By JOE SEELIG

SEBRING — Two Sebring men remained in Highlands County Jail being held without bond Wednesday accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
Gerado Garay-Gamez, 28, of 4710 Seventh St., in the Highlands Homes subdivision, was charged with five counts of sexual battery.
Alberto Vazquez-Chavero, 18, of the same address, was charged with one count of sexual battery.

According to the arrest report the teen sneaked out of her home at about 1 a.m. March 17 to “hang out with a friend.”
They in turn drove to a friend’s home in the Highlands Homes subdivision.

“After trying unsuccessfully to get her friend to sneak out of her house, she and (her male friend) went to an unknown house on Seventh Street in Highlands Homes,” Sebring police investigator Larry Carmody wrote in his report.

The victim and her friend went to a small room on the side of the main house. The victim needed to use a bathroom.
Once inside the bathroom, which she described as very dirty, her friend told her from outside the door he was leaving to go to a friend’s house and would be back.

The girl yelled to him not to go and tried to leave the bathroom. She was confronted by a man she later identified as Garay-Gamez, blocking the doorway.
The victim told police, Garay-Gamez pushed her back inside the bathroom, where he assaulted her. Then Vazquez-Chavero entered the bathroom and assaulted her, she reported.

Garay-Gamez tried to assault her again, but she was able to elbow him in the head, she reported. He fell back into the bath tub and she escaped.
Police were called and found the house. They detained eight potential suspects. After a sex-crimes examination, the victim identified Garay-Gamez and Vazquez-Chavero, the report stated.

Garay-Gamez claimed that he paid for consensual sex with the victim in the bathroom. Vazquez-Chavero said he saw Gamez having sex with the victim through the bathroom door, but denied having sex with her at all, the report stated.
Jeff Roth, director of the Children’s Advocacy Center said Wednesday that preserving the victim’s anonymity is important.

“The thing they fear most is that their peers will find out what happened to them,” said Roth.
His facility provides a victim’s advocate who helps the victim navigate the system, with referrals to counseling and free services when there is a documented crime through the Victims of Crime Act. The center’s multi-disciplinary team has access to the center 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Roth said.

Sometimes victims are taken first to local emergency rooms, he said.
There doesn’t appear to be any pattern indicating a rise or fall of forcible sex offenses according to statistics for the last 12-plus years from the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.

Sex crimes are listed by year as follows: 1995, 59; 1996, 73; 1997, 74; 1998, 54; 1999, 47; 2000, 52; 2001, 27; 2002, 46; 2003, 68; 2004, 52; 2005, 64; 2006, 49; and up to March 20, 2007 there have been 13 forcible sex offenses.

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By GARY PINNELL

SEBRING — During the first two hours, Highlands County commissioners spent more than two hours talking about the needs of the animal control department, hiring more workers and building a new shelter.

A presentation from new Animal Control Director Darryl Scott showed the department took in 1,635 cats last year and euthanized 1,584; 1,732 dogs came in, and 1,261 were put down.

Veterinarian Mark Griffin reminded commissioners that the fault lies with Highlands County citizens who do not spay or neuter their pets, then turn them outside. A female cat and her kittens can multiply to 420,000 in seven years, according to researchers, one female dog and her pups can produce 62,000 puppies in six years.

Scott, who was hired six weeks ago, said Animal Control takes in adoptable cats and dogs, and moves those to the Humane Society. When the Humane Society gets an unadoptable pet, it gives them to Animal Control, where they are eventually destroyed.

Another problem, Griffin said, is large animals on five- to 10-acre ranchettes. The owners want an agriculture exemption for their land, so they buy farm animals, but the grass won’t support several horses and cows. The landowners realize it’s not profitable to keep the animals, but they refuse to buy high quality hay and grain for feed. Soon, the animals begin to starve, and Animal Control is called.

When a new livestock extension agent is hired, Griffin suggested having the agent educate the landowners on large animal nutrition. The county commissioners should establish minimal nutrition standards, he suggested, and adopt new ordinances to fine the landowner if necessary.
If those methods don’t work, the animals could be confiscated, Griffin said.

