDIC and one count of aiding and abetting a false claim against the United States.

A panel of 14 jurors were selected around 5 p.m. They will begin to hear arguments and testimony beginning Tuesday morning. The trial is expected to last at least two weeks. 

PANAMA CITY — Joseph Moody declined a last minute plea offer from prosecutors Monday just before the beginning of his trial on a first-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting and killing his former girlfriend.

Prosecutor Bob Sombathy gave Moody the chance to enter a plea to second-degree murder in exchange for a life sentence. Moody, who faces a mandatory life sentence if he’s convicted of killing 24-year-old Megan Pettis in a shopping center parking lot March 19, 2013, declined the offer and jury selection began.

The selection took all day. Potential jurors were taken into a private room and individually questioned about what they’d heard about the case in the media and whether they could put that information aside and judge the case based on what was presented in court.

Several people witnessed the shooting and several nearby businesses had surveillance video cameras that might have captured the crime. Defense attorney Rusty Shepard never said Moody was innocent.

“I believe that right up front the defense is going to concede [Moody] committed homicide,” Shepard said.

Shepard and defense attorney Jean Marie Downing had hoped to show jurors that, although Moody didn’t meet the legal definition of insanity at the time of the shooting, he nonetheless was suffering from mental health issues they contend left him incapable of forming premeditation, which Sombathy must prove to convict Moody of first-degree murder.

Judge Michael Overstreet barred them from calling psychiatrists who would’ve supported that theory because Florida law draws a “bright line” between insanity and every other possible mental condition when it comes to criminal defenses. As Sombathy said in a pretrial hearing, “You’re either legally insane or you’re not.”

Sombathy again made that point to potential jurors Monday.

“There is no defense in this case that he’s insane,” Sombathy said.

Moody had been in an inpatient mental health treatment facility in the weeks before he shot Pettis. Downing and Shepard have said Moody’s intent on the day of the shooting was to kill himself in Pettis’ presence. Instead he opened fire with a .45-caliber handgun and shot Pettis in the head as she drove away from him.

PANAMA CITY -- A Panama City man has been charged with the armed robbery of the Family Dollar at 297 W. 15th St.

The Panama City Police Department said Michael Lee Harris, 52, entered the store Wednesday and brandished a pocket knife and demanded money from the store clerk. He fled the area on foot with money from the store.

Detectives developed Harris as a suspect and on Monday he was arrested in the 1400 block of East Seventh Court in Panama City. The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force assisted in the arrest, police said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Detective Ray Perkins at the Panama City Police Department, 850-872-3100, or report tips anonymously to CrimeStoppers at 850-785-TIPS. 

PANAMA CITY -- Two teenagers have been arrested in the burglary of Margret K. Lewis School at 203 N. East Ave, the Panama City Police Department said Monday.

Arrested were Khryee Antonio Howard, 13, and Jaylon Rayquan Stuckey, 15, both of Panama City.

Howard is charged with burglary of an occupied structure. Stuckey is charged with burglary of an occupied structure and felony criminal mischief.

Police said that on Sunday at 9:50 p.m., officers responded to a burglary in progress call at the school. When officers arrived, they learned that a teacher who was working inside the school saw two males attempting to break into classrooms. The teacher shouted at the two subjects and they ran.

A Springfield Police officer arrested both teens after seeing them running through a backyard. Both had property belonging to the school, police said.

The incident remains under investigation and additional charges are expected. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Tony Phinney at the Panama City Police Department, 850-872-3100, or report tips anonymously to CrimeStoppers at 850-785-TIPS.

CHIPLEY ­— The slaying of a Washington County man whose body was discovered near his family’s old farmhouse Sunday morning was a crime of opportunity, authorities said Monday.

James Shores, 66, of 2754 Dauphin Road, was found at his family’s homestead, located at 2842 Johnson Road., after the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received information from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation that a vehicle connected to the Saturday shooting of an Alabama state trooper was registered to Shores.

