A Marathon man who tried to use a stolen credit card at the Winn Dixie store in Marathon last Saturday afternoon was arrested.

The victim told deputies he’d been at Sombrero Beach that afternoon and his vehicle was burglarized. He said he had several credit cards stolen. He said he reported the cards stolen to the credit card company. He was told they had been used several places in town prior to him reporting them stolen.

According to reports by Deputy Chuck Kellenberger, one of the places the cards were used was Winn Dixie. At that store, suspect 36 year old Jose Ortiz and two women  tried to purchase over $700.00 worth of merchandise. Ortiz swiped the card and it was declined; as he was attempting to pay, the women took the shopping cart full of items out to the parking lot. Once the card was declined, the cashier and another employee went out to the parking lot to retrieve the merchandise.

They got most of the items back from the suspect and the two women with him, although several items remain missing. They then called the Sheriff’s Office to report the incident, giving deputies a description of the truck the suspect was driving.

Deputies found the truck at Publix in Marathon a short time later. Ortiz and the two women were in the truck. Ortiz denied using a stolen card, instead saying he tried to use two of his own cards which were declined. One of the women admitted they had all  been at Sombrero beach that afternoon, although when Ortiz was questioned, he said they’d all been on the boat that afternoon.

No credit cards were recovered, but Ortiz was positively identified by the Winn Dixie cashier as the man who used the stolen credit cards. Ortiz was arrested, charged with theft and fraudulent use of a credit card and he was booked into jail.

A Marathon man is in jail, charged with cutting another man with a hatchet.

Witnesses say 32 year old Maykel Borges had been coming to their trailer in Trailerama Trailer Park on 15th Street all day last Friday asking for beer. They said they gave him several beers during the course of the day, but when they told him the last time to go away and leave them alone, he left, then returned with a hatchet. He reportedly began arguing with people at the trailer, then swung the hatchet at one man, cutting him on the side with it. Borges then dropped the weapon and left the scene.

When deputies arrived just after 6 p.m., they recovered the hatchet and found Borges at his own trailer, not far away. He was arrested, charged with aggravated assault and aggravated battery, and he was booked into jail. The victim was transported to Fishermen’s Hospital for treatment of a small cut on his side.

A deputy on patrol at the Channel Two Bridge Monday morning arrested two men for possessing short lobster, and illegally wrung lobster tails.

Deputy Sydney Whitehouse saw the two men snorkeling near the south end of the bridge at 8:30 a.m. When he asked them to exit the water, they both dropped their spear guns and something else he could not see well into the water.

The deputy told the two men to retrieve what they dropped; they got their spear guns, but nothing else. Deputy Whitehouse could see what looked like wrung lobster tails in the water, so he called for assistance and Marine Deputy Mike Cofield responded by water on his patrol boat. Deputy Cofield went into the water and retrieved six wrung lobster tails, one of which was obviously illegally small.

The two men were identified as 34 year old Dixan Diaz Torres of Cape Coral, Florida and 24 year old Yasmany Quesada Montero of Cutler Bay, Florida. They were both issued citations for possession of wrung lobster tails, possession of an undersized lobster tail, spear fishing in an area which does not allow it, having no measuring device and displaying no dive flag. They were booked into jail.

A 19 year old Marathon man was arrested Monday, charged with robbing a taxi driver at gunpoint in the early morning hours of November 16th.

Detectives say Keith White called for a taxi to pick him and a friend up from JJ’s Doghouse at 3:15 a.m. Video from the bar showed the two men getting into the taxi. The taxi driver was able to provide detectives with the cell phone number White called him from as well.

The driver told detectives he dropped the friend off; White then instructed him to drive to a home on 109th Street in Marathon. When the driver pulled into the driveway, White pulled a gun, put it to his head and demanded his money, which he handed over.

The cell phone used to call the taxi was registered to White; detectives were able to identify White’s friend from the video. When they called him in and questioned him, he told them he didn’t know White’s name and hadn’t known him for long. He was able to identify White from a photo line-up. White has many distinctive tattoos, including a cross tattooed on his face.

A warrant was obtained for White’s arrest and he was picked up on Monday. He was booked into jail on robbery charges.

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Division and the City of Key West Narcotics Unit completed a two month investigation Monday into the drug related activities of 39 year old Calvin Eugene Lee  of Key West.

Detectives had an outstanding warrant for Lee for trafficking in cocaine; the warrant was a result of the ongoing investigation into his activities dealing in illegal drugs. On Monday morning, they spotted him driving a 2004 Nissan Titan on North Roosevelt Boulevard. As a marked Key West Police vehicle attempted to pull him over, he fled, refusing to stop. As officers followed Lee, they saw him throwing white powder out of the vehicle. He finally stopped in the vicinity of George Allen Apartments on 1st Street, where he lives. He was taken into custody. Detectives located white powder over all over the inside of the vehicle. This white powder field-tested positive for cocaine.

After arresting Lee detectives went to the apartment where Lee was staying in George Allen Apartments, apartment F5. Detectives made contact with  60 year old Wanda Lee who gave detectives consent to search her home. Their detectives located 7 grams of cocaine pre packaged for sale, and a cocaine press with residue. Detectives also located $2,600.00 in hundred dollar bills. Examination of the money revealed all the bills had identical serial numbers identifying the bills as counterfeit. The money will be turned over to the Secret Service for further investigation and possible prosecution.

Lee was charged with fleeing and eluding police, possession of cocaine within 1000 feet of public housing, tampering with evidence, and with an outstanding warrant for trafficking in cocaine and use of a two way communication device to facilitate a felony. He was booked into jail.

A Stock Island man was charged with two residential burglaries after he was caught on video at both locations committing the crimes.

On October 14, Deputy Todd Jones responded to a burglary at a trailer park on Maloney Avenue. The victim said she left her home to pick her daughter up from school; when she returned, she found her trailer had been burglarized. The suspect pried open the back door and took a laptop computer, jewelry, a video camera and also took some ham and cheese from the refrigerator.

On October 21, Deputy Joseph Cortner responded to another burglary at a trailer in the same trailer park. The victim said she left at 10:30 in the morning. When she returned later that afternoon, she found a back window open. A gold bracelet was missing from inside.

In both instances, the burglaries were caught on surveillance video. Detective Donald Catala was assigned to investigate and identified the suspect tin both videos as 36 year old Oscar Jimeranez Madariago. Warrants were issued for his arrest and on November 12th, Deputy John Gabay and Sgt. Mark Maison received a tip that he was on a boat docked on Front Street. They found him there and arrested him. He was booked into jail on two warrants for burglary with a total bond set at $70,000.

A Stock Island man has been charged with domestic battery and robbery following an incident last Sunday in the early morning hours.

Deputy John Gabay and Sgt. Mark Maison responded to an apartment on 7th Avenue at 1:45 a.m. Sunday. When they arrived, they met with the two female victims who said the suspect, 35 year old Lemuel Roberts, had attacked them. One victim is the girlfriend of Roberts; she said she told him he had to move out of their apartment because she was tired of supporting him. She said he came to the door of the apartment at 8 p.m. Saturday and began banging on it. It was locked, so he broke down the door, damaging the frame. He entered and first attacked her, demanding money. When he realized she didn’t have any, he went into the bedroom and attacked her friend. He ripped her pants pocket and grabbed $350.00 cash from the pocket. He then pushed both women into the bathroom and left the residence.

On Sunday evening, Deputy Gabay found Roberts at the same residence talking with the victim. He was placed under arrest, charged with domestic battery, robbery and grand theft and he was booked into jail.

The smell of marijuana emanating from a car at a Marathon convenience store led to three drug arrests Monday.

Deputies Nicholis Whiteman and Christian Galls were walking in to a convenience store near 15th Street in Marathon at 7:30 p.m. when they smelled marijuana coming from a silver colored sport utility vehicle. Two people were in the backseat of the vehicle; two others were in the store.

The deputies approached the vehicle and asked the occupants about the smell. They admitted to smoking marijuana as the were driving, but said they discarded the remains of the marijuana cigarette before stopping at the store. The two people in the store were asked to come outside and they, too, admitted to smoking marijuana. All four denied any more drugs were in the vehicle. A plastic bag of marijuana was found on the ground, at the feet of one of the men from inside the store.

Deputy Danielle Malone and her dog, Tracer responded to the store. The dog was walked around the vehicle and alerted on it, indicating the presence of drugs inside. A search revealed a marijuana “blunt” made by wrapping marijuana with a cigar wrapper. It was found on the floorboards in back; a grinder was also found, and, wrapped in a pair of shorts in the front deputies found 18 grams of powdered cocaine which the front seat passenger said belonged to him. He also had a large amount of cash in his possession.

Three of the four in the car were arrested. 28 year old Reza Adili of Southwest Ranches, Florida was charged with possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia. He was also charged with an outstanding warrant from Broward County for violation of probation. 29 year old Christopher Bogdan of Hollywood, Florida was charged with possession of marijuana and 29 year old James Lixie of Cooper City, Florida was charged with possession of marijuana and tampering with evidence. $4,644.00 in cash was seized for possible forfeiture. All three were booked into jail.

Deputies responded to an attempted robbery on Stock Island last Sunday night.

According to the manager and an employee who were both at the restaurant, a man walked in at 8:30 p.m. He was wearing shorts, no shirt and had some kind of t-shirt wrapped around his head. On his left hand, he had a brown sock and he was carrying a plastic bag.

The manager approached the man, who was at the counter. The man pointed his sock covered hand at the manager and told him he had a gun; he told the manager to hand over the money in the register, then handed the plastic bag to him.

The manager told the man he would have to get the key to the register and he walked away. At that point, the man fled from the restaurant, stumbling and knocking over a display in the process.

According to witnesses and responding deputies who reviewed video from the restaurant’s surveillance system, the suspect is between 35 and 45 years old; he is about 5’8 inches to 6 feet tall with a stocky build. He has blue eyes, was wearing khaki shorts and sneakers.

A search of the area around Burger King did not turn up anyone resembling the suspect. The case will be investigated by Sheriff’s detectives.

A Vero Beach man was found floating in the water at a marina off of Front Street, Stock Island last Thursday. His death does not appear to involve any type of foul play, according to detectives.

50 year old John Windhaus was last seen Wednesday night at the Hogfish Restaurant. He was in the Florida Keys on board an 80 foot research vessel called “Thunderforce”. The vessel had docked behind Fishbusterz fish house for a couple of days; they were on their way home to Fort Pierce, but stopped due to weather conditions.

Crew members told Detective Manny Cuervo Windhaus went to Hogfish for dinner, then stayed to play pool and have a few drinks. The captain told Detective Cuervo he went to check on Windhaus at 9:30 p.m. and encouraged him to return to the boat. At 11 p.m., when the crew was getting ready to go to sleep, he still had not returned.

At 8 a.m., a crew member went on deck and looked into the water. He saw Windhaus floating face up, dead, between the steel hulled boat and the concrete dock. Detective Cuervo said it appears he may have fallen in while attempting to climb on board the vessel. An initial inspection of his body did not reveal any signs of foul play. The Medical Examiner will be doing an autopsy to determine the cause of his death.