STEVEN BEARDSLEY

Oral arguments in the federal appeal of convicted Fort Myers businessman Samir Cabrera are scheduled to be held in Jacksonville in April. Judges from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case, an appeal of Cabrera’s 2009 conviction ...

Thirteen-year-old Adrian Orena did a difficult thing on Tuesday. Standing in a Naples courtroom, the small boy pulled aside the collar of his button-down shirt and showed jurors where his father cut his throat, twice, during an attack in 2007. ...

A teenager charged with vehicular homicide in a 2009 chain-reaction car crash that killed a young mother pleaded to the charge on Tuesday, receiving a sentence that included a year of jail and four years of state probation, the first ...

A decision by a European banking giant to temporarily suspend its foreclosures in the U.S. could affect hundreds of cases in Southwest Florida.

Attorneys again postponed the arraignment of a Naples teenager accused of shooting his parents in their Golden Gate Estates home.

Some 16 months later, attorneys on Friday argued whether Osceola’s confession should be admitted in his approaching trial, or if it’s tainted by police misconduct. A pair of detectives spoke with the suspect 90 minutes before reading him his rights ...

Jorge Saavedra has been charged with manslaughter and as a juvenile in the stabbing death of Dylan Nuno.

Attorneys postponed an arraignment for a teenage boy accused of fatally stabbing a Palmetto Ridge High School classmate.

For the past few years, Lee County’s busiest court docket has also been the most notorious in the state. Dubbed the ‘rocket docket’, the county’s foreclosure track cruises through several hundred cases daily, many ending in judgments for the lender ...

Former Gulf Coast High School band director Robert Hamberg's sexual battery case is now slated for trial in April.

The Collier County Sheriff's deputy blamed for last week's multi-vehicle accident on Airport-Pulling Road has been cited for careless driving.

A Naples man faces child abuse charges on allegations he requested a nude photograph of a 15-year-old girl and showed her pornography on a computer.

Randi MacLeod met deputies with her lifeless child in her arms, according to an incident report in yesterday's drowning death of a 15-month-old girl.

Ava’s grandmother, Pamela Slaby, said on Tuesday that MacLeod told her the child drowned in the home’s bathtub. She recalled receiving a frantic phone call from MacLeod early Tuesday morning, before the arrival of paramedics.

Charges are pending in the case of an on-duty Collier County Sheriff's deputy blamed for Friday's multi-car crash on Airport-Pulling Road, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

Convicted killer James Menard will spend his life in prison for the murder of Jake Couture, a Collier Circuit Judge decided today.

State agents have arrested a Fort Myers man on allegations he stole funds from the campaign coffers of Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, in addition to three Rotary Club funds in the city and a capital funds account in the ...

In a budget proposal released Monday, Gov. Rick Scott requested a 6.8 percent funding cut at the Public Defender’s Office and a 5.1 percent decrease in the State Attorney’s Office budget. He would also axe 7 positions from the former ...

During a question-and-answer session at the end of his keynote address, Statewide Prosecutor Nick Cox said his prior experience with the Department of Children and Families taught him that mistrust of authority is deeply ingrained in some minority groups.

Murder defendant Mesac Damas ignored the protests of a judge to speak directly to TV cameras in a hearing today, the latest sign the defendant is bent on controlling his death penalty case.

With several recent Facebook-related arrests in Lee County, authorities are mapping the boundaries between normal activity online and evidence of a crime or bullying.

Naples attorney Donald Day will represent the Palmetto Ridge High School student charged with fatally stabbing another student, according to Day's law partner, Jerry Berry.

More than 500 Facebook users planned to attend a Saturday candlelight vigil in Golden Gate Estates, according to a page for the event on Thursday. More than 150 indicated they wanted a T-shirt honoring victim Dylan Nuno, offered by another ...

Some described the victim as the aggressor. Others suggested the two students, both at Palmetto Ridge High School, arranged the fight.

