Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Crime Journal

Briefs and news of note.

By TIMES STAFF
Published January 12, 2007

Detention deputy faces drug charges

A Hillsborough sheriff's detention deputy has been placed on administrative leave without pay after she was arrested, accused of armed trafficking in cocaine. Jacqueline Patty-Grant, 37, was arrested at 8 p.m. Jan. 10 on charges of armed trafficking in cocaine and possession of marijuana, according to the Sheriff's Office. Her husband, Johnnie Lee Grant, 39, faces the same charges. Patty-Grant has worked as a detention deputy at the Orient Road Jail for 10 years. They were arrested after deputies served a search warrant at their Plant City home and found 11 grams of marijuana, a loaded 9mm firearm and 80 grams of cocaine, valued at $4,500, deputies said. The arrests marked the conclusion of a monthlong investigation by the Sheriff's Office narcotics unit.

Robber faked pain to enter home

A woman offered help to someone who was feigning illness and ended up being robbed at gunpoint Wednesday afternoon. The robbery happened at 1:15 p.m., when Luzselenia Viera, 68, of 274 Van Gogh Circle saw a woman pull into Viera's driveway. The woman got out of her car holding her stomach as if in pain and asked Viera for a glass of water, deputies said. As Viera walked into her home to get the water, the robber followed her, pulled out a pistol and demanded money, deputies said. Viera gave the woman money, and the robber left. The robber is described as a heavyset 40-year-old Hispanic woman, 5 feet 1 and 150 pounds, police say. She has straight, black hair and wore a white short-sleeve blouse, beige pants, a black jacket and a headband. Anyone with any information can call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office at 247-8200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.

Man gets 6 years for fatal car crash

A man whose blood-alcohol count was more than three times the legal limit when he caused a fatal car crash in 2005 has been sentenced to six years in prison. Joshua R. Land, 21, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence manslaughter for the May 2005 death of St. Petersburg resident Dragan Nikolic, 21. Land ran a red light at Gandy Boulevard N and the frontage road and collided with a car driven by Nikolic, who died a short time later at a hospital.

[Last modified January 12, 2007, 05:37:28]