Commission Chairman Guy Maxcy was concerned about a Lake Placid case. Rosie Earp told the commission that a rottweiler belonging to a neighbor bit her Australian shepherd. Earp called Animal Control, and the rottweiler was taken to the pound after the owner agreed to give it up.

However, said Scott, the owner changed her mind two hours later, came to get the dog, and paid the fines. “It’s a bid situation.”
“I was told the dog would have to attack a human or kill my dog before I could do something,” Earp said.

“My concern now is that the dog is a bad dog,” Maxcy said. The dog’s owner is in jail, the Rottweiler has been moved somewhere else, and it could attack others.County Attorney Ross McBeth said the county has procedures to impound the dog, but Dr. Griffin replied that the dangerous dog hearing board hasn’t been convened in years.

Bonnie Johns said when she went to the shelter a few weeks ago to find her 11-year-old cat, she found kittens in the same pen with adult feral cats. “It was just awful,” she said.

County Administrator Carl Cool suggested two changes: adopted animals should be taken to the vets, where they will be spayed or neutered. At present, the rescued animal is given to the new owner, and some never have the animal fixed.

The second suggestion was to buy new animal traps, and allow complainants to take those traps to the location and bait them with food and water. If an animal is trapped, Animal Control would be called. That would save the time of the officer, who otherwise would be responsible for setting the trap and checking it each day. The county owns 20 traps.

When it was suggested that volunteers could also remove the animal from the trap, Assistant County Administrator Rick Helms interjected, “No. You do not want to even think about taking a feral cat out of a trap if you’re not trained to do it. It’s not a pretty sight.”
Commissioner Barbara Stewart suggested that the county may want to build more adoptable cat pens at the Humane Society instead.
The commissioners agreed to take up the proposals again in a few weeks.

Spending Cap

Maxcy and Commissioner Edgar Stokes have suggested the commissioners should consider a .5 to 1.5 mill property tax decrease. They preferred this to what the legislature and the governor are proposing.
Gov. Charlie Christ has suggested cuts totaling $7 million for Highlands County, the legislature would roll back ad valorem taxes to the 2000-01 level, costing the county $16.8 million annually.

Next week, the commissioners will go to Tallahassee for Highland s County Day at the Capitol. Cool suggested the commissioners tell representatives and senators, “You give us unfunded mandates all the time, and then you cut our taxes.”
“They’re balancing the budget on our backs,” agreed Maxcy.

Before the commissioners cut taxes, they should wait to see what the legislature will do, suggested Commissioner Edgar Stokes.

Mobile Home Park

The commissioners also spent an hour on a request by Colony Pointe residents. When their subdivision was formed, they were promised they could buy property. Instead, the subdivision was designated M2CS, for mobile home rentals.

They asked the commission to change the zoning or to take the matter to court. The commissioners refused, saying that even if the commission made a mistake 20 years ago, the current commission could not correct the zoning. A judge must do that. 

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By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — A new judge may be involved with Jean Claude Meus’ now five-year-old double vehicular homicide case in Hardee County, but his fiancé said his case remains forever tainted.

That’s unless “a truly fair and impartial” judge from anywhere other than Hardee County or the Tenth Judicial Circuit takes over, the Tennessee resident said Tuesday while visiting her sister in Sebring. 

Rebecca Chenoweth said her fiancé’s case has implications not just for Meus, but people everywhere.
She can also produce affidavits from two witnesses whose testimony would have kept Meus from being convicted, she said. One of the two witnesses saw her mother and sister killed in the 2001 traffic accident.

Both witnesses weren’t called as witnesses at Meus’ 2003 trial.
A jury convicted Meus on two counts of vehicular homicide in August 2003 in the deaths of Nona Moore, 40, and her 8-year-old daughter Lindsey. Moore was a well-known member of the Wauchula community.

“Jean Claude isn’t necessarily concerned about having another judge in Wauchula. But it’s my concern. ... We want someone who can actually be fair to hear it,” Chenoweth said.

Rebecca Chenoweth said Judge Marcus Ezelle’s personal and professional connections to the victims’ family should have kept him away from the case.

