News

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – John P. “Jack” Heekin took the oath of office this morning from Chief District Judge Mark E. Walker to become the 42^nd U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Orly Moises Garcia Hernandez, 34, of the country of Honduras, has been charged in federal court with Illegally Entering a Military, Naval, or Coast Guard Property, and Resisting or Impeding Arrest of a Federal Officer. 

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Zackery Brandon Barfield, 31, of Panama City, Florida, was sentenced to 30 days’ imprisonment and ordered to pay a $51,000 fine for three counts of poisoning and shooting dolphins in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. 

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Kimberly Lovitt, 52, of Pace, Florida, and Amy Williams, 46, of Milton, Florida, were sentenced to 36 months and 18 months, respectively, in federal prison on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns stemming from their embezzlement of funds from their employer.

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA – Lagarius Joseph Johnson, 20, of Gainesville, Florida, was found guilty by a federal jury of possession of a machine gun in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. 

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA – Stephen Christopher Young, 58, of Gainesville, Florida, was sentenced to 121 months imprisonment for receipt/attempted receipt of child pornography. The sentence was announced by Michelle Spaven, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Romeo Wilson, 20, of Tallahassee, Florida, was sentenced to more than 24 months in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, 14 counts of bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, possession of fifteen or more access devices, possession of a stolen United States Postal Service mail key, and possession of stolen mail. 

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Lorenzo Heatrice, 70, was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and two counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one involving five grams of methamphetamine and the other involving 50 grams. 

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA – Jacqueline Dianne Wallace, 52, a Jamaican citizen, has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint and charged with unlawfully making a false claim of citizenship in order to register to vote in the 2024 Florida Presidential Primary Election.

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Five defendants who were convicted of a conspiracy scheme to defraud the retirement accounts of elderly and retired Florida school district employees have been sentenced after three defendants pleaded guilty and two defendants were found guilty by a federal jury.

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Austin James McCastler II, 35, was indicted by a federal grand jury this week charging him with two counts of distribution of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and marijuana, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, attempted prevention of the government’s authority to take property during an authorized search and seizure, attempted murder and assault of a Special Agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and discharging a firearm during a violent