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A Bay County man convicted of possessing a short-barreled shotgun and improper exhibition of a firearm in December was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
William Walter Cambley, III, 29, had been out of prison less than 2 months when deputies were called to a disturbance involving him and a shotgun at his grandmother’s house in Fountain.
ID Photo Defendant William Cambley
Friday, Circuit Court Judge Brantley Clark sentenced him to 10 years in prison for illegally possessing a short-barreled shotgun, and 723 days for improper display of a firearm. The defendant also was sentenced to 7 years in prison on a negotiated plea for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The sentences run concurrently.
The defendant had been released from prison, where he was serving time for being a felon in possession of a firearm, 44 days before his arrest March 20, 2020, at his grandmother’s residence.
Prosecutors Lynelle Dowe and Jacob Cook presented evidence and witnesses at his December trial that he had been living with his grandmother after his release from prison. Testimony showed that during an argument he became angry, grabbed a shotgun, “cocked” it, then pointed it in his grandmother’s direction.
A witness testified the defendant said there were 3 shells in the gun – one for her, one for the dog, and one for his mother. Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputies and a Department of Fish and Wildlife officer responded, a K-9 found the shotgun nearby, and the defendant was arrested. The K-9 found the shotgun in a nearby field.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.
MARIANNA – A jury took just over two hours Friday to find Steven A. Mantecon guilty as charged of Second Degree Murder and a dozen counts of shooting at witnesses or into their vehicles in the Aug. 8, 2020, homicide of Blake Allen Cain at a public park, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Altogether, the jury found the defendant, now 23, guilty of Second Degree Murder with a Firearm, two counts of Shooting into an Occupied Vehicle, and 10 counts of Aggravated Assault with a Firearm. Circuit Court Judge Ana Maria Garcia set sentencing for April 5.
Lead Prosecutor Shalla Jefcoat questions the defendant, with second-chair Lawrence Gill, left.
Lead Prosecutor Shalla Jefcoat discounted the defendant’s claim that he fired 14 rounds from a semi-automatic AK-47 type rifle in self-defense that night at Thomas Porter Park in Grand Ridge. A group had gathered there in anticipation of a fistfight between the defendant and Cain over a dispute between the two families involving a ring.
Jefcoat and second-chair Lawrence Gill presented testimony and evidence that the defendant showed up at the park, exchanged words with Cain, but left without getting out of his truck. He returned about 15 minutes later, stayed in his truck while arguing with Cain, then opened fire on Cain from about 50 feet away. The evidence showed Cain was unarmed and three shots hit him – including two in the back – while the other 11 bullets hit the other victims’ vehicles.
“The fact of the matter is you heard from 12 eyewitnesses, and yes, they varied, but not a single one of them testified to anything that would’ve provided any justification whatsoever for Steven Mantecon’s actions,” Jefcoat told jurors in her closing statement. “Remember, he is the one with the most to lose today, the only with anything to lose today, really, and he has told you something that is impossible” during his testimony.
“Because the fact of the matter is that this defendant, even when I suggested they had called him a wuss or worse … he did not like having his manhood questioned for not getting out and meeting Blake Cain fist-to-fist,” Jefcoat continued. “I’m not saying he should have, but his manhood and pride being wounded, or his sister being insulted, does not justify his actions on the night of Aug. 8.
“He killed a man and he was covering up by attempting to kill witnesses.”
Prosecutor Shalla Jefcoat addresses the jury.
The State called 20 witnesses during the three-day trial. The majority of them, many of them victims of the aggravated assaults, were in their teens at the time of the shooting.
Everyone agreed there had been an ongoing dispute over a ring Cain had given to his former girlfriend – the defendant’s sister.
It came to a head Aug. 8, 2020, as the argument escalated across Snapchat, a social media app, between those involved, according to testimony. Mantecon testified he wasn’t involved in the argument until that day, when he became upset because he claimed the victim was harassing his sister and mother.
Witnesses and the defendant agreed in their testimony that Mantecon and Cain had agreed to a fistfight that night at 9 p.m. at Porter Park and a number of people had gathered. Witnesses also agreed that Cain was known to carry a pistol, and Mantecon testified he kept his assault-style rifle behind the front seats of his truck.
And everyone agreed that the defendant showed up at the park, left, and returned a short time later before he started shooting.
The defendant testified Cain was at his own truck and walked to the front of it, threw his hands into the air with a pistol in his right hand, and then pointed it at him while saying he was going to shoot him. He said he was still sitting in his truck and grabbed his rifle from behind his seat and fired in self-defense.
The defendant, left, with his attorney.
But all the State’s witnesses who saw the encounter said Cain was unarmed; those who saw Cain’s pistol said he had put it on the back of his truck’s tool box before walking to the front of his truck. One testified Cain put his hands in the air to show he was unarmed before the defendant began firing. The pistol was recovered from the back of the truck’s toolbox.