Zachary Taylor Wood, 23, of Hartford, Ala., and Dillon Scott Rafsky, 21, of Enterprise, Ala., were arrested Saturday in connection with that shooting, and are being held in the Genvea County, Ala. jail.

Officers discovered Shores’ body while performing a welfare check of his property and believe the suspects in the trooper’s shooting are responsible for Shores’ death as well, Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said. Authorities said they will face charges in Washington County for the slaying.

“Shores came to the farmhouse around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon to find (Wood and Rafsky) on the property and a ‘95 Jeep Grand Cherokee stuck in the yard,” Haddock said. “He advised the men they needed to leave, and if they needed assistance in leaving, he would call the sheriff’s department.”

Haddock said it’s believed the suspects were riding dirt roads in the county when they spotted the farmhouse and saw it as a crime of opportunity. Shores was unaware the men had just burglarized the homestead and had loaded stolen items into the Jeep, which had been reported to Alabama law enforcement as being taken without permission by Wood’s girlfriend the previous Thursday.

At Shores’ continued insistence that they leave, Woods and Rafsky reportedly began to beat him, finally subduing him and binding his wrists and ankles before grabbing a hoe and continuing to beat him on the head and shoulders. The suspects began to flee the scene in Shores’ 2001 Toyota Camry but returned with a gun from Shores’ car, shooting him in the head, authorities said.

The suspects then traveled to Alabama where State Trooper Marcel Phillips attempted to stop them for speeding on Geneva County Road 57 less than two hours later. After a brief pursuit, the suspects stopped the car suddenly and shot Phillips, who was later treated and released.

“I feel like they thought they were being stopped for what they had done (in Washington County),” Haddock said.

Shores himself was a retired law enforcement officer, having served most of his career as a game warden for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Haddock said while law enforcement officers know the job risks, Shores’ manner of death is difficult for him to reconcile.

“They wanted to make sure he was dead,” he said. “And they used whatever was available to do it — first their hands, a garden hoe, and then Shores’ own gun.

“I’ve been knowing (Shores) my whole life, and as a law enforcement officer of 36 years, you expect things to happen during your tenure,” Haddock said. “But to have something happen as you just come by the old farm house where you were raised — where you should have refuge — I just don’t have the words to describe that.”

An autopsy was performed on Shores Monday, and the WCSO Crime Lab is continuing the investigation with the assistance of the FDLE Crime Lab.

Woods and Rafsky are charged with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer in Alabama and will each be charged in Washington County with grand theft auto, burglary and an open count of murder, authorities said. 

PANAMA CITY -- There was a loaded rifle in the truck Joseph Moody rushed to after he shot his ex-girlfriend, according to police during the first day of testimony in his trial for first-degree murder.

Moody’s .45-caliber pistol was loaded with high-powered ammunition before he emptied the magazine in a busy parking lot March 19, 2013, Cpl. Robert Herrington said. He shot Megan Pettis in the head and leg as she tried to escape.

Police also found a roughly half-empty box of ammunition for the rifle, a key to Pettis’ car, some men’s health magazines and a firefighter’s helmet when they searched it after he was tackled and beaten by bystanders who held Moody until police arrived and arrested him.

Moody’s trial will resume today. He faces a minimum mandatory life sentence if he’s convicted as charged.

PANAMA CITY -- Cellphone images of a Bay County couple allegedly having sex while a 2-year-old was present will be admitted as evidence following an appeals court decision Tuesday.

A three-judge panel overturned Circuit Judge Elijah Smiley’s ruling to suppress images recovered from a cellphone connected to a lewd and lascivious case being heard by the court, despite a claim the evidence was obtained illegally.

Prosecutors said video and photographs on the cellphone show Kayla Nichole Fosmire, 23, and Nicholas Evans, 23, having sex with each other with a 2-year-old girl on the bed with them.

Fosmire’s defense attorney filed a motion to suppress, saying the images were discovered in an illegal search. However, the First District Court of Appeal ruled Fosmire could not object to the search of the phone because she claimed it was Evans’ and therefore she had no standing to contest the search.

Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Hawkins has charged Fosmire with two counts of lewd or lascivious exhibition, four counts of sexual performance by a child and one count of child abuse.

Fosmire faces up to 95 years in prison. She is scheduled for a pretrial hearing May 23.

PANAMA CITY — Much of Tuesday afternoon in the trial of three leaders of a failed local bank was spent on testimony about the 2008 rollout of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (FDIC TLGP).

And that was the interesting part.

The three defendants — Elwood West, Frank Baker and Terry Dubose — face potentially lengthy prison terms if they’re convicted of a dozen charges against them stemming from their alleged conspiracy to defraud the FDIC TLGP out of nearly $4 million when the financial markets imploded in 2008. They have pleaded not guilty and hired a legal defense team of roughly a dozen lawyers and legal professionals.

After jurors left on the first day of witness testimony, Judge Richard Smoak expressed concern the evidence presented that day had been too dense to keep jurors’ interests.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gayle Littleton said Stephen Stallcup’s testimony would be the most dense and difficult of any of the government’s witnesses and prosecutors already had gone to great lengths to simplify it.

“It’s the hardest part to plow through, and we just have to do it,” Littleton said.

Still, jurors appeared to struggle to keep up with the testimony on ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) loans, senior unsecured debt, supervisory guidance, financial covenants and the FDIC TLGP, to say nothing of the litany of documents that accompanied it.

Many of the five men and nine women leaned forward in their chairs with their heads in their hand and their eyes on the floor, or they leaned back with their eyes toward the ceiling. They used their notepads to cover their mouths when they yawned.

Littleton attempted a pep talk for jurors.

“I know this is riveting,” she joked, “but we’re getting through it. We’re getting close.”

The rollout of the more-than-a-little unusual TLGP, under which the FDIC guaranteed certain loans between banks in an attempt to stabilize markets by making loans available to cash-strapped banks, was rapid, Federal Reserve Agent Amy Whitcomb testified.

It was announced in October 2008, but defense attorneys pointed out the final rules of the program were not settled on until the next month, and two months after that the FDIC still was issuing clarifications.

West was actually with bank regulators when the final rules passed, and he reportedly told them of Coastal Community Investment’s interest in using TLGP funds to repay a $3 million loan.

Despite a relatively hasty rollout, Whitcomb said she didn’t find the program confusing.

“I didn’t find it confusing, and I’m not a lawyer,” she said.

Littleton has announced plans to show jurors similar fact evidence — evidence not specifically related to the crimes charged that is admissible in order to prove a defendant acted with criminal intent rather than out of a mistaken understanding of the law.

PANAMA CITY — Much of Tuesday afternoon in the trial of three leaders of a failed local bank was spent on testimony about the 2008 rollout of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (FDIC TLGP).

And that was the interesting part.

The three defendants — Elwood West, Frank Baker and Terry Dubose — face potentially lengthy prison terms if they’re convicted of a dozen charges against them stemming from their alleged conspiracy to defraud the FDIC TLGP out of nearly $4 million when the financial markets imploded in 2008. They have pleaded not guilty and hired a legal defense team of roughly a dozen lawyers and legal professionals.

After jurors left on the first day of witness testimony, Judge Richard Smoak expressed concern the evidence presented that day had been too dense to keep jurors’ interests.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gayle Littleton said Stephen Stallcup’s testimony would be the most dense and difficult of any of the government’s witnesses and prosecutors already had gone to great lengths to simplify it.

“It’s the hardest part to plow through, and we just have to do it,” Littleton said.

Still, jurors appeared to struggle to keep up with the testimony on ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) loans, senior unsecured debt, supervisory guidance, financial covenants and the FDIC TLGP, to say nothing of the litany of documents that accompanied it.

Many of the five men and nine women leaned forward in their chairs with their heads in their hand and their eyes on the floor, or they leaned back with their eyes toward the ceiling. They used their notepads to cover their mouths when they yawned.

