Beaked whale washes ashore, dies

from floridatoday.com:

"

A 15-foot beaked whale washed ashore near Melbourne Beach earlier Tuesday afternoon and died on the beach, an official from the Hubbs-Seaworld Research Institute said.

“It probably weighs about 1,500 pounds,” said Megan Stolen, a research scientist for the institute. “It is a deep water whale. We don’t see them very often.”

The whale was secured to the beach with ropes, Stolen said, and a necropsy to determine the cause of death will be conducted today.

Stolen said some people tried to push it back in to the water about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“We always tell people not to push back a beached whale into the water. They inevitably come back, and in much worse shape,” she said

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said the whale washed ashore in the 4900 block of State Road A1A, south of Spessard Holland Park."

Robot Love cranks up

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101220305

Guard honored for thwarting gun delivery

Here's the link:

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100123/NEWS01/1230312/Guard-honored-for-thwarting-gun-delivery

Tornado warning reissued until 8 a.m.

from floridatoday.com
"

The National Weather Service in Melbourne has reissued a tornado warning for central Brevard County until 8 a.m.


The warning area includes Suntree, Viera, Patrick Air Force Base, Satellite Beach and Indian Harbour Beach
.
At 7:34 a.m., the NWS detected a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado near Viera, which was moving east at 25 mph.

“They’re still some pretty strong storms in Osceola County that are moving east toward Brevard. The next line should be here in a few hours,” said Don Van Dyke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne. Another tornado warning was

“We’re monitoring for any signs of rotation.”

The overnight storm system also brought heavy rain to Melbourne before pushing offshore, officials said. That could set up the potential for a rain record as more showers move into the area today.

“By the afternoon, the thunderstorms will be clearing out," Van Dyke said.

Earlier this morning, the NWS issued a tornado warning for central Brevard County as rotating clouds were spotted about six miles southwest of the Kennedy Space Center, not far from the space shuttle Endeavour’s launch site. The warning expired about 5:15 a.m. with no immediate reports of any storm damages.

Brevard announces Teacher of the Year finalists

from floridatoday.com:

"Eight educators were selected as Brevard Public Schools 2010 Teacher of the Year finalists Friday.
They include seven women and one man.

Three of the nominees are science teachers one of which was already honored in districts science teacher Hall of Fame. Two are elementary school teachers, one is a media specialist and another teaches physical education and another teaches music.

"Teaching 21st century learners is not for the faint of heart or for those who lack passion for their chosen profession," Superintendent Brian Binggeli said in a news release. "These eight men and women are the essence of the we-can-do-anything spirit that all children need and they are leaders who strive to make lasting impressions on todays youth. "

The 2010 teacher of the year finalists were selected from more than 5,000 teachers who work throughout the district.

During the next few weeks, a selection committee of current and former teachers of the year, retired school administrators and community and business leaders will visit classrooms to determine the winner.

The winner will be announced at the teacher of the year banquet on March 4.

The finalists are:

* Andrea Boley, a music teacher at Southwest Middle School in Palm Bay
* Kathy Crisafulli, a media specialist at Audubon Elementary on Merritt Island
* Andrea DeFrates, a biology teacher at Space Coast Jr./Sr. High in Port St. John
* Christina Donohue, a fourth-grade teacher at Atlantis Elementary in Titusville
* Cynthia Hoskin, a physical and health education teacher at Holland Elementary in Satellite Beach
* Sheri Jenkins, a science teacher at West Shore Jr./Sr. High
* Raul Montes, a science teacher at Cocoa High
* Mary Morton, a fifth-grade teacher at Meadowlane Intermediate"

Inmate rejects deal, pleads guilty to gun-smuggling try at Brevard jail

from floridatoday.com:

"SHARPES -- A Brevard County Detention Center inmate rejected a plea deal today that would have tacked 10 years onto a 30-year sentence he’s already serving for attempted murder.

Instead of taking the plea bargain on six pending felony cases, Phillip McCullough, 24, pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle a gun into the jail last year.

Circuit Judge Jack Griesbaum sentenced the 24-year-old to the maximum five years in prison allowed for that charge. That time was tacked onto the sentence he’s already serving on the attempted murder conviction.

