Key West The Newspaper

Update 9/30/17:

Man arrested for stabbing another man on Stock Island

A 77 year old Stock Island man went to jail Friday for stabbing another man at a trailer on 5th Avenue, Stock Island.

When Lt. Donnie Catala and Deputies John Allen and Wendy Negron arrived at 3:30 p.m. the suspect and victim were still on the scene. The 66 year old male victim was bleeding from cuts to his hand and chest. The suspect, Manuel Garcia, was sitting at a table at the front of the residence with the 10 inch filet knife he used to stab the victim sitting on the table beside him.

A witness also at the trailer said he’d been sleeping in the back of the trailer and woke to the sounds of the two other men arguing. He said the two had been arguing on and off all week. He said he walked out to check on them and found the victim bleeding. That is when he called the Sheriff’s Office.

The victim told Deputy Negron the witness invited him over to the residence. He said when he got there, Garcia told him to leave. He said Garcia continued arguing with him and telling him to leave. He said it was during this argument that Garcia grabbed a knife. He said he held up his hands to defend himself and was cut on the hand; he said after he was cut on the hand, Garcia cut him on the chest.

The victim was treated and released from the hospital. Garcia was arrested, charged with aggravated battery and was taken to jail.

Parking dispute leads to gun confrontation

A parking dispute on Stock Island Monday led to the arrest of a man for threats with a handgun.

The victim called the Sheriff’s Office just before 6 p.m. He told Sheriff’s dispatchers he had been in a dispute with a neighbor and the neighbor had threatened him with a gun.

When deputies arrived, the victim told them he was parked on Suncrest Road on the right of way when his neighbor, 48 year old Todd Palenchar approached him. Palenchar confronted him about parking in front of his residence. During the confrontation, the victim said Palenchar pointed a handgun at him. He described the gun as silver with a black handle and a laser device mounted on it.

Deputies asked Palenchar about the gun. Palenchar claimed he had a gun in his waistband during the confrontation but did not point it at the victim. He said he simply lifted his shirt and showed it to the victim.

A number of guns were found in Palenchar’s residence, including a Sar Arms handgun with a laser sight mounted on it that fit the victim’s description of the gun that had been pointed at him. A pipe with marijuana residue was also found.

Palenchar was arrested. He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Gun dispute at Marathon convenience store

One man pointed a handgun at another man in a dispute over how long it was taking for him to move his truck from gas pumps at a Marathon convenience store.

The incident took place at 8 p.m. at the Circle K convenience store at 11100 Overseas Highway in Marathon. The victim told responding deputies he was waiting at the gas pumps for couple in a black truck to move. He said they were taking a long time, so he honked his horn. He said the couple jumped out of the truck and began to yell at him. During the confrontation, he said the male suspect, later identified as 36 year old Jose Olivera, Jr of Marathon., pointed a dark colored revolver at him. He said the couple then got back into the truck and fled from the store.

Sgt. James Hager heard a notice to be on the lookout for the truck over his police radio and spotted the truck – a black extended cab Toyota – on Aviation Boulevard near Coconut Cay Resort. The truck failed to stop at a stop sign, turning from Aviation onto U.S. One. Sgt. Hager pulled the truck over and ordered the couple out of the vehicle.

In plain view on the vehicle, Sgt. Hager saw a silver semi-automatic handgun. The victim positively identified the couple as the ones who threatened him. He was insistent, though, that the gun was a revolver.

Deputy Hager walked back along the path the truck had taken when it fled from the Circle K store. He foiund a black Ruger .38 caliber revolver  on the ground at the corner of Aviation Boulevard and U.S. One.

Olivera denied pointing a gun at the victim, but said he threw the revolver out of his truck “because he was scared”. Olivera was visibly impaired and smelled of alcohol at the time of his arrest.

Olivera was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, improper exhibition of a firearm, use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol and tampering with evidence. He was booked into jail.

Man arrested for burglarizing storeroom, stealing items and cash

On Monday, the Sheriff’s Office responded to the Kingsail Motel in Marathon just after 1 p.m. to investigate the burglary of a storeroom at the motel.

The victim told Deputy Corbin Hradecky he stored some items in a laundry room storage area at the Kingsail motel in Marathon on September 10th. The victim works as a landscaper at the motel. The items included a green duffle bag and suitcase with clothes inside, shoes, an alarm clock and a binder with his passport, wallet and cash. He said on September 25th, the manager of the motel told him the storage room had been broken into. He checked his belongings and found the wallet, cash, the duffle bag with clothes inside and other items were missing.

The manager told the victim a woman staying in one of the motel rooms had given her a green duffle bag with some of the missing clothes in it. The woman told the manager she suspected two of her former employees had stolen it and other items from the storeroom.

Deputy Hradecky spoke with the woman who had returned the duffle bag. She said two former employees had told her they picked the lock on the storeroom and had stolen items from inside. She said after they told her that, she fired them.

One of those former employees, 28 year old Chaise Dore of Louisiana, was located at another hotel in Marathon. Dore denied burglarizing the storeroom. Deputy Hradecky asked Dore for permission to search his vehicle. Dore agreed to allow the search. Inside, the deputy found several items stolen from the motel storage room, including a distinct copper lighter with a Russian insignia on it inside of a decorative wooden box. The victim gave a specific description of the lighter and box, identifying it as his.

Dore was arrested. He was charged with burglary and grand theft and he was booked into jail.

Miami man caught attempting to take cardboard bundles

A Miami man was caught by a deputy Tuesday evening as he was attempting to take bundles of recyclable cardboard from behind a Key Largo business.

Deputy Ignacio Molina was on patrol just before 8 p.m. when he checked the area behind Walgreen’s Pharmacy at the 99.5 mile marker of the highway. He saw a cargo trailer hooked up to a van, parked in the middle of the road, with no lights and no license tag on the trailer. The trailer was piled with unsecured pieces of metal the driver had apparently picked up from neighborhoods in the area. The deputy then saw Leonel Ortiz-Geprge picking up a bundle of cardboard from behind the store and getting ready to put it on the trailer.

Deputy Molina asked the man if he had permission to take the cardboard, which was the property of Walgreen’s. He said he didn’t know he had to have permission.

Geprge could not show any proof of registration for the trailer, so the trailer was towed. Geprge received citations for towing an unregistered vehicle upon a public roadway, having unsafe, unsecured cargo in the trailer and for having no rear lights on the trailer.