Crime

Florida Republicans on Thursday quickly attacked the conviction of former President Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records, while Democrats said the verdict showed nobody is above the law.A 12-member jury returned the verdict more than a month after the criminal hush-money trial began in New York and after just one day of deliberations. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime after leaving office.

Former President Donald Trump is convicted of all 34 counts in his New York hush money trial.

The rate of guns stolen from cars in the U.S. has tripled over the last decade, making them the largest source of stolen guns in the country, an analysis of FBI data by the gun safety group Everytown found.The rate of stolen guns from cars climbed nearly every year and spiked during the coronavirus pandemic along with a major surge in weapons purchases in the U.S., according to the report, which analyzes FBI data from 337 cities in 44 states and was provided to The Associated Press.

The sad and terrifying case of 9-year-old Diana Alvarez came to an end Wednesday with a life sentence in prison given to Jorge Manuel Guerrero Torres after he was found guilty of the child's 2016 kidnapping and murder.Diana disappeared from her Unique Circle home at the Sheltering Pines mobile home neighborhood off U.S. 41 in south Lee County early in the morning of May 29.

ond was set Friday at $350,000 for a Fort Myers woman who allegedly sexually battered a male teen when she worked as a teacher's aide in a Lee County School.Lauren Angelica King, 32, remains in custody at the Lee County Jail on charges of lewd lascivious behavior/molestation and lewd lascivious behavior/lewd or lascivious battery. A Lee County School District spokesman said King no longer works for the school. The spokesman would not say if she was fired or quit.

The shooting death of Kristopher Smith as he sat in his car after dropping off his son at school in January 2013 eventually lead to charges against Robert Lee Ward and his sentencing to life in prison.

A female paraprofessional in a Lee County school has been arrested on charges of sexual battery on a male student.Fort Myers police reported that the department was alerted to the alleged assault on Sunday.

Citing theft issues in other states, specifically California and New York, Governor Ron DeSantis Tuesday proposed legislative action to try to curb retail theft and porch piracy of delivered goods.According to the governor's office, in 2022, retailers across the country lost $112 billion to retail theft, with sharp increases in major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. DeSantis' office also said shoplifting in Florida has decreased by 30% since DeSantis first took office.

A man who held up the Bank of America at Bell Tower Shops Tuesday was later shot and killed by a Lee County Sheriff’s Office sniper as the man held a knife to a hostage.