Littleton attempted a pep talk for jurors.

“I know this is riveting,” she joked, “but we’re getting through it. We’re getting close.”

The rollout of the more-than-a-little unusual TLGP, under which the FDIC guaranteed certain loans between banks in an attempt to stabilize markets by making loans available to cash-strapped banks, was rapid, Federal Reserve Agent Amy Whitcomb testified.

It was announced in October 2008, but defense attorneys pointed out the final rules of the program were not settled on until the next month, and two months after that the FDIC still was issuing clarifications.

West was actually with bank regulators when the final rules passed, and he reportedly told them of Coastal Community Investment’s interest in using TLGP funds to repay a $3 million loan.

Despite a relatively hasty rollout, Whitcomb said she didn’t find the program confusing.

“I didn’t find it confusing, and I’m not a lawyer,” she said.

Littleton has announced plans to show jurors similar fact evidence — evidence not specifically related to the crimes charged that is admissible in order to prove a defendant acted with criminal intent rather than out of a mistaken understanding of the law.

PANAMA CITY BEACH - One person was seriously injured in a traffic crash on Back Beach Road and Lullwater Drive at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night. 

According to a news release from the Panama City Beach Police Department a 1992 grey Honda station wagon pulled into the path of a 2005 white Ford F-150 and was struck broadside. 

"The driver of the honda was unrestrained and appeared to have been ejected from the vehicle," the news release states. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment. The names of the drivers are being withheld until next of kin are notified, officials added. 

The crash is under investigation.

PANAMA CITY — There was no way executives on trial didn’t know they’d signed over their banks as collateral on a loan they’d received to placate regulators who felt they were undercapitalized, a government witness said Wednesday.

A narrative began to emerge amid all the talk of unsecured debt and generally accepted accounting principals Wednesday during the second day of testimony in the trial of Frank Baker, Terry Dubose and Elwood West.

The three former leaders of Coastal Community Investments, the holding company that owned now-failed Coastal Community Bank and Bayside Savings, are on trial for a dozen felony counts stemming from their alleged conspiracy to defraud the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation out of nearly $4 million.

One of the banks had paid dividends that ran afoul with regulators when, in December of 2007, West, Coastal’s chief financial officer, and Coastal CEO Dubose sought and obtained a short-term loan of $3 million from the predecessor of Royal Bank of Canada. Coastal put up the company as collateral.

Robert Aland, a Birmingham-based banker who oversaw RBC’s loan to Coastal, said Wednesday RBC was growing concerned about Coastal’s ability to repay the loan after signing off on several extensions.

In cases where RBC had to work closely with borrowers to be repaid and avoid foreclosing on the borrower’s collateral, Aland would’ve expected and preferred to have a face-to-face meeting with the CEO. Aland had to settle for a conference call on Nov. 14, 2008.

On the call, West and Dubose explained they were exploring a deal for a loan under the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP).

After the call, Jim Powell, the RBC banker working with West and Dubose and Coastal’s repayment plan, heard from Dubose that Center State would loan Coastal $3.75 but that the loan from RBC “had to be unsecured,” meaning that RBC didn’t hold Coastal shares as collateral.

Powell had to pause. There’s no way Coastal didn’t know RBC held the bank as collateral, right?

“He’s a smart guy and a chairman of a bank, and I didn’t have the information in front of me, so I thought maybe I better check something before I correct him,” Powell said.

Powell confirmed that RBC’s loan to Coastal was secured by collateral and sent West an email saying as much. The next morning, Powell emailed Aland to say the Coastal deal looked like it was back at square one; the fact that the RBC loan was secured by Coastal stock made Coastal ineligible for the TLGP.

Aland’s reaction to the news that Coastal executives didn’t know the status of the loan: “Dad-gum! How did they not know the loan was unsecured?”

Not exactly dad-gum, Aland explained, but “I’ve got ladies in the audience.”