The defendant testified he was shooting as fast as he could, not aiming at anything or anyone other than Cain, to save his own life, and that he stopped when Cain fell.
It was one of many statements by the defendant that Jefcoat questioned on her cross-examination.
“So you’re just an amazingly lucky shot to kill Blake Cain and hit every vehicle where people were or where you would expect them to be?” Jefcoat asked the defendant, noting that there were 14 shell casings recovered and 14 bullets hit either Cain or vehicles.
Jurors were presented with a large amount of evidence and testimony, and before they were sent to deliberate Jefcoat summed up the testimony from the young witnesses, saying they were recounting a traumatic experience for which they had no training or life experience.
“It’s like these are little pieces of a puzzle, and when you’re putting together a case like this, every witness has a little piece of the puzzle,” Jefcoat told jurors. “And you never get 100 percent of the picture, but you can tell what your picture’s going to be, you can fill in the gaps, you can see what it is.
“But what the defendant is saying is from a whole other puzzle, it just doesn’t fit.”
Basford thanked the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and its deputies and investigators for the tremendous amount of work they put into the case, taking over a dozen statements that night and teaming with the Florida Highway Patrol to serve a search warrant on the defendant’s home, where they recovered the rifle.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.
A woman charged with shooting two people from behind as they left her house has been found guilty as charged on two counts of Aggravated Battery, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
A 6-person jury returned the verdict against Alana Annette Savell around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday following a two-day trial in Bay County. Circuit Court Judge Shonna Young Gay set sentencing for April 5. Judge Gay also ordered that Savell be held without bond pending sentencing in the 2016 case.
Prosecutor Jacob Cook questions a witness.
Prosecutors Barbara Beasley and Jacob Cook presented witnesses and evidence showing that both victims were invited guests at the Hiland Park area home the night of the shooting and were either in or near the doorway, or attempting to leave at the time they were shot from behind by the defendant.
The victims were dating at the time and have since married. The male victim testified a group got up as if to go outside and smoke, but instead he was told they wanted him and his girlfriend to leave. He testified he was in or near the doorway trying to let his girlfriend know it was time to go when he was shot from behind in the calf by the defendant, who was inside the home. His injuries required three surgeries and a hospital stay of about two weeks.
The defendant with her attorney.
The female victim testified she was still inside the home when she heard shots, and her then-boyfriend yelling to her that he had been shot and they needed to leave. She said as she was trying to get out of the house she saw the defendant holding a gun, pointing it toward the door. As she was trying to go through the doorway, she said she was shot from behind in the left leg and the right heel and went to the ground.
“I didn’t hear any arguing before the first gunshot,” she testified. “I don’t know what went wrong, why it went wrong. Everything was going fine and then, ‘Pop, pop, pop, pop,’ and (the male victim) yelling, ‘Let’s go, I’ve been shot.’”
Prosecutor Barbara Beasley addresses the jury.
Beasley and Cook called 8 witnesses for the state, including Bay County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Bill Strickland, who took a statement from the defendant; former BCSO Crime Scene Investigator Tim Adkins, who collected shell casings that matched the defendant’s gun; and the emergency room doctor who treated one of the victims.
Basford thanked the Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their work in investigating the case and gathering key evidence, as well as prosecutors Beasley and Ford for their presentation of it to jurors.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.
A convicted sexual predator nearing his prison release date has instead been ordered to the Florida Civil Commitment Center as a Sexually Violent Predator under the Jimmy Ryce Act, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Assistant State Attorney Zach Taylor, in a bench trial before Judge Elijah Smiley this week, showed that Robert Lee Lawrence had a history of sexual crimes spanning four decades. This includes several sex crimes against children – and the evidence showed he was likely to offend again.
Robert Lee Lawrence’s criminal history for sex crimes spans four decades.
The defendant, 60, was serving a 20-year sentence after pleading no contest to Sexual Battery and Kidnapping involving a young male teen in 2003. Prior to that, he had served 9 years for his involvement in the 1980 sexual battery of an inmate.
His criminal history involving sex crimes includes arrests for sexually assaulting two male teens, and at least two other inmates. He has spent 35 of the last 40 years in jail or prison.
The defendant’s release date on the 2003 Sexual Battery and Kidnapping was approaching when Taylor filed a petition for the state seeking a trial under the Sexually Violent Predator Statute – known as the Jimmy Ryce Act. It is a civil commitment process, after a prison sentence, for the most dangerous sexual offenders in the state.
Taylor called two forensic psychologists to testify as experts. They agreed that the defendant suffered from a mental abnormality and personality disorder to the extent he was very likely to reoffend if not confined to a secure facility for long-term control, care, and treatment.