Judge Ezelle

According to documents from the 10th Judicial Circuit, Ezelle was involved with the case in January of this year when he dismissed Meus’ motion to hear both newly discovered evidence and claims of ineffective legal counsel during the trial.

Ezelle was not the presiding judge over Meus’ trial in which he was convicted and sentenced to two concurrent 15-year prison sentences. 
Chief Judge J. David Langford assigns judges within the district to different courts. He said earlier this month that Ezelle has now permanently recused himself from the Meus case.

Langford said the case has now been reassigned to Judge Jeff McKibben, the county judge in Hardee County.
Chenoweth said the state may be within its legal rights to assign McKibben, but she is also unhappy with him. 

“If you have a bathtub full of dirty water, it’s like putting another person in it to give them a bath. This is a huge injustice and Jean Claude and I aren’t stopping until it’s made right,” she said, adding the current legal definition of vehicular homicide is too vague and needs a clearer definition.
State attorneys said during the trial that Meus fell asleep at the wheel of his tractor-trailer, drove through a stop sign and overturned his vehicle on Moore’s van at Seven Mile Point, just outside Wauchula.

Meus said throughout his trial that he had not fallen asleep at the wheel. He said another vehicle had instead cut him off, causing him to swerve and send his tractor trailer onto the van.

Moore’s sisters, Dana Christensen and Beth Jahna, have already called for Meus’ release from prison. The pair said he shouldn’t do time for an accident.
Meus is currently serving out his sentence at the Sumter Correctional Institution in Bushnell. 

Affidavits

Chenoweth said she conducted a question and answer session Sunday night with almost 40 Highlands County residents interested in the case at an Avon Park restaurant.

She said many left the gathering convinced of Meus’ innocence and signaled their intention to write letters to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
“So many of them are angry. If something like this can happen to Jean Claude, they’re wondering if the same thing can happen to them,” Chenoweth said. 

Two sworn affidavits in her possession include those from Moore’s now 17-year-old daughter Ashley and Richard Grantham, who lived near the scene of the crash.
Moore said in her affidavit that she didn’t come forward earlier because she was initially traumatized by the loss of her mother and no one asked her to testify.

“My observation is that prior to the collision, I was seated in the front passenger’s seat when my mom and I heard Mr. Meus blowing his horn repeatedly as he was in the oncoming traffic lane before his truck turned over,” Moore said in her 2007 affidavit.

Grantham said he witnessed the accident from his mobile home. He said he heard Meus’ truck downshifting near a stop sign when he heard a loud banging sound. That was followed by the sight of a white pickup truck going 60-70 miles per hour. He said the white pickup’s engine was making “a funny noise.”
“I also recall that the pickup truck must have driven right past the accident scene right about the time of the accident,” Grantham said in his January 2007 affidavit.

He said he told all of this to police officers at the scene. He said he doesn’t know Meus personally.
Meanwhile, Chenoweth is asking that anyone wanting to get involved on her fiancé’s behalf e-mail her at .

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By JOE SEELIG

SEBRING — A single-wide trailer that was badly damaged in a Leisure Acres Mobile Home park fire on Monday could have been a lot worse if not for the quick action of some neighbors.

The fire broke out in the home of Kenneth Stewart and Mary Ann Morrow, in the 300 block of Second Street, after they left to visit a neighbor.

A next-door neighbor, Ruth Chrisman, said she said she first saw smoke.

“At that time glass fell out of the window,” said Chrisman. “I said ‘Oh my God, I better call 911.”

And she did.

Another neighbor, Ken Mears, who lives across Second Street, said he had just come out of his shed when he heard Chrisman yelling about the fire.

“I ran across and turned the faucet on (below the broken kitchen window) and squirted water in there,” said Mears. “I thought I had it out but it flamed up three times.”

Mears said he then realized he was pouring water on a kitchen and thought about the electricity that could have traveled up the hose. Water is a great conductor.

His actions kept the fire in check until help arrived.

First came a patrol car, then an ambulance, then city of Sebring Fire-Rescue firefighters arrived and went inside.

Property owners Stewart and Morrow heard the commotion in the neighborhood and went to see what was going on. Morrow said she was shocked to learn it was her house, she said.

