MARTIN COUNTY Why her?
That was the question Claudia Mays said she had on her mind after hearing about how a neighbor in her 80s awoke in her bed to a masked man standing over her at the Hidden Harbour Estates condominium complex south of Stuart.
Sheriff s detectives are searching for the man they said invaded her home and sexually attacked her in one of the condos near Southeast St. Lucie Boulevard and Southeast Dixie Highway Wednesday morning.
The woman told detectives she was sexually battered after she awoke to a masked man in her home, according to the Sheriff s Office.
The case began Feb. 11 when police went to an address in the 700 block of Southwest Dalton Circle. An 86-year-old person hired Gazo and Carl Jackson, 42, as day laborers to help move heavy furniture, police said.
“Shortly after they left, the victim noticed several pieces of jewelry missing worth approximately $10,000,” police stated. “Detectives found that Gazo and Jackson pawned jewelry in a pawn store in Stuart.”
Police got warrants issued in March for the arrest of Gazo and Jackson on charges including dealing in stolen property, false information to a pawnbroker and third-degree grant theft.
They are looking for both men.
Treasure Coast Newspapers
ST. LUCIE COUNTY What was reported earlier this month as a suicide attempt was determined by St. Lucie County sheriff’s investigators to be an attempted murder.
The case, which involved interviews and firearms analysis, resulted in the Tuesday arrest of Scott Joseph Ranne, 38, of the 3200 block of South U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce, on a charge of attempted first-degree murder, according to records released Thursday.
He was held Thursday in the St. Lucie County Jail on $500,000 bond, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s investigators about 10:22 p.m. April 12 went to an undisclosed address where a woman “reportedly attempted suicide by shooting herself in the head,” records state.
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MARTIN COUNTY Deputies arrested a man accused of soliciting sexual acts from an undercover persona posing as a minor in Martin County, according to an affidavit.
Richard Beecher, 46, of Georgia, faces several felony charges, including using a computer service to seduce another person believed by the person to be a child and transmission of information harmful to a minor, according to jail records.
The records show Beecher also faces charges of using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony and traveling to meet to seduce, solicit, lure or entice another person believed by the person to be a child, to commit an illegal act.
Treasure Coast Newspapers
FORT PIERCE A 36-year-old man accused in a sexual battery of a woman at his apartment remained Tuesday in the St. Lucie County Jail on $300,000 bond, according to recently-obtained records and the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
Robert Louis Scharfschwerdt, whose address was not disclosed, was arrested March 31 on felony charges including sexual assault-sexual battery, domestic battery by strangulation and false imprisonment in connection with incidents that happened the day prior.
A woman told Fort Pierce police she agreed to meet with Scharfschwerdt at his apartment. She said she got there about 2 a.m. and they argued. She told investigators he hit and choked her and committed violent sexual battery acts against her.