Crime

Photo for Headline Surfer / A manhunt Wednesday resulted in the apprehension of convicted sex offender Luis Alberto Hernandez Dejesus who earlier in the day broke free from a deputy in New Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A 31-year-old convicted sex offender who broke free from a Volusia County Sheriff's deputy in New Smyrna Beach earlier in the day Wednesday, was apprehended and taken into custody just after 11 p.m., an agency spokesman said.

Luis Alberto Hernandez Dejesus stayed hidden for several hours after fighting with a Volusia County Sheriff's Office deputy and escaping his arrest while still handcuffed But he finally came out of hiding late Wednesday night and when he did, deputies nabbed him.

Vehicle found abandoned in Sanford

Headline Surfer graphic / An alert cab driver used a little trickery on Sunday to escape from a gun-toting customers, but had his taxi stolen at the intersection of Volusia and Graves avenues in Orange City 8 a.m. Sunday as shown at left.

ORANGE CITY -- A taxi driver was held up at gunpoint early this morning and ordered to drive a man and woman to Orange city before he escaped at the intersection of Volusia and Graves avenues, A Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman said.

The 2002 Dodge Caravan was later recovered abandoned in Sanford and the duo remain at large.

Photo for Headline Surfer / Ranell Holley was being held Thursday in the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach on charges of defrauding cusomers along his mail route.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Some residents near New Smyrna Beach had been relying on the services of one particular mailman for several years and had developed a trusting relationship with him. But Randell Holley, 67, is now accused of using that trust to essentially steal from his customers in a scheme that goes back to at least 2010.

Volusia County Sheriff's investigators arrested Holley earlier today and charged him with organized scheme to defraud. He was booked into the Volusia County Branch jail on $10,000 bond.

"According to more than a dozen of his customers who investigators have recently spoken with, Holley had a simple and consistent method of getting some quick cash when he felt he needed it," Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Like father, like son: For the first time in the history of the police department, the City of New Smyrna Beach has two generations of police officers.

When deciding which police department he wanted to work for, Shawn Adkins, son of NSBPD Investigator David Atkins, said it was an easy decision: “My Dad has been really successful at this agency and I have always felt like it was part of my family.”

DELAND -- The Volusia County Grand Jury returned an Indictment earlier today against against Brian McLane that accuses him of first-degree murder, a capital felony, in relation to the death of his Edgewater roommate on June 3.

The defendant and the victim, 71-year-old Richard Carton, were roommates in a mobile home. The victim was found dead of asphyxiation and/or suffocation.

McLane's indictment paves the way for the office of State Attorney R.J. Larizza to consider whether it will seek the death penalty at trial. LaRizza's office does not comment until a decision has beenmade inhouse whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Deputy returned fire in defensive mode, but gunman wasn't struck and instead died from self-inflicted shotgun blast

Headline Surfer locator / After keeping deputies and a SWAT team at bay for several hours in the 2700 block of Ranch Road near Lake Helen, a man who had been fighting with his girlfriend while drinking, turned a shotgun on himself and fired one round. The man, whose name has not yet been released, was pronounced dead at 3:08 a.m. at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City after being rushed into the ER a little more than an hour earlier. He had been drinking and got into a fight with his girlfriend who suffered minor injuries.

LAKE HELEN -- An armed man who threatened his girlfriend Monday night and then kept responding Volusia County Sheriff's deputies at bay for more than four hours has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an agency spokesman said.

No details released on circumstances of crash or the vehicle involved

Headline Surfer locator / Steven Pindar was airlifted to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach after smashing up his vehicle Sunday night. Circumstances of the crash were not released by police.

Whereabouts unknown since Monday

Photos for Headline Surfer / Be on the lookout: If you see this Deltona woman, Tonia Schurman, or her three young children, an 8-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, all shown here, or her youngest, a 4-month-old baby girl, then please call Volusia County Sheriff's deputies at 386-736-5999. If you can't remember the number, then dial 9-1-1. The mother is believed to be traveling in a black, 2003 Isuzu Ascender SUV, with Florida tag BKM195. 

DELTONA -- A 27-year-old Deltona mother who was court-ordered to relinquish parental rights to her three small children -- ages 8, 6 and 4 months -- and hand them over to DCF, instead has fled and Volusia County Sheriff's deputies are asking for the public's help in finding her and her kids, an agency official said this afternoon.

Headline Surfer locator / Brian A. McLane, 34, shown at left in VCBJ mug shot, was arrested Friday in the suffocation murder of his 70-year-old roommate, Richard F. Carton, four days earlier in their residence at 1709 S. Ridgewood Ave., lot No. 8, Edgewater police said.

EDGEWATER -- A 34-year-old man was arrested Friday on a charge of first-degree murder in the suffocation of his 70-year-old roommate four days earlier, Edgewater cops said.

On Friday, Edgewater police arrested 34 year old Brian A. McLane, Carton’s roommate, and charged him with first-degree murder after cops said he confessed to killing the older man by suffocating him until he was dead.

Homicides continue unabated: 5 slain by gunfire, 1 run over & another beaten to death

Headline Surfer snapshot locator map / Shots were fieed just before 5:48 a.m. Sunday in a room at the Sunshine Inn, 12 34 S. Ridgewood, where police found a man dead in room 108.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Gunshot blasts woke up guests inside the Sunshine Inn, a rundown motel on South Ridgewood and when cops got there, they found a black man in his early 40s dead in a pool of blood inside one of the rooms. Police received at least one 9-1-1 at 5:48 a.m. about shots being fired, but very little other than the frightened caller saying he heard the gunfire.