“We fixed dinner and left here,” said Stewart. “She said she turned everything off. Everything is smoke-ruined.”

The couple purchased the trailer in January and moved there from Frostproof. They were scheduled to head back to Ohio.

“We were leaving a week from today,” said Morrow. “We’re not now.”

Stewart said the entire place would have to be remodeled.

Sebring Fire Chief Brad Batz said their first concern was to make sure no one was inside. The smoke was all the way down to the floor when they went inside, he said.

The heat from the fire was so intense it melted plastic molding around the glass sliding door.

Once firefighters searched the home, they dealt with the fire. Batz gave the neighbor credit.

“The water he applied did keep it in check until we were able to arrive,” Batz said. “The fire was contained to the kitchen.”

Firefighters used the garden hose to douse the remaining fire to keep water damage to a minimum, said Batz.

State Fire Marshal Investigator Brandon Ball said Monday afternoon the fire started in the area of a toaster on the counter top and said he did not want to speculate if it was an appliance failure or something else.

He said the damage inside came to about $5,000, estimating the trailer’s value at about $40,000.

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By JOE SEELIG

SEBRING — A Lake Placid man was being held Monday in the Highlands County Jail and held without bail after sheriff’s investigators reported he molested a very young girl about six years ago.

Antron Tremain Felton, 24, of 124 Commerce St., Lake Placid, was booked in on March 13, and charged with sexual battery on a child less than 12.

The accusation dates back to Aug. 17, 2001, when the sheriff’s office received a complaint from someone other than the child, accusing Felton of molesting the child.

At that time during an interview with investigators, the child reported that no one had given her “a bad touch.”

Felton denied the allegation and the case was closed as unfounded, due to lack of evidence.

However, nearly six years later, a note to a school friend, in which the girl now 11 stated she had been raped twice, was handed by the friend to her teacher and the case was reopened in Okaloosa County.

“I received a telephone call from Investigator Ralph Garrett with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office,” reported Highlands County sheriff’s Investigator James F. Casey. “In reference to an alleged incident of sexual abuse to a child that occurred approximately five years ago in Lake Placid.”

Garrett was assigned to the case when the investigation was reopened on Oct. 13, 2006.

The victim told the investigating officer Okaloosa sheriff’s deputy that she had been sexually abused on two occasions at her family residence in Lake Placid, where she lived with her mother, brother and sister. The victim and her brother now live with their father in another county.

The victim told investigators she had been raped when she was four or five years old, and accused Felton of being the perpetrator.

The child told investigators she was sexually attacked twice alleging the second time he held his hand over her mouth so she could not scream, and told her not to say anything or she “would be dead.”

Felton currently is 6-feet 4-inches tall and weighs 342 pounds. He was about 18 or 19 years old when the alleged crime took place.

Felton continued to maintain his innocence, said he has not had any contact with the family for five years, and said he loves children and would never harm a child physically or sexually, Casey’s report stated.

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SEBRING — Florida’s Blood Centers-Highlands is extending its hours today due to the blood supply being critical and hospital usage high, according to Deah Spires, donor development coordinator.

All blood types are needed and any one who is eligible is urged to donate.  Hospitals are transfusing blood at an alarming rate due to the combination of traffic accidents, spring break and a considerable number of emergency surgeries. Low blood supplies can lead to postponing of critical medical treatments if supplies are not replenished.

The blood supply nationally is also under strain and Florida’s Blood Centers, along with other blood banks, are not able to bring blood into the area to relieve the critically low supplies in Florida.

Florida’s Blood Centers and its corporate partner, Darden Restaurants, are asking people to come to branch locations to donate as soon as possible. Donors will receive a $20 restaurant gift certificate for donating at branch locations only.  ( It is good at all Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Smokey Bones, Bahama Breeze and Season’s 52 Restaurants.)

The branch in Sebring is located at 6550 U.S. 27 N., across from Quality Inn. It will be open today from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. 
Call 382-4499 for more information.

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Sheriff’s Office Reports 61 Arrests At Races
By DOUG CARMAN

SEBRING — There were a total of 61 arrests during the two days of partying for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at the Sebring International Raceway.

