LAKELAND - Budwin Brace and his wife Loma divorced just days before she was found beaten to death 21 years ago inside her Lakeland home. Suspicion quickly focused on Brace, then a successful Pasco County builder. He was later convicted of forging his wife's signature on documents surrendering ownership of property they owned in common. He served more than a year in state prison. ...more

February 1, 2008

TAMPA - Educational and work programs could divert youngsters from joining gangs, as could a greater focus on neighborhood and community involvement, according to recommendations released today from an anti-gang summit. ...more

January 30, 2008

HAINES CITY Jeffrey Woodworth fatally shot his wife, Leona, Wednesday afternoon and then turned the gun on himself in their home at 52 Joel Massey Road, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said. ...more

January 23, 2008

Thinking he had been released from jail legitimately, Michael Hess went back to the restaurant where he had worked and asked about getting his job back. ...more

January 13, 2008

Thinking that he had been released legitimately, Michael Hess, the longtime South Tampa cook who lived on the lam under the assumed identity of a dead man for nearly three decades, went back to the restaurant where he worked and asked about getting his job back. But his release from jail was a mistake and short-lived and within eight hours, Hess, 57, was back in handcuffs. And within 10 hours, he was in a van headed for prison. ...more

January 12, 2008

Golden Pleas was running errands Monday morning when she saw a GMC Acadia SUV overturned across the eastbound lanes of East Hillsborough Avenue that looked just like the one her son left in that morning. ...more

December 31, 2007

Quincy Michael Newton has "this almost irresistible urge to take vehicles," his attorney says. ...more

December 19, 2007

U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday sentenced Quincy Michael Newton to 18 months in federal prison, to be served at the same time as a nearly three-year state prison sentence for car theft. ...more

December 18, 2007

Betty Knowles is tired of lost possibilities and faded promise. As a social worker, Knowles often hears about children who start out bright but lose their way. Her son Tedric, or "Teddy," was like that, she said, gifted in math and foreign languages before ending up in a state prison. He died a few months after his release, in a drive-by shooting in Port Tampa that remains unsolved. ...more

December 13, 2007

Debra Lafave will have her next day in court Dec. 18 rather than Jan. 7. ...more

December 11, 2007