“Everyone knew it was secured,” Aland said. “It’s just not something you’d have to talk about.”

Ten minutes later, on a conference call with Aland, Dubose said Center State would lend Coastal the $3.75 million without collateral, but he didn’t say FDIC would guarantee the loan.

After the conference call, Powell called Center State to confirm they would lend Coastal the money. Center State didn’t indicate the loan was guaranteed by the FDIC.

Powell called it “an oversight” that RBC records didn’t indicate the bank had taken Coastal stock as collateral.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gayle Littleton told Judge Richard Smoak after the afternoon recess that she had fallen behind where she expected to be at that point in the trial, and that it is unlikely she will finish presenting the government’s case this week.
 

PANAMA CITY — Joseph Moody’s voice trembled as he testified he intended to kill himself the day he shot and killed his ex-girlfriend.

“I loved her,” Moody said.

“We saw how much you loved her,” prosecutor Bob Sombathy replied.

Moody, 41, faces a life sentence if jurors convict him of first-degree murder for the March 19, 2013 slaying of 24-year-old Megan Pettis. Moody took the stand Wednesday to establish thoughts of suicide pervaded his judgment that day, but prosecutors argued his actions did not demonstrate a diminished capacity. Jurors will hear closing arguments from both sides today and are expected to begin deliberating a verdict.

Moody admitted to killing Pettis and gave his account of what transpired before following her to a Panama City shopping center parking lot “to confront her, talk to her,” he told the jury.

“On the way there, I’m thinking I’m going to kill myself,” Moody said. “I felt like it would show her how bad I felt, how much pain I had in me.”

But after seeing Pettis drive away, he reconsidered killing himself and decided to continue with his day — until she circled around the parking lot to leave, Moody said.

“I realized it was her car as she’s driving by, and I started shooting,” he said. “I was in a daze, like everything wasn’t real.”

Sombathy argued the moment of clarity Moody experienced between seeing Pettis drive off and his actions upon her passing dispelled his claim of being suicidal.

“He had changed his intent prior to the time of the shooting,” Sombathy said. “He’d abandoned any thoughts of suicide.”
Moody maintained he was dazed as he fired nine shots into Pettis’ car, but remembered unholstering the .45-caliber handgun that was used take her life.

Before hearing Moody’s testimony, jurors saw police interrogation video of Moody after he was beaten and subdued by bystanders in the shopping center parking lot; surveillance camera footage from nearby businesses and autopsy photos of the slain Pettis who suffered three bullet wounds to the head.

One contested exhibit eventually was admitted as evidence. Moody’s defense argued photos of a single, live round in the center console of Moody’s car after the shooting demonstrated his intent to end his life.

“There could be a defense argument he was headed back to the car to get another bullet to kill himself,” said defense attorney Rusty Shepard.

Judge Michael Overstreet scheduled closing arguments for 9 a.m. Thursday and jury deliberation could begin afterward.
 

PANAMA CITY - The Panama City Police Department announces a four-day road closure to accommodate the Wall of Remembrance honoring those military personnel that have fallen in the line of duty while serving the country in the recent and ongoing global war on terror.

 The wall will arrive at Oaks by the Bay Park in St. Andrews escorted by motorcade, law enforcement and the Wounded Warriors Watch motorcycle group.
Vehicle traffic on Beck Avenue will be detoured to accommodate pedestrian traffic near the park. Bus. Hwy 98, or 10th St., between Beck Avenue and Chestnut Avenue will be closed to normal vehicle traffic. Handicap parking can be located north of Hancock Bank at Beck Avenue and 11th Street. A second escorted motorcade will arrive at about 5 p.m. transporting wounded warriors from Panama City Beach to the park.

The St. Andrews Civic Club sponsored the event.

 

PANAMA CITY — A former Panama City firefighter will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend more than a year ago.