McCullough now faces trial on five pending cases.

The deal prosecutors offered today would have allowed McCullough to serve a 40-year sentence on all his pending cases at the same time as the 30-year sentence he’s already serving.

Prosecutors said McCullough also is suspected -- but has not been charged -- in four homicides, some of which could carry a potential life sentence.

The deal offered today would have capped potential charges in those cases at second-degree murder and resulted in no additional prison time had McCullough cooperated with authorities’ investigations into those cases.


In November 2008, while awaiting prosecution on the 2007 case, sheriff’s deputies said McCullough, Heyne and another man helped hold down a jail inmate while he was sexually assaulted by a fifth man.

Then in August, Brevard County sheriff’s investigators said a corrections officer at the Sharpes jail was screening mail when he discovered a .38-caliber, two-shot derringer hidden inside a large stack of legal documents. The documents were hollowed out to accommodate the gun.

Investigators said McCullough and Heyne admitted to an escape plot — among other schemes — and said the plan involved Heyne taking McCullough as his hostage as part of the plot. Heyne then would have wounded McCullough to give the appearance he was not involved, officials said.

Heyne was sentenced in December to death row following a conviction in the 2006 slayings of his roommates and their 5-year-old daughter.

Investigators said Lamont Lewis of Mims and McCullough’s wife, Arneshewa McCullough, arranged for the purchase of the weapon, along with two rounds of ammunition, and removed the gun’s serial numbers to try to prevent it from being traced.

Lewis was sentenced in October to four years of probation under a plea deal that requires him to testify against his co-defendants.

Charges against Arneshewa McCullough and Heyne are pending."

Palm Bay man who 'bragged' about killing back in Brevard jail

from floridatoday.com:

"A 29-year-old man who once pleaded for a judge’s mercy in the shooting death of a friend, is back in jail after police said he pointed a handgun at a girlfriend and bragged that he had gotten away with killing someone."

"Joseph Didio of Palm Bay was charged by Palm Bay police with battery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after the woman reported being beaten and threatened."

Man acquitted in Brevard toddler death trial

from floridatoday.com:

"VIERA -- A jury today acquitted a Melbourne man of charges that he killed his girlfriend’s toddler daughter while babysitting.

The 12-member panel deliberated about 2 ½ hours before returning the verdict in the case of Shane William George.

George, 24, had faced life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in connection with the April 2008 death of 16-month-old Veda VanCleave.

Police said George was watching the child on April 5, 2008, while her mother was at work.

Attorneys for George said the toddler slipped outside a tub, fell backward and hit her head on the tile. They said the child had pre-existing medical problems which likely contributed to her death.

Prosecutors argued that the child suffered a fractured skull and died of blunt force trauma to the head -- injuries that evidence suggested were too severe to be an accident."

Brevard triple murderer learns fate Thursday

from floridatoday.com:

"Convicted murderer Justin Heyne finds out this week whether a judge will follow a jury's recommendation to sentence him to the death penalty.

Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton will hand down the sentence at 9 a.m. Thursday in Courtroom 4G of the Moore Justice Center in Viera.

Heyne, 28, was convicted this summer in the 2006 shooting deaths of his roommates: Benjamin Hamilton and his girlfriend, Sarah Buckoski, and their 5-year-old daughter, Ivory.

The jury recommended life in prison for Hamilton's murder, then voted 8-4 for the death penalty in Buckoski's death and 10-2 in favor of execution in the child's killing.

In October, Lamont Lewis, 27, of Mims, who was charged in a plot to smuggle a gun to Heyne in the Brevard County Detention Center was sentenced to four years on probation after striking a plea bargain with prosecutors."

Brevard man gets 40 years in death of paraplegic landlord

from floridatoday.com:



"A 22-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, who confessed to Titusville police that he killed his landlord in July 2007, will spend the next 40 years in prison.

Circuit Judge Jack Griesbaum also sentenced Vitaliy Groesbeck to lifetime probation and a year of house arrest.

A jury in October convicted Groesbeck of second-degree murder with a firearm and theft in connection with the July, 15, 2007 death of his 24-year-old landlord Randi Lee Allison."