The 14-year-old suspect in the stabbing death of a Palmetto Ridge High classmate will be held 21 days on a negligent manslaughter charge, a judge ruled this morning.

Naples teenager Riccardo Blas Rivas II wants to disqualify the judge in his vehicular homicide case, claiming in a motion that actions by Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt have come across as “prosecutorial.”

Evidence of a relationship between Robert Hamberg and his current wife, Diane Hamberg, while she was a minor at a Georgia high school and he a band director, will not be admitted into the trial.

Nearly 11⁄2 years after his arrest roiled the Gulf Coast High School community, former band director Robert Hamberg faces trial on accusations of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.

Prosecutor Rich Montecalvo requested a high bond, saying Campos was backed by the “vast financial resources” of the Seminole tribe.

An Immokalee man faces murder charges as one of two suspects in the shooting deaths of two men outside a Fort Myers strip club on Tuesday night.

A fight between customers at Lookers nightclub early Wednesday morning ultimately ended with a shooting in the strip club's parking lot that left two dead and two Collier County men jailed, Fort Myers Police reports show.

Accused killer Mesac Damas again pushed for permission to represent himself in his death penalty case, making the request during a brief hearing today.

Hope for Haiti has subsidized teachers in 40 schools and installed water purifiers in 12. The clinic expanded earlier this year, from a staff of one doctor and one nurse operating out of the nonprofit’s headquarters, to a stand-alone building ...

One year after a devastating earthquake partially collapsed the national cathedral here, thousands flocked to the site to mark the anniversary of the tragedy.

Naples teenager Alex Crain will remain in juvenile custody an additional two months as prosecutors decide how to charge him in the slayings of his parents.

Two brothers arrested in a Coastland Center mall dispute originally dispatched to police as a “hostage situation” will not face formal charges. Prosecutors filed notices last week that they would not charge Iyad Ibrahimm 30, and Ali Ibrahim, 27, with ...

Firefighters at Big Cypress National Preserve are inspecting land near U.S 41 after they contained a wildfire in the area late Wednesday.

Immigration officials are preparing to resume deportations of Haitian nationals from the U.S., nearly one year after a devastating earthquake crippled the country and at a time when the threat of disease and political unrest remains high.

At a brief service for Thomas and Kelly Crain on Saturday evening, mourners were asked to set aside the difficult questions and remember the lives of a husband and wife, a mother and a father.

The 26-year-old Golden Gate Estates man who died Sunday after a violent confrontation with Collier County sheriff’s deputies was struck at least twice by two deputies’ Tasers, according to an incident report released Tuesday.

A Golden Gate man died Sunday night after a Taser stun by Collier deputies sparked a medical emergency, according to the Sheriff's Office.

"This is obviously a very traumatic event, and as everyone could see by his appearance on Friday, he's a very young, emotional, scared little boy," Rankin said..

Oral arguments in Samir Cabrera’s federal appeal are tentatively scheduled for March 2011.

And so it went on Friday, one day after the discovery of the Crains’ bodies in their Golden Gate Estates home and the subsequent arrest of their 14-year-old son on murder charges. As family turned away from the spotlight, friends ...

This time a boy at Lexington Middle School cursed at a teacher on Wednesday, according to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office report.

The suspect in the shooting death of Gulf Coast High student Jake Couture remains on a path toward trial after failing to gain immunity under the state’s Stand Your Ground law on Wednesday.

The man who fatally shot Gulf Coast High student Jake Couture will seek to bar his prosecution under a state law permitting the use of lethal force in self defense.

A Lee County deputy with a lawsuit against Sheriff Mike Scott has retired from the agency, following an internal investigation that concluded he mishandled evidence in several cases.

An Immokalee woman charged in the scalding of her 3-year-old son was to bond out of jail on Monday, following a judge’s decision to reduce her bail.

Prosecutors declined to pursue human trafficking charges against a Fort Myers woman accused of forcing her daughters to buy drugs and, in the case of one child, forcing her to prostitute herself.