Jurors found Joseph Moody, 41, guilty of first-degree murder and discharging a firearm in public, which caused the death of Megan Pettis. Moody intentionally shot and killed 24-year-old Pettis in a crowded local shopping center March 19, 2013, jurors found. The conviction carried with it a mandatory life sentence with no chance for parole.

Pettis’ family sobbed, hugging one another following the verdict’s reading. Before Moody’s sentencing, Pettis’ mother Pamela Cobb addressed the court.

“Your honor, you cannot bring my daughter back. The criminal justice system cannot give us our daughter back,” Cobb said, surrounded by family. “But you can make sure the man who stalked, ambushed and murdered her spends the rest of his life paying for his vicious crime.”

Moody, who testified he intended to kill himself the day he shot nine .45-caliber bullets into Pettis’ car, showed remorse before sentencing.

“I wish I could take this all back, but I can’t,” he said. “I will never, until the day I die, forget how many people I hurt — how many lives I’ve destroyed.”

Deliberation in the state’s case against Moody lasted more than three hours. During the course of the trial, Moody admitted to following Pettis to the Publix shopping center on 23rd Street where he gunned down Pettis in front of more than 30 eyewitnesses.
After police photographs of a suicide note written the night before the killing were barred from the trial, Moody testified on his own behalf that thoughts of suicide pervaded his judgment. He told jurors he wanted to shoot himself in front of Pettis to “show her how bad I felt, how much pain I had in me,” he said. Instead he shot Pettis multiple times.

Jurors heard testimony from 16 onlookers and expert witnesses during the trial and saw several pieces of evidence, including autopsy photos of the slain Pettis with three gunshots to the head.

Closing arguments
Prosecutor Bob Sombathy spent his closing arguments reiterating evidence and testimony that showed Moody demonstrated intent in his actions.

“He doesn’t want to admit he ran beside that car,” Sombathy said. “Every eyewitness that day saw him running beside that car, shooting.”

Sombathy argued the act of aiming nine shots from a .45-caliber handgun at a moving target showed Moody’s intent.

“Even when the car’s moving away he’s still bringing the gun back, leveling off bullets at her,” Sombathy said. “… He brought it back down eight times. That takes dedication, effort — intended shooting.”

Neither Moody nor defense attorney Rusty Shepard in the course of the trial tried to deny the fact Moody killed Pettis. However, in his rebuttal, Shepard attempted to steer jurors toward a conviction for second-degree murder, which carries a lighter sentence.

“If this is premeditation, why would he shoot her in the middle of the day in a busy parking lot with witnesses all around,” Shepard said. “Certainly there would be an easier way to plan a formal act and evade detection.”

The defense pointed to a contested exhibit to prove Moody’s intent to commit suicide, which was eventually allowed as evidence. The picture of a single live .45-caliber round in the center console of Moody’s truck showed he left the scene determined to end his own life, Shepard argued.

“After he finished shooting, he realized he now had to go back to the truck and kill himself,” Shepard said.

“So what were the other nine for,” Sombathy responded later.

Megan Pettis Memorial Scholarship
Pettis’ family watched as Moody was fingerprinted and handcuffed in preparation for sentencing. Before hearing the sentence, Pettis’ mother and father told the court of the damage caused by the five-year relationship between Moody and Pettis, which ended in the death of their oldest daughter.

“Our children’s sense of trust and sympathy has been shattered,” Cobb said. “We have told our children throughout their lives, if you’re ever afraid or lost or suspicious, find someone in a uniform.

“Find a policeman like their uncle or — for the last five years — a fireman like Joe (Moody),” she said. “The damage he has done to our family is irreparable.”

Cobb concluded saying Pettis struggled with dyslexia and will be remembered with a Megan Pettis Memorial Scholarship for students with learning disabilities.
 

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

Joseph Moody was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday afternoon.

Moody, 41, was charged with the March 19, 2013 slaying of 24-year-old Megan Pettis. Moody testified at trial that he planned to commit suicide in front of Pettis, his ex-girlfriend before losing himself in a daze and killing her. 

