Digest

Across Florida

By Times Wires
Published August 22, 2007

ORLANDO

POLICE DISCOVER 'MISSILE' REALLY A CARRYING CASE

An olive-colored tube traded in at a gun exchange and described by police as a surface-to-air missile launcher is a carrying case for an anti-tank weapon, an expert said. John McGrath, an investigator for Raytheon Corp., used a serial number to identify the 4-foot-long tube as a 32-year-old fiberglass carrying case for a TOW missile and its launcher. "They're pretty available on the Internet," he said. "We run into a lot of this, actually." The Ocoee man who turned it in Friday thought it was a bazooka.

FORT LAUDERDALE

Jury recommends death for killer

A jury recommended the death penalty Tuesday for a convicted pedophile who strangled two sisters in his apartment, then hid the bodies in his attic. Howard Steven Ault, 41, was convicted for the 1996 murders of DeAnn Emerald Mu'min, 11, and Sybilla Jones, 7. Ault had been sentenced to death in 1999, but the Florida Supreme Court threw out the sentence - but not the conviction - because a potential juror had been wrongly dismissed. Ault lured the sisters to his apartment promising them some leftover Halloween candy.

HOLMES COUNTY

Deputy dies in crash during chase

A Holmes County sheriff's deputy was killed in a single-vehicle crash as he tried to catch a speeding motorist just across the line in Alabama, authorities said. Joe Galloway, 61, lost control of his patrol car on rural Yancy Road and hit a tree Monday night, according to Geneva County Coroner Max Motley and the Holmes County Sheriff's Office. Galloway is the third Florida deputy to be killed in the line of duty this month. Broward sheriff's Sgt. Chris Reyka was looking for stolen vehicles Aug. 10 when someone fired at least five shots at him. Hillsborough County sheriff's Sgt. Ron Harrison was fatally shot Aug 15. The man accused of killing him, 24-year-old Michael Allen Phillips, was killed by SWAT sharpshooters.

TALLAHASSEE

Clemency Board to consider appeal

The state's Clemency Board has waived its rules to allow an expedited hearing on whether a former British millionaire should be released. It still could be several months or more before the case of Krishna Maharaj goes before the Clemency Board. Maharaj has served 20 years in Florida prisons for the 1986 murders of a Jamaican father and son. He is sentenced to 25 years to life for killing Derrick Moo Young and the same for the murder of Moo Young's 23-year-old son, Duane. Maharaj, now 68, has become something of a cause celebre in Britain.

If it's too good to be true, it isn't

The Florida Lottery is warning of a scam involving a letter saying the recipient has won money from a sweepstakes sponsored by multinational companies. The letter is typed on letterhead containing a Canadian address and arrives with a bogus check from "Florida Leisure & Gaming" with the forged signature of Florida Lottery Secretary Leo DiBenigno. The recipient is asked to deposit the check and return a sum via Western Union to cover surcharges or taxes. Doug Pitts, director of security at the Florida Lottery, points out that "the Florida Lottery will never ask players for money in order to collect a prize."

[Last modified August 21, 2007, 23:42:20]