The defense had an expert testify. However, Judge Smiley ruled that the State met its burden of proof and ordered that Lawrence be committed to the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.
CHIPLEY – A Wausau man was sentenced to 17 years in prison Wednesday after his conviction on drug charges, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
David Anthony Laconte, 52, was found guilty Wednesday of Sale of Methamphetamine and Oxycodone within 1,000 Feet of a Church/Store.
Prosecutor Megan Ford, with co-counsel Jacob Cook, presented the evidence to jurors. The case was investigated by Sgt. Charlie Williams and other members of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Circuit Judge Christopher Patterson presided over the trial and handed down the sentence.
David Laconte
The State showed that the defendant sold about $150 worth of methamphetamine and Oxycodone pills on May 19, 2020. Evidence included video of the transaction, which took place within 1,000 feet of two churches – Wausau Pentacostal Holiness and Wausau Assembly of God – and a Tom Thumb.
This defendant had an extensive criminal history dating back to 1989.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.
A man found guilty of beating and choking a woman, then giving a false name to the deputies when they arrived and arrested him, is set to be sentenced March 8, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Joseph Jarrod Porter, 29, was found guilty as charged of Domestic Battery by Strangulation and Giving a False Name Upon Being Arrested or Detained after about 1 hour and 15 minutes of deliberation Thursday, Feb. 3.
Circuit Court Judge Dustin Stephenson ordered a pre-sentencing investigation and that the defendant be held without bond pending his March 8 sentencing.
Prosecutor Frank Sullivan presented two witnesses – the victim and Bay County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chase Hale.
The victim testified the defendant became angry with her during an argument on Sept. 4, 2020, and testified he punched her repeatedly and choked her. The victim said she was unsure how to get off the wooded property but eventually was able to get to a neighboring home, and that resident called 911. The victim was taken to the hospital for her injuries.
Deputy Hale testified that the name the defendant gave during a sworn statement was discovered to be false a short time later, leading to the second charge.
Basford thanked the Bay County sheriff’s office deputies and investigators for their work on the case, as well as the neighbor who assisted the victim and called 911.
A Grand Ridge woman faces sentencing Feb. 10 after a Jackson County jury found her guilty of drug and firearm charges this week, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Kayla Leanne Neel, 33, was found guilty of Felon in Possession of a Firearm, Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia Wednesday.
Kayla Leanne Neel
Prosecutors Lawrence Gill and Shalla Jefcoat called three witnesses and presented evidence showing that on June 8, 2020, Jackson County sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant on a residence located in Grand Ridge.
Evidence presented at trial proved that the defendant was in possession of two loaded firearms, methamphetamine, and drug paraphernalia, all of which were located within the defendant’s bedroom.
The jury took about three and a half hours to reach its verdict.
The case was investigated by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Circuit Court Judge Ana Maria Garcia set sentencing for Feb. 10.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.
Prosecutor Frank Sullivan told jurors during his opening statement Thursday that Rodrick Sessions, shot in the mouth during an armed robbery two years ago, was lucky to be alive to testify.
After hearing testimony from Sessions and two Springfield Police Officers, those jurors took 1 hour and 20 minutes to find Mark Salmon guilty of Robbery With a Firearm and Attempted Manslaughter for his role in the robbery and shooting of Sessions on Feb. 22, 2020.
The defendant is one of three men charged in the case, and the first to go to trial. One co-defendant is accused of shooting Sessions, the other is accused of physically taking about $2,000 from him.
Prosecutor Frank Sullivan addresses the jury.
Salmon was also there, armed with a pistol, according to testimony. And though he did not fire the shot or physically take money from the victim, Sullivan explained to jurors that under Florida Law, anyone who participates in a crime is culpable for whatever happens during that crime.
“If you find Mark Salmon participated in any way, he is just as guilty,” Sullivan told jurors during his closing statements. “He is a principal to it and he’s just as guilty as the person who took the money.”
Sullivan, who prosecuted the case with co-counsel Jae Hee Kim, called three witnesses, beginning with the victim.
The defendant, seated with mask, was found guilty of Armed Robbery and Attempted Manslaughter.
Sessions told jurors that on the night he was robbed, he said, he was checking on his property at 3807 E. 6th St.
Sessions said he noticed flashlights in the RV parked there and then, “a dude came from behind the RV and stuck a long-barreled, like rifle, in my face.” Sessions said the man made it clear he knew he had money and he wanted it, and two other men appeared – one armed with a pistol-grip type rifle and the other with a handgun.
“They started asking, ‘Where the money at, where the money at? We know you got money,’” Sessions testified.
Sessions said he was trying to get it out of his pocket when the man with the rifle shot him, the bullet passing through his chin/lower lip. He said they forced him to the ground and told him not to look at their vehicle’s tag.