This is a breaking story and we will have more soon. Read our previous story here.

PANAMA CITY — Defense attorneys tried to raise questions about a key government witness and his deal with prosecutors during the third day of witness testimony in the trial of three former leaders of a failed local banking company.

Jim Powell met with federal agents and prosecutors at least six times before he began testifying Wednesday against Elwood West, Frank Baker and Terry Dubose, the chief financial officer, attorney and chief executive officer for Coastal Community Investments, which owned Coastal Community Bank and Bayside Savings.

West, Baker and Dubose have pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment charging them with conspiring to defraud the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation out of millions of dollars.

Powell had a signed agreement with Assistant U.S. Attorney Gayle Littleton that information he provided in their meetings could not be used against him in court — as long as he told the truth — or used to enhance his sentence if he were charged and convicted of a crime. (No charges against him have been announced.)

Don Samuel, one of the attorneys representing West, questioned Powell about that agreement.

“Did you know what you would be sentenced for?”

“No.”

“Did you know what they would prosecute you for?”

“No.”

Samuel had questioned Powell about a key omission on a confirmation — an important document used by banks and auditors to confirm details about a bank’s debts.

Powell worked at the time for Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) making loans to other banks, but in 2008 RBC took over the bank that preceded it and wanted to move away from interbank lending. Powell’s loan to CCI was well-known among his bosses and had become a “thorn in his side.”

West and Powell were at the time scrambling to find a way for Coastal to repay the $3 million to RBC. Powell said it was “an oversight” that the confirmation did not reflect that RBC held Coastal’s stock as collateral against a $3 million loan issued in 2007.
The omission created the impression, on paper at least, that Coastal’s debt was unsecured and was eligible for a guaranteed loan under the newly, quickly created Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.

Samuel held up the agreement as he cross examined Powell Thursday.

“You didn’t need this … because of that mistake, did you?”

“No.”

Whether Center State, the bank that received the faulty confirmation, issued a $3.75 million loan based on the omission or for some other reason remains to be seen, but it did issue the loan. Powell said Thursday he did support and encourage Center State to take over RBC’s loans to Coastal.

Coastal repaid RBC with the loan, then Coastal failed and the FDIC repaid the $3.75 million to Center State.

Upon further questioning from Littleton, Powell said the agreement with the government was struck at his attorney’s behest; the agreement doesn’t provide immunity and required only a truthful statement. Littleton didn’t tell him what to say during his testimony, Powell said.

Powell’s testimony, which began Wednesday afternoon, took up much of the afternoon Thursday after Judge Richard Smoak closed the courtroom to the public. It appeared he was questioning jurors individually, but there was no explanation for the closure when the courtroom reopened.

The trial is expected to last several more days.
 

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

PANAMA CITY — The federal criminal trial of three leaders of failed local banks was suspended Thursday morning and the courtroom closed to spectators while Judge Richard Smoak questioned the 12 jurors and two alternate jurors one at a time.

Spectators were briefly allowed back in the courtroom after a recess for lunch without an explanation for the closure in the case against Frank Baker, Elwood West and Terry Dubose, who are charged in connection to an alleged conspiracy to defraud the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation out of millions of dollars.

West, Dubose and Baker were chief financial officer, chief executive officer and attorney, respectively, for Coastal Community Investments, the holding company that owned Coastal Community Bank of Panama City Beach and Bayside Savings of Port St. Joe. They each have pleaded not guilty to the charges in a 12-count indictment.

The delay came on the third day of a trial lawyers initially expected to last two weeks. In court Wednesday, prosecutor Gayle Littleton told Smoak jury selection and testimony had taken longer than she’d planned for and it was unlikely she would still be able to finish presenting evidence by the end of the week as she had anticipated.

MARIANNA -- Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Judge William Wright has denied a motion to dismiss charges against a motorcyclist accused of shooting at a motorist at a Jackson County gas station.

