Monthly Archives: November 2011

Siblings Murder High School Student For Drugs

Posted on November 30, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

In an upsetting account of just how far prescription pill addicts will go, a sister testified against her brother last week in a trial over the murder of a 17-year-old Sarasota boy. In the early hours of April 15, 2010, Alisha Miller and her brother, Reilies “Wayne” Miller attempted to rob Joseph Hickey. Alisha, 30, took the stand to tell how her brother wasted no time in shooting Hickey. According to Alisha, she and her 24-year-old brother were “very, very inebriated” on roxycodone the night they decided to rob the young man. They had to drive to meet Hickey, so they stole a van, Alisha wearing socks on her hands to avoid leaving fingerprints. Hickey entered the back part of the van with Reilies in the passenger seat. “I started to drive away. Him and Wayne greeted each other, and very quickly after that Wayne shot him,” Alisha said. They…
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Construction Worker Hit And Killed By Reckless Driver

Posted on November 29, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

The Florida Highway Patrol has reported the death of a construction worker in an automobile accident in Spring Hill, Florida last week. Steven Thompson, 28, of Dade County was working on a road project on Spring Hill Drive, just east of Sparing Park Way, according to the St. Petersburg Times. Wearing proper attire and working behind the barrel barrier as required, Thompson should have been safe. Unfortunately, a 2005 Dodge Ram did not heed the cautionary measures, and came plowing through the barrier. The impact from the front left bumper of the pickup truck flung Thompson into the eastbound lane. Emergency crews rushed him to Spring Hill Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Authorities said the truck, driven by Karen Macchione, 43, of Brooksville, had failed to stay in the single lane created by the construction cones. Macchione was uninjured in the wreck, but her truck sustained around $2,000…
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Angry Woman Runs Over Two Adults And A Child

Posted on November 28, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

Earlier this month an irate St. Petersburg woman drove her car into three people, including a child, after an argument with one of the victims. Nikki Moneque Caldwell, 31, began yelling at Largo resident Joel Thomas, 29, near the corner of 18th Ave. South and Walton Street the evening of November 1. She accused him of assaulting her, to which he replied that she must have the wrong man. Thomas was walking down the sidewalk with his aunt Mabel and his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son. According to police, Caldwell became so upset that she got into her car and drove straight into the three pedestrians, pinning Mable and the 4-year-old against a tree. Then she fled. Authorities said that none of the victims’ injuries was serious, though the child did suffer a number of lacerations and contusions to his head, arms, chest and hips. Police tracked Caldwell down to her home…
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Three Dead In World Championship Powerboat Race

Posted on November 25, 2011 by The Gerber Law Group, P.A.

The most powerful boats in the world gather once a year to race in the waters of Key West. Until this year’s race, there had not been a fatality at the Key West World Championship for sixteen years. Now, over the course of a week, three racers have died, with several more injured. Joey Gratton, 59, a racer from Sarasota, Florida, suffered fatal injuries last Friday when he crashed his 38-foot Superboat 850-class Skater catamaran Page Motorsports. On the final lap of the seven-lap race, Gratton rolled the boat twice. Two other racers, Robert M. Morgan, 74, of Sunrise Beach, Mo., and Jeffrey Tillman, 47, of Kaiser, Mo., crashed their 46-foot catamaran Big Thunder Marine in Key West Harbor. They died in the boating accident. Many racers honored the dead by placing decals on their boats, and a plane flew over the course with a banner that read, “IN MEMORY…
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