“That’s when I spit the teeth out and spit the bullet out,” he told jurors. He said after his money was taken, the men fled.
Evidence and testimony showed that Sessions had never met the men before, but when they were developed as suspects a couple of months later, he was able to identify all three of them from separate photo lineups presented by Springfield Police Sgt. James Choate.
The defendant, center, testifies as Prosecutors Frank Sullivan and Jae Hee Kim take notes.
Springfield Police Sgt. Jason Purdy testified that he took a taped statement from the defendant, and it was played in court for jurors.
The defendant also took the stand in his own defense, claiming he stayed in the car the whole time and had no idea what was happening outside. Sullivan pointed out the inconsistencies between that testimony, his original statement, and the evidence in his closing statements.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.
MARIANNA – A Sneads man was given three life sentences plus 30 years in prison Thursday for sexually battering and abusing a young girl on multiple occasions, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Buckie O’Neil Barnes, 32, was found guilty as charged Nov. 30 after Jackson County Chief Prosecutor Shalla Jefcoat presented witnesses and evidence proving that Barnes had committed the crimes against a girl under the age of 12. The six charges were: two counts of Sexual Battery on a Person Less Than 12 Years of Age, and one count each of Lewd or Lascivious Molestation, Lewd or Lascivious Battery, Lewd or Lascivious Exhibition and Child Abuse.
Buckie Barns
At Thursday’s sentencing, Circuit Judge James Goodman handed down life sentences to Barnes on the first three offenses, and a combined 35 years in prison for the last three offenses. The sentences will run concurrently.
The victim revealed the abuse during the course of another case, and it was investigated by the Sneads Police Department and the Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center.
State Attorney Larry Basford Thursday asked jurors to “use your good old common sense that got you
this far in life,” at the end of Ruez Hicks’ two-day trial for shooting and killing Robert Gilmore and
Robert Fowler after they caught him burglarizing a home they were restoring last year.
The 6-person jury took less than an hour to agree with the state’s case, finding Hicks guilty as charged of
two counts of second-degree murder and one count each of armed robbery and armed burglary. Circuit
Court Judge Shonna Young Gay set a March 8 sentencing date for the defendant, who is facing up to a
life sentence on each of the murder charges.
State Attorney Larry Basford addresses the jury.Circuit Court Judge Shonna Young Gay listens as State Attorney Larry Basford (center, in blue suit jacket), Assistant State Attorney Jacob Cook (leaning in) and defense attorneys discuss a legal point.
“We have been here this week because Robert Keith Gilmore and Robert Shawn Fowler are not. The
reason they are not with us is because that man, the defendant, decided he would go into that house on
Delmar Drive looking for something to take,” Basford told jurors. “And when he was confronted by Mr.
Gilmore and Mr. Fowler, he ended up taking something much more valuable … he ended up taking their
very lives.”
Basford and Assistant State Attorney Jacob Cook presented evidence gathered by Bay County Sheriff’s
Office investigators as well as forensics evidence from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that
included DNA findings and testimony that the defendant’s gun fired the fatal shots.
The break in the case was the discovery by Sheriff’s Office investigators that someone had used a Cash
App card belonging to one of the victims after his death. Also key to the case were statements the
defendant made while being questioned by Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jason Daffin, who along with Inv.
Patrick Crawford drove him to the Sheriff’s Office for a formal interview after he was identified as a
suspect. By the end of those interviews, Hicks admitted he went into the home armed with a pistol
looking for something to steal, that the victims returned home unexpectedly and confronted him, and he
shot and killed them both and ripped a wallet from one victim’s back pocket.
“We finally got to the truth, that he went into that home looking for anything of value, money, tools, in
his own words: anything for some quick cash,” Basford said of the statements the defendant gave Daffin.
“Not only did the Bay County Sheriff’s Office do an excellent job investigating this case, they did an
excellent job in solving it.
“This is not a complicated case, there is no reasonable doubt that the man responsible for (the murders) is
before you,” Basford said. “This is not something Larry Basford and Jacob Cook, the prosecutors, made
up. The evidence in this case, the credible evidence, proves that the defendant is guilty of these four
crimes.”
FDLE expert Sarah Thomas shows jurors a pair of pants recovered from the defendant that had one of the victim’s DNA on it in two spots.
Fowler owned the home on Delmar drive and Gilmore was working with him to restore it. On Jan. 26,
2021, according to witnesses, evidence presented at trial and the defendant’s statements, the defendant
walked to the home and saw that a light was on inside but no one was present. While the defendant gave
varying accounts, ultimately he admitted that he went inside, his hand holding his .38-caliber revolver, to
steal something he could sell to get some cash.
Gilmore and Fowler returned to the home and found the defendant, who said they told him to drop what
he was carrying, but that he refused, and still had his hand on his gun. He admitted to shooting Gilