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UF Foundation's theft loss near $1-million, audit says

GAINESVILLE - The former chief financial officer for the University of Florida Foundation is now suspected of stealing almost $1-million from the organization, according to an audit presented Friday to the school's board of trustees.

UF inspector general Nur Erenguc said she thinks Kenneth E. Hillier used the money to make credit card payments and buy cameras, computer equipment and other items. He was arrested and fired in September for allegedly stealing $700,000.

UF could recover some of the stolen money, officials said, because after his arrest, prosecutors froze Hillier's bank account containing $400,000 to $500,000.

Hillier, who worked for the foundation for 15 years, faces five counts of grand theft.

He did not return a call to his Jacksonville home Friday seeking comment.

DeLAND - A man with a history of mental illness was charged Friday with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting and stabbing deaths of a mother and her two adult sons.

Javier Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, was arrested Thursday on an unrelated charge of resisting arrest after investigators located him in a Seminole County mental health facility. He had turned himself in to the facility on Monday.

Carmen Negron, 63, and sons Gilberto Vergara-Negron, 28, and Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negron, 26, were found dead Monday night in their Orange City home by a friend arriving for a Bible study.

Carrasquillo knew the sons, and occasionally went to their home to ask for rides, said Lt. Gordon Meyer of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators said Friday that Carrasquillo confessed to the crime and said he believed he was "the anti-Christ."

TALLAHASSEE - William F. Cameron was appointed Friday by Gov. Jeb Bush as sheriff of Charlotte County.

Cameron, 42, has been a division commander with the Lee County Sheriff's Office for the last two years.

The governor suspended Charlotte County Sheriff William E. Clement in October after he was arrested on a charge of lying on a campaign finance report during his 2000 election campaign. He denies wrongdoing.

J.M. "Buddy" Phillips, former executive director of the Florida Sheriff's Association, had been serving as interim sheriff.

PORT ST. JOE - Gulf County officials are asking the public to help employees who have missed paychecks at a hospital operating under bankruptcy protection as the gift-giving holidays approach.

County commissioners were told Thursday that some Gulf Pines Hospital workers have gone unpaid for two months.

"Call the Red Cross, call the United Way, do whatever you can," said Commissioner Billy Traylor.

Gulf Pines is the only hospital in this Florida Panhandle town 40 miles southeast of Panama City.