J. P. Fane, a public information officer with the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, said this number was “phenomenal” considering the number of people at the sold-out race.

There were 29 arrests Saturday and 32 arrests Friday.

The arrests Saturday included nine for underage drinking, 15 for possession of marijuana, six for disorderly intoxication, one for cocaine possession and one for trespassing. Two of those arrested were juveniles.

In addition, three sex offenders entered the raceway.

Fane did not have the number of arrests made last year, although he believed the arrests were down from then.

“All in all it has been a very good year,” Fane said.

He said that the sheriff’s office heard some negative comments last year about the tightening enforcement at the track, but it was still appreciated. Fane referred to the record attendance over the four days.

“I heard a lot of people say we were taking kids out there again,” Fane said.

Fane said that this race was the first one where Tasers were used. Two of those arrested for disorderly intoxication were Tasered.

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SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY—The No. 2 Audi TDI R10 rolled to victory in the 55th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday.
In perfect weather for racing, the No. 2 Audi driven by Emanuele Pirro, Marco Werner and Frank Biela cruised to victory, which was the eighth consecutive win at Sebring for the German manufacturer. 

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By BILL RETTEW JR.

LAKE PLACID — A 17-year-old Lake Placid teenager died Friday after the vehicle she was driving slid off the roadway during a rainstorm, according to a news release issued by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The release, prepared by CPL L. M. Smith Jr., states that Brittany Lea Helms, of Lemon Rd., lost control of a 2000 Nissan at 3:50 p.m. on CR 29, three miles north of SR 70 and was pronounced dead at Florida Hospital in Lake Placid at 5:01 p.m.

Six-year-old Alexis J. Green, of the same address, was a passenger in the front right seat and was also transported to Florida Hospital Lake Placid in serious condition, according to the FHP.

The 6 year old was later transported to Tampa General Hospital and hospital staff reported that Green was in good condition on Saturday morning.

The FHP reported that Helms lost control of the Nissan in the single-car accident when she drove through standing water and then traveled across both the northbound and southbound lanes and into a deep ditch on the west side of the road.

The right front side of Helms car collided with the far embankment of the ditch.

Alcohol was not a factor in the crash and Helms was not wearing a seat seat belt, stated the report. It was unknown by the FHP whether Green was wearing a seat belt.

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By CHRIS BUTLER

BARTOW — Tenth Judicial Circuit Judge Susan Roberts was probably the one who was going to hear Highlands County capital murder cases involving both Michael Branham and Florida Highway Patrol shooting suspect Joshua Altersberger.

She was also going to hear more capital murder cases stemming from Polk County. 

But not anymore.

State attorneys who filed motions last month asking that Roberts be removed from first-degree murder cases falling within her jurisdiction learned this week that she has been reassigned.

Roberts is currently the only judge hearing first-degree murder cases coming out of Highlands and its surrounding counties.

Tenth Judicial Circuit Spokesman Chip Thulberry said from Bartow Friday that Chief Judge David Langford has reassigned Roberts to family court.

Langford assigns judges within the district to different courts such as criminal, family and probate. Langford said last month that he had no plans to remove Roberts from first-degree murder trials. But he also said at the time that she could be reassigned to another court as part of a normal rotation process.

But both Langford and Thulberry said that the controversy over Roberts had nothing to do with the recent change.

“This is a customary rotation every 18 months or so,” Langford said Friday.

Thulberry said Michael Hunter will assume Roberts’ duties as a capitol murder judge later this year.

State attorneys said they faulted Roberts for a number of things. They include what they said was Roberts’ insensitivity to the families of murder victims and stated opposition to the death penalty in at least one instance.

State attorneys said in documents filed against her that she’s conducted her court in an “inexcusable” manner.

In one case, Roberts told jury members in one trial that she believed the first-degree murder defendant was guilty but she had decided to acquit him because a guilty verdict from the jury “might get overturned on appeal and it would cost the state more money.”

Several Lakeland jurors later criticized Roberts for the decision, with many saying they never would have acquitted the murder suspect. 

During one trial, state attorneys said Roberts told them she would declare a mistrial “if any of the victim’s family members showed ANY emotion during testimony.”

