BARTOW -- An Auburndale man was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for a vehicle crash in Lakeland last year that killed his grandmother, two brothers and fiancee.

Christopher Hart, 22, pleaded no contest to four counts of driving without a license in an accident causing death, seven counts of battery on a law enforcement officer, two counts of resisting a law enforcement officer with violence and giving false information during a crash. He pleaded guilty to two counts of probation violation related to previous offenses.

Authorities arrested Hart after a June 2001 crash on Saddle Creek Road that killed his grandmother, Naomi Price, 63; brothers Robin Price, 12, and Shawn Price, 9; and his fiancee, 23-year-old Tina Shelton.

Hart at first denied that he was driving the Ford Explorer that skidded on a wet road and collided with a truck pulling a flatbed trailer. But a witness identified him as the driver.

He faced additional charges after he attacked guards in separate incidents while awaiting trial in the Polk County Jail.

NAACP returning to Adam's Mark

DAYTONA BEACH -- Organizers of an annual NAACP banquet honoring Martin Luther King Jr. plan to hold the 2003 event at the Adam's Mark hotel where a discrimination lawsuit was sparked three years ago.

"We like to move the banquet around and it just happened to be the Adam's Mark's turn," said event chairman Emory Counts, who is also the city's community development director.

A lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against the St. Louis-based hotel chain was settled last year for $1.1-million, although hotel officials never admitted any wrongdoing.

The suit alleged that the Adam's Mark in Daytona Beach overcharged guests at the 1999 Black College Reunion and treated them differently from white guests attending other conventions at the hotel.

The settlement money was split among five guests who spearheaded the lawsuit and four historically black Florida colleges.

In a statement, Adam's Mark Daytona Beach general manager Stuart Arp said he was "very pleased about the return" of the banquet.

'Champagne Bandit' plagues Publix

PORT ST. LUCIE -- Police are looking for a 300-pound shoplifter who apparently likes Moet & Chandon White Star champagne.

The man, dubbed the "Champagne Bandit," has stolen $30 bottles of the bubbly from Publix supermarkets along Central Florida's east coast, St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office records show.

"It is a unique case," St. Lucie Sheriff Ken Mascara said. "It's the first one I can recall where the person is targeting the same make of wine."

The latest theft occurred Friday in Port St. Lucie, when security cameras recorded the heavyset 6-footer sticking four bottles of the champagne down the front of his pants before leaving the store.

Publix security officials told a deputy the shoplifter "has stolen the exact same items in the exact same manner from several Publix stores" from Jensen Beach to Vero Beach.

Security tapes show him wearing an untucked white dress shirt, jeans and a white ball cap.

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk