Across Florida

By Times Wires
Published December 25, 2007

JACKSONVILLE

Pastor accused of sending lewd text messages

A pastor has temporarily left the pulpit while detectives investigate whether he sent lewd text messages to an underage girl. Darrell Gilyard, 45, head of the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, took a voluntary paid leave of absence on Friday. It is the second time accusations of sexual misconduct kept Gilyard from preaching. In 1991, he resigned his post at Victory Baptist Church near Dallas after reports he slept with church members came to light. A mother filed a report with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on Nov. 29, alleging that she found obscene text messages on her daughter's cell phone in October from a number belonging to Gilyard, the Florida Times-Union reported.

MIAMI

Church attendance leads to arrest

A man featured on a television show was arrested Sunday after a deputy watching the program recognized him as a fellow churchgoer, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office. Deputy Jacob Stutzman was watching America's Most Wanted when he recognized Augusto Rodriguez, according to the Sheriff's Office. Rodriguez, 62, is wanted for kidnapping and sexual assault in Pennsylvania.

LAKELAND

Man in coma after hanging self in jail

A man who was arrested Sunday on charges of setting fire to his ex-wife's duplex was found hanging in his jail cell this morning. James Mark Garry, 39, is in a coma and not expected to improve, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Garry set fire to the duplex in North Lakeland early Sunday after punching and kicking his ex-wife and stealing her boyfriend's car Saturday night, according to a sheriff's report. His ex-wife was not home when he set the fire, but a woman and her three teenage children were sleeping in the duplex next door, the report said.

PALMETTO

Ambulance wrecks en route to call

Manatee County paramedics responding to an emergency call ended up in the hospital themselves. A Manatee County Emergency Medical Services ambulance was responding to a call with lights on and sirens blaring when a pickup truck got in its path Monday. The ambulance swerved to avoid a collision, hit a shoulder and overturned. The paramedics were in stable condition with shoulder and neck injuries, but the ambulance suffered significant damage.

FORT LAUDERDALE

Three arrested in drugstore holdups

Three men believed to be responsible for more than a dozen armed drugstore robberies in South Florida have been arrested, authorities said Monday. DNA evidence, surveillance video footage and phone records linked Timothy Johnson, Gerald Joshua, and Deitrick Johnson to 13 pharmacy robberies in Broward and Palm Beach counties between May 20 and Oct. 18, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office. The three implicated each other in the early-morning robberies, authorities said. No charges have yet been filed because the robberies span several jurisdictions, but additional arrests are possible, the Sheriff's Office said.

Times wires

[Last modified December 24, 2007, 22:00:29]