It was the peculiar Key West crime story heard around the world: Two tourists rang in the new year by lighting a fire that scorched the island’s most popular selfie spot.
And their inexplicable mischief – involving a discarded Christmas tree, a lighter and failing to tip a bartender – was captured on the webcam pointed 24/7 at the famous Southernmost Point buoy.
Two years later, the case was resolved quietly without any announcements from the city or state prosecutors.
The culprits – 24-year-old David Brendan Perkins Jr., of Leesburg, Florida, and 23-year-old Skylar Jacobson, of Henrietta, Texas – each took a deal from the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.
Both pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor criminal mischief to avoid jail, according to Monroe County court filings. Perkins made his plea in April and Jacobson followed suit in May, court records indicate.
Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones in Monroe County sentenced each to one year of probation, 50 hours of community service, restitution for forcing the city to redo the Key West tourist attraction, and ordered them to send written apologies to the city.
Perkins, who lit the discarded tree the two had dragged to the buoy on Dec. 31, 2021, paid $5,379 to reimburse the city for the buoy repair.
Perkins, who at the start told Key West police he had made a “colossal mistake,” during his New Year’s trip to the island, wrote to the city that he came to Key West with his friend to have fun and didn’t intend to end up damaging the big buoy or “show any disrespect to the city of Key West or its citizens.”
“I had too much to drink and made a poor decision,” Perkins wrote, in the letter filed in court May 26.”I take full responsibility for my actions. This is not typical behavior for myself. I have been to the Keys there several times in the past without incident.”
No letter of apology from Jacobson had been filed at court as of Tuesday. His probation order, dated July 10, said he had 30 days to turn it in.
The pair were universally roasted on social media and their names rang out as miscreants across the biggest names in news outlets.
And the pair were tracked down with the help of Irish Kevin’s Bar, where Perkins and Jacobson drank New Year’s Eve. Even on a crowded, busy night, bartender Cameron Briody remembered the pair because they didn’t tip on the rounds they ordered. Daylin Starks, the bar’s manager, and Briody combed through receipts and the bar’s security camera footage to help police detectives identify Perkins and Jacobson, who were arrested within the week.
