While the Florida Keys are known for low crime rates compared to the mainland, the island chain in 2023 wasn’t spared by trauma and grief.
The tragic fatal shooting of beloved 21-year-old Garrett Hughes in Key West rocked the tight-knit Key West community in February 2023, and set off a court case expected to drag out far into 2024.
Hughes, a standout athlete at Key West High School who became a volunteer coach for youth sports teams, was shot in the abdomen outside the now-closed Conch Town bar in the early hours of Feb. 13.
Lloyd Preston Brewer admits to firing the handgun at Hughes and is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of a concealed firearm permit, but he claims he only pulled the trigger in fear for his life.
Hughes was unarmed, shirtless and facing a wall when Brewer approached, and prosecutors said video footage of the incident refutes his story.
No trial date has been set. Brewer’s next court hearing is Jan. 2, 2024.
A Keys couple took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, prosecutors say
A live-aboard couple in Marathon’s Boot Key Harbor wanted for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers and entering the U.S. Capitol during the infamous Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection were arrested on Aug. 7 in Marathon.
Bryan Roger Bishop, 51, and Tonya Bishop, 47, were taken into custody in a joint operation of the FBI, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement partners. They are fighting the charges in federal court.
Bryan Bishop is accused of assaulting two Capitol police officers with a dangerous weapon by spraying pepper spray under their helmets during the riot, carrying a dangerous weapon inside a restricted area, engaging in physical violence in a restricted area with a weapon, and disorderly conduct.
Bishop’s wife, Tonya is not accused of violence or weapons-related charges, but of remaining in a restricted area and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted area and in the Capitol building. She pleaded not guilty to the four counts at her Dec. 1 arraignment. A status conference hearing in Tonya’s case is scheduled for Jan. 30.
Movie theater stabbing
A Key West teen attacked a 17-year-old boy with a steak knife in each hand at about 1:20 a.m. Oct. 1 in the parking lot outside the Regal Cinema, police said.
The attack, which police said was over a borrowed pair of earbuds that weren’t returned timely, sent the victim airlifted to a Miami-Dade hospital with wounds to his shoulder, abdomen and one side of his chest.
Marc Louissaint, a student at Key West High School, was placed in juvenile detention and prosecutors said he would face charges as an adult.
Teens accused of terrorizing children at their Sigsbee home
Three Key West teens, all 14, were facing felony charges following their Oct. 24 arrest at Sigsbee Park Navy Base for charges that include false imprisonment, aggravated assault and burglary.
The charges do not include sexual assault, although the police investigation indicates some of the suspects carried out attempted acts of rape with a spoon on the 14-year-old victim, along with forcing a minor to watch porn from a gaming console.
Their victims were an 11-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother who live in military housing at Sigsbee Park.
The suspects, whose names were withheld by Key West police due to their age, reportedly followed the 11-year-old girl home from the Navy’s MWR building while harassing her with questions about her brother’s girlfriend.
Southernmost Point buoy rape case
A Key West man who in 2021 raped a tourist behind the island’s iconic Southernmost Point Buoy – after earlier that night stopping a man who was assaulting her – pleaded guilty as charged on Oct. 5 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Kerry Calvin Gasag, 39, who never left jail after his arrest on Sept. 11, 2021, on Oct. 5 agreed to plead guilty to sexual battery, false imprisonment and evidence tampering, to avoid a trial on sexual assault charges.
The plea deal meant the victim didn’t have to appear in court for any of Gasag’s hearings or trial. But a second Key West man awaits trial for allegeding raping her on the same night.
Jorge Calderon Nunez, 32, remains locked up at the county jail on Stock Island on $225,000 bond and charged with sexual assault, false imprisonment and evidence tampering. He was arrested Sept. 17, 2021.
Key deer killing
Was it a desperate attempt to put a Key deer out of its misery? Federal prosecutors weren’t convinced.
On March 23, Wendy C. Kilheffer, of Big Pine Key, was sentenced to one year of probation, a $4,000 fine and 100 hours of community service for killing a Key deer in distress with a handgun. Local Key deer activists said wildlife authorities wouldn’t respond to calls for help with the ailing deer and the shooting was an act of mercy for the animal.
In the end, Kilheffer pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act by shooting and killing the deer on Nov. 16, 2022.
Conch Key meth-inspired shooting case
High on methamphetamine and ranting about a non-existent burglar, a Conch Key man on Aug. 30 fired a handgun three times inside his home while his roommate was inside, according to Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies.
No one was injured, but that wasn’t for a lack of trying, deputies said. His roommate, a 27-year-old woman who had her infant son with her when the first gunshot went off, said she feared for her life.
Peter Anthony Capurro, 57, was arrested on a charge of attempted murder and. But he was later charged with lesser crimes: shooting inside a building and using a firearm under the influence of a controlled substance. His next court hearing is Feb. 15.
Southernmost Point buoy vandals
The culprits behind the New Year’s Day 2022 vandalism of the Southernmost Point buoy – 24-year-old David Brendan Perkins Jr., of Leesburg, Florida, and 23-year-old Skylar Jacobson, of Henrietta, Texas – each took a plea deal in 2023 from the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.
This past spring, each pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor criminal mischief to avoid jail, according to Monroe County court filings.
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 repainting the buoy. When he spoke with police shortly after the incident, he called the stunt “a colossal mistake.”
A ring of thieves from outside the Keys steal $2.5 million worth of GPS equipment
A rash of GPS marine thefts — ranging in the millions of dollars and spanning the Florida Keys and 16 other counties in the state — led the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to bust a large, organized crime ring on Aug. 23.
Ten out-of-county suspects linked to the burglaries in the Upper Keys and as far south as Duck Key dating back to March were taken into custody in the early morning on Aug. 23, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay announced at a press conference in Tavernier. Roughly 70 law enforcement officials rounded up the subjects throughout Miami-Dade County. Ramsay said law enforcement was working to arrest one more suspect.
Together, the suspects face 122 charges stemming from roughly $2.5 million in stolen Garmin GPS systems in Monroe County. Ramsay said other charges are forthcoming from other counties.
