Key West The Newspaper

Death in fire suspicious in nature

Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes detectives say a woman found dead in a house fire in Key Largo had wounds on her body that appear suspicious in nature.

Deputies and firefighters responded to a house fire at 720 Ponce De Leon Boulevard at 9:40 p.m. Saturday. Deputy Jason Farr and Sgt. Scott Ward were first on the scene. They walked the perimeter of the house trying to determine if anyone was inside and found the back doors of the house wide open. The smoke and flames were too intense for them to enter the house.

Firefighters arrived and entered the house and found 70 year old Mary Bonneville dead in the living room. She had visible wounds on her body that do not appear to have been caused by the fire. An autopsy will be done Monday to determine the cause of her death.

The man who reported the fire told Deputy Jason Farr he was walking to a nearby convenience store when he smelled and then saw the fire. He said he knocked on the door and rang the doorbell with no result. He called 911 to report the fire and waited for emergency services to arrive. The State Fire Marshal responded to the scene and is assisting in the investigation.

Bonneville’s neighbors told deputies she lived alone in the residence. The case has been assigned to Major Crimes Detectives Rosa DiGiovanni and Bernardo Barrios for investigation.

Key Largo man charged with knife threats

A Key Largo man was arrested Monday night, charged with making knife threats to his ex-girlfriend.

The victim told Deputy Matt Koval she was at the VFW in Key Largo Saturday night at 9:20 p.m., in her car in the parking lot. She was talking with someone when she heard several loud bangs on the back of her vehicle. She looked back and saw her ex-boyfriend, 50 year old Eddy Lopez Jimot. He had a knife in his hand and he told her he was going to kill her and cut her head off.

She told Deputy Koval she was afraid he would hurt her so she drove away quickly. She didn’t initially report it because she was afraid if she did, he would kill her for it.

Deputy Bob Dosh was assigned to investigate and, after interviewing the victim, he placed Lopez-Jimot under arrest. He was booked into jail on charges of armed burglary to a vehicle and aggravated assault.

Three charged with Shark Key burglary

Three men were arrested Monday, charged with burglarizing a home on Shark Key Sunday.

Deputies responded to a home on Cannon Royal Drive just before 6 p.m. on Sunday after a call from a neighbor. When Deputy Shannon Jones arrived, she met with several neighbors one of which gave her the homeowner’s contact information. One of the other neighbors had video which showed three males inside the home burglarizing it. He also had a picture of the vehicle the three suspects fled in.

The video clearly shows the three men inside the home. Two go into the kitchen and another goes into another room off camera. The alarm goes off in the house and the three suspects fled the house and got into a white Nissan Frontier with gray rims, leaving the area.

Deputy Edward Swogger was on the way to an off duty detail in Marathon and stopped by to assist at the burglary scene. He saw the picture of the suspect vehicle. Later that evening, while working in Marathon, he spotted the truck and called on duty road patrol Deputy Seth Hopp. Deputy Hopp stopped the truck and found one of the suspects – identified as 18 year old Noah Homer – inside.

When confronted with the photo of the truck and a still shot from the video showing him inside the home, Homer admitted to being there with the two other men. He told Deputy Hopp they found a door open and went inside to find out if anyone was there and if the home owner needed any work done at the home. He was not initially arrested during the traffic stop because detectives had not had the opportunity to closely review the video and talk to the homeowner about the incident.

On Monday, Detective David Cruz was assigned to investigate the case and he reviewed the video. He recognized and identified the other two suspects as 49 year old Robert and 21 year old Richard Ray, father and son from Big Pine Key. Robert Ray had been arrested Sunday night on Big Pine Key for an outstanding warrant from another jurisdiction and for giving a false name to law enforcement.

Detective Cruz spoke with Robert Ray at the Stock Island jail and he admitted to going into the residence. He was charged with burglary and criminal mischief. He then located Richard Ray and Noah Homer, who were both on Big Pine Key. They were both arrested. Ray was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and theft; Homer was charged with burglary and criminal mischief.

Corrections deputy charged with stealing drugs

A Sheriff’s Office corrections deputy was arrested today, accused of stealing controlled substances from a family friend while she was babysitting for him.

The victim, David Kouri, works as a Key West police officer. He called the Sheriff’s Office Tuesday morning to report what happened. He told Special Operations Sgt. Juan Llerra that 27 year old Ashlie Hernandez had taken his prescription medications from his home while she was babysitting for him on Monday night.

He said he had just filled his prescriptions and knew how many were in the bottles because he had not yet taken any of them. He said he left to go to dinner and when he returned, he counted the pills and found some missing.  He said when he confronted her about it she denied it.

On Tuesday afternoon, as part of the investigation into the accusations, detectives had Kouri call Hernandez to discuss the alleged theft. On the phone call, she told him her boyfriend had taken the drugs. He asked her to return the drugs to him. She said she only had possession of some of them. They agreed to meet in the parking lot of the Key West Police department later in the afternoon where she would return the pills she had that were his.

Just before 4 p.m., the meeting took place and Hernandez handed over a plastic bag with the pills inside. She left and, a short distance away, Sheriff’s detectives stopped her in her vehicle.

Upon questioning, Hernandez admitted to taking the pills. She was arrested. She was charged with two counts possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and one count theft of a controlled substance. Hernandez was booked into jail.