Roberts denied state attorneys’ initial motions that she disqualify herself.

She had spent the past 14 months hearing criminal trials. 

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By JOE SEELIG

SEBRING — A sudden storm took out the sheriff’s new license automatic tag recognition computer Thursday night and winds caused havoc for campers at the Sebring International Raceway.

“It pretty much took the party out of everyone,” said sheriff’s deputy J.P. Fane, who added there were no arrests and no crimes to report.
“Most people spent the night looking for their tents. It looked like there were tumble weeds out there, but they were just tents going by.”
Some people came out of their campers and had to hold onto their awnings to keep them from blowing off, Fane said.

Fane wasn’t sure Thursday if that was a record, but sheriff’s Lt. Booker Johnson told him that there were no arrests last year on the Thursday before the race, but he thinks someone was asked to leave the track.
Because the tag recognition system computer was whacked when a bolt of lightning struck near the main gate about 6:30 p.m., the sheriff’s office was not able to report the number of cars that had been scanned.

Technicians had just arrived at about 1 p.m. Friday and were going to see if any data could be retrieved. There were going to replace the damaged computer and new surge protection is being installed.
There have been no further thefts in the Paddock area either, Fane said.

On the opening day someone stole about $3,000 in cash and a some credit cards from seven members of five race teams.

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By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — A Highlands County jury convicted an Avon Park man on aggravated child abuse charges late Thursday evening.

That same jury also acquitted him on attempted second degree murder charges. 

State attorneys said Ronald Wayne Baker, 54, 3323 N. Horseshoe Drive, took matters into his own hands in September 2005 after a long spate of anger over ATV noise being generated throughout his neighborhood.

Baker’s defense attorneys told jurors Thursday that their client indeed knocked a then 13-year-old boy off his ATV with a large stick.

That act resulted in the boy having a large bruise across his chest.

Baker’s two defense attorneys said their client later shot the boy’s father in the chin with a 32 caliber semi-automatic handgun. That occurred after the father and his son came looking for Baker at his front door. 

But they also said Baker’s shooting act was entirely one of self-defense. They said Baker was physically vulnerable after severely injuring his ankle two weeks before the incident even occurred. 

The bullet from Baker’s gun pierced the man’s jaw, leaving him unable to eat anything but soup for almost three weeks.

Baker faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison for the aggravated child abuse charge if convicted.

Tenth Circuit Court Judge Peter Estrada immediately remanded Baker into custody after the verdict was read.

Baker is scheduled for sentencing April 25. 

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By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — The trial of an Avon Park man charged with attempted second degree murder and aggravated child abuse had not yet ended as of press time Thursday.
State attorneys said Ronald Wayne Baker, 54, 3323 N. Horseshoe Drive, took matters into his own hands in September 2005 after a long spate of anger over ATV noise being generated throughout his neighborhood.

Baker’s defense attorneys told jurors Thursday that their client indeed knocked a then 13-year-old boy off his ATV with a large stick. Tenth Circuit Court Judge Peter Estrada later said the stick was most likely a fallen tree branch.
That act resulted in the boy having a large bruise across his chest.

Baker said in a taped interview with sheriff’s deputies the night of the incident that his complaints about ATV riders to the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office had gone largely unanswered.
“You could almost set your watch by the four-wheelers going by,” Baker said on the stand in response to questioning by defense attorney Ginger Cooper. 
“I figured the stick would break when I smacked him. I did not intend to knock him off,” he later said under cross examination by state attorney David Ward.
Baker’s two defense attorneys said their client later shot the boy’s father in the chin with a 32 caliber semi-automatic handgun. That occurred after the father and his son came looking for Baker at his front door. 

But they also said Baker’s shooting act was entirely one of self-defense. They said Baker was physically vulnerable after severely injuring his ankle two weeks before the incident even occurred. 

A Sharp Disagreement

The name of the boy and his father are not being released by Highlands Today.
Whether the boy’s father came to calmly discuss the matter or was looking for a physical confrontation was something Baker’s defense attorneys and state prosecutors sharply disagreed on Thursday. 