Kevin Denkevitz, 50, of Sanford, N.C., was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and shooting into an occupied vehicle. On June 17, Denkevitz and three others were involved in a road rage incident with Ronald Haney at a gas station at I-10 and State 71. One of the bikers brandished a 9 mm handgun and fired a shot at Haney’s truck . Haney tried to drive off and hit Terry Gibbs and Gibbs’ motorcycle. Gibbs died from a massive head injury.

Denkevitz fired several more rounds into the truck. Haney managed to get to another gas station where he called 911.

Denkevitz’s attorney filed a motion March 12, asking Wright to dismiss the charges against Denkevitz because he believed he was protecting Gibbs from Haney and in an effort to stop Haney from dragging Gibbs as he was driving off. Denkevitz claimed he didn’t know if Gibbs was under the truck, but shot into the vehicle to try to make Haney stop.

Wright wrote in his ruling that he found Denkevitz’s actions to be reckless:

“The placement of those shots at the truck show that Denkevitz was trying to shoot the three occupants. Rather than looking for where Gibbs was located, Denkevitz kept shooting and chased the truck and fired rounds in a reckless manner at the occupants of a vehicle who were only trying to flee a second encounter, which this Court finds was instigated by the actions of Denkevitz and his group.”

Denkevitz is scheduled for trial schedule May 27. He faces a possible mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted as charged.
 

PANAMA CITY — Judge Richard Smoak closed the first week of the trial of three leaders of a failed local banking company with some instructions for the attorneys: un-goober this trial.

“Right now, we’ve got this thing goobered up to a dang fare-thee-well,” Smoak said after dismissing the jury.

What that meant is the attorneys need to figure out a way to try the case without putting jurors to sleep. Smoak worried that the jurors were going numb from three-and-a-half days of dense testimony about contracts and regulatory language and the documents that have accompanied that testimony.

Elwood West, Terry Dubose and Frank Baker, the CFO, CEO and attorney for Coastal Community Investments, respectively, are charged with 12 felonies for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to defraud the FDIC.

It’s not like a gun charge, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gayle Littleton said; her case is complex by necessity.

“It’s a document case, and honestly your honor I can’t do anything about that,” Littleton said, adding later, “this is a major fraud case, and we’ve only had three-and-a-half days.”

Steve Burton, who helped to write the FDIC regulations for the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) that prosecutors say the bankers violated, continued his testimony from Thursday.

He explained the regulations were designed so that eligibility for the program, which guaranteed loans made to banks that needed short term loans, was to be determined by the borrower. Borrowers needed to certify they were eligible for the guaranteed loans, then report to the FDIC that they had taken the loan.

“We decided to do that because the program just wouldn’t have worked,” Burton said.

Littleton also called Jack Greeley, an Orlando attorney who represented Center State in its deal with Coastal, who described the difficulty he had obtaining from Baker an opinion letter stating Coastal was eligible for the guaranteed loan.

An attorney is never more exposed to liability that when they write an opinion letter, Greeley said, but it was critical to Center State that Baker give the opinion they needed before they made the $3.75 million loan Coastal needed to repay another bank.

“It was clear to me,” Greeley said. “If we don’t have that opinion we’re not going to close this loan.”

Baker never seemed confused about the TLGP requirements. He never sought clarification from Greeley, but Baker sent several drafts that Greeley found unacceptable. What he needed was an unequivocal statement that Coastal’s debt would be FDIC guaranteed. He needed Baker to take a “flat-footed” position.

“It’s either guaranteed or it’s not,” Greeley said. “Flat-footed. Black and white.”

Finally, Baker sent the letter Center State needed. Center State wired $3 million to Royal Bank of Canada and Coastal’s debt was repaid. Another $750,000 was wired to Coastal.

When Coastal failed, the FDIC repaid its debt to Center State.

Like at least one other witness for the government, Greeley has a deal with prosecutors that his statements can’t be used against him as long as he tells the truth. Defense attorneys have not yet had an opportunity to cross-examine him.

The trial continues next week.