2nd FHP Shooting Suspect Headed To Georgia
By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — Florida Highway Patrol troopers said he broke the law by fleeing into an orange grove after his friend shot and killed Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Nick Sottile in January.

Quintin Jerome Kinder, 21, is now on his way back to his native state of Georgia to face a violation of probation charge.

Kinder was arrested and charged with illegal trespass of the orange grove around the same time Sebring resident Joshua Lee Altersberger, 19, was arrested and charged with Sottile’s murder. The illegal trespass was a misdemeanor charge.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers said Kinder and Altersberger were riding in the same automobile when Sottile pulled them over.

Assistant State Attorney Stephen Houchin said Thursday that a judge put off Kinder’s sentencing on the trespass charge and ordered him back to Georgia to face the violation of probation charge.

“We will eventually bring him back from Georgia after he’s finished up there,” Houchin said.

Houchin said he was unable to confirm reports of a Decatur County, Ga., squad car in Highlands County transporting Kinder
back to his native state. But Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton confirmed those reports Thursday afternoon.

Kinder’s court-appointed attorney Derek Christian issued a not-guilty plea in court on his client’s behalf last month.

Kinder had been in the Highlands County Jail since January, held separately from both Altersberger and other inmates.

Highlands County court officials last month appointed Christian, a private attorney, for the Georgia suspect.

Houchin said in January that the Highlands County Public Defender’s Office had withdrew itself from representing Kinder. That’s because public defenders are already representing Altersberger.

“There’s an obvious conflict of interest,” Houchin said at the time, adding one suspect may give public defenders information that could incriminate the other.

According to records from Georgia’s Decatur County Jail, Kinder has an extensive criminal background there, including charges of theft, burglary and possession of marijuana, among many others.

Houchin said last month that Kinder isn’t being given immunity in exchange for testifying against Altersberger.