Baker said his intention was simply to scare the boy’s father away by holding the gun to his side. But he also said the boy’s father made threatening physical gestures toward him.
The boy’s father denied Baker’s testimony and said he “simply wanted to find out what really happened” after his son had been knocked off his ATV. 
“My initial response was ‘Let’s go find out what he did to make him hit you.’ I was mad, but only to a point.

“I never even had a chance to announce my presence,” the boy’s father said in his testimony to Ward.
The bullet pierced the man’s jaw, leaving him unable to eat anything but soup for almost three weeks. Ward said the man is now missing a portion of his jawbone, although the bullet has long since been removed.

“Did you ever give Mr. Baker permission to shoot you”? Ward asked the man.
The man said he hadn’t. 
Baker faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison for the aggravated child abuse charge if convicted. He faces a mandatory 25-year to life sentence if convicted of attempted second degree murder.

The now 15-year-old boy said on the stand that he and his father had had a friendly relationship with Baker prior to the incident. The boy said Baker and his father helped one other with cleanup efforts after Hurricane Charley struck Highlands County almost three years ago. 

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By JOE SEELIG

LAKE PLACID — Highlands County sheriff’s investigators continued Thursday to canvas the Cumberland Street neighborhood in Sun ’N Lake South, using interpreters, looking for information that will bring a killer to justice.

On Tuesday near noon, a female friend found the body of Ana Jaramillo, 36, of 140 Cumberland St., Lake Placid. She was found in an added-on utility room at her single-wide trailer home. The woman was late for an appointment to meet someone and the friend came by to check on her.
The victim was at home alone when she was viscously attacked.

“She sustained major trauma to her upper torso and that’s what killed her,” said sheriff’s Lt. John Chess. “That’s all we’re going to say at this time. It was a viscous attack, absolutely viscous.”

The entire crime scene was in the utility room, said Chess.
“She wasn’t doing wash, so we don’t know why she was in that room. But she was in there,” said Chess.
The victim was 5-feet 3-inches tall and weighed 115 pounds, and was killed sometime between 8 a.m. and noon, Chess said. There was no sign of a sexual attack.

The trailer is set back from a shell-rock road. Chess couldn’t say if anyone could have heard the victim if she screamed. There is a home across the road, he added.
Her husband is not considered a suspect, Chess said Wednesday. The victim had two children, ages 12 and 17 years old.
Detectives are asking neighbors to call if they’ve come home and had someone going through their things or maybe woke up and found someone in their home and did not report the crime.

Anyone with information about this crime is urged to contact Det. Anthony McGann at (863) 402-7250 or CRIMESTOPPERS at 1-800-226-TIPS (8477).

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By JOE SEELIG

LAKE PLACID — Highlands County sheriff’s investigators continued Thursday to canvas the Cumberland Street neighborhood in Sun ’N Lake South, using interpreters, looking for information that will bring a killer to justice.

On Tuesday near noon, a female friend found the body of Ana Jaramillo, 36, of 140 Cumberland St., Lake Placid. She was found in an added-on utility room at her single-wide trailer home. The woman was late for an appointment to meet someone and the friend came by to check on her.
The victim was at home alone when she was viscously attacked.

“She sustained major trauma to her upper torso and that’s what killed her,” said sheriff’s Lt. John Chess. “That’s all we’re going to say at this time. It was a viscous attack, absolutely viscous.”

The entire crime scene was in the utility room, said Chess.
“She wasn’t doing wash, so we don’t know why she was in that room. But she was in there,” said Chess.
The victim was 5-feet 3-inches tall and weighed 115 pounds, and was killed sometime between 8 a.m. and noon, Chess said. There was no sign of a sexual attack.

The trailer is set back from a shell-rock road. Chess couldn’t say if anyone could have heard the victim if she screamed. There is a home across the road, he added.
Her husband is not considered a suspect, Chess said Wednesday. The victim had two children, ages 12 and 17 years old.
Detectives are asking neighbors to call if they’ve come home and had someone going through their things or maybe woke up and found someone in their home and did not report the crime.

Anyone with information about this crime is urged to contact Det. Anthony McGann at (863) 402-7250 or CRIMESTOPPERS at 1-800-226-TIPS (8477).

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