Florida's Recent News

Photo by: Fox13news The family of a 28-year-old woman is now navigating their grief this week after she was killed in a Tampa crash over the weekend. Emily Koutsoliontos may have been a New York native, but she lived like a Tampa Bay area local. “She loved the job. She loved her new life in Florida. She loved her roommate, her apartment. She was just living life to the fullest down there,” said Nick Koutsoliontos, Emily’s father. Her parents Nick and Michele

A Central Florida man stabbed his victim in the back in an aggravated battery attack after a situation escalated. A jury delivered a guilty verdict in the Lake County case against 51-year-old Cesario Bastian, who was charged with Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon after his 2022 arrest by the Leesburg Police Department. “This case is another example of the diligent efforts of our law enforcement partners,” said Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Gladson. “The efforts of the Leesburg

A Panama City man has been arrested and is facing animal cruelty charges following the death of two of his pets. Shelton Owens Jr. was arrested Tuesday after the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said they received a complaint he had rarely been seen taking care of his dogs and they stayed chained up all day. When deputies arrived at Owen’s home, they found a puppy chained to a nearby tree. The puppy was allegedly very skinny and had abrasions on

Residents living at Melbourne’s Pentagon Garden Apartments said they’re traumatized after a man allegedly opened fire within the complex on Wednesday morning.  Amanda Hernandez said she was jolted out of her sleep.  “The gunfire actually woke me and my son up,” she said.  Hernandez said her “mama bear instinct” kicked in and she covered her 9-year-old as they crawled to the bathroom to hide.  According to Melbourne police, a man at the apartment complex began to shoot at officers. The alleged

A jury on Wednesday recommended a former prison guard trainee be sentenced to death for his execution-style murders of five women inside a Florida bank five years ago, a massacre that fulfilled his long-stated desire to kill. Jurors voted 9-3 to recommend Zephen Xaver receive the death penalty for the Jan. 23, 2019, murders at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring, about 85 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of Tampa. Xaver, 27, stared straight ahead and showed no emotion as the verdicts

A Florida man is facing animal cruelty charges after Collier County deputies found his dog tethered to a pole outside during heavy rainfall, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. 43-year-old Romeo Gabriel-Lopez allegedly left his dog, a bully terrier named Robo, tied up outside with no way to escape the downpour. The sheriff’s office reports that at least a foot of water flooded the dog’s doghouse while it was restrained. Deputies arrived at the scene on June 12th in

Photo by: (WPEC) One person was killed following a shooting at a local gas station in Riviera Beach on Wednesday night. According to the Riviera Beach Police Department (RBPD), the first call came in at around 9:55 p.m. about a shooting that occurred at the Wawa located on Blue Heron Boulevard. RBPD Spokesperson Serena Spates said two people were shot, however, one of the victims died from their injuries. The PIO stated the deceased is a male, but did not

Two Orange County men are shaken up and recovering after getting pistol whipped and robbed as they walked to their home in Ocoee over the weekend. “He was all covered in blood,” a neighbor said. This neighbor called 911 after she and another neighbor saw two men on South Circle Key Drive in Ocoee, injured and bleeding. “One was hurt worse than the other. Like, he had a bad… cut, Gash? He was bleeding out so bad that that’s what

A single-vehicle crash took place Wednesday afternoon in northeast Leon County, leaving a 19-year-old dead, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. FHP has identified the driver as a 19-year-old male from Thomasville. FHP received a report regarding the crash, which FHP said happened on Thomasville Road northbound at Cherokee Plantation Road, around 2:34 p.m. Wednesday. The vehicle was traveling northbound on US 319 at Cherokee Plantation Road before FHP said it traveled onto the median and up an embankment. The

Deputies are investigating after a man was shot and killed in an Orange County neighborhood. The shooting happened shortly after midnight at the intersection of 35th Street and Woods Avenue, an area just south of downtown Orlando. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the area and found a man in his 30s who had been shot. The man was taken to the hospital, where he died, officials said.   The victim was identified as 36-year-old Vicente Nuno

Guilty as charged. That’s the decision that just came down from a jury weighing whether Bruce Whitehead sexually battered and tried to kill a woman in Orange County. “I’m not a saint, obviously,” Whitehead told the judge Wednesday before his conviction. “I’m not looking to walk out the door and go home. I know that’s impossible.” Whitehead’s victim told jurors Tuesday that he cut her, tried to bite off body parts, sexually battered her – and that she only got

A man accused of robbing and killing a Leesburg store owner has been arrested nearly a month after the murder, officials said.  Alez Lopez, 25, of Wildwood, was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in the Kissimmee area on Wednesday. He is accused of walking into the M&M Food Mart and killing 51-year-old Raied Shihadeh, who was working the register on May 30.  The robbery, which happened just after 9 p.m., left Shihadeh’s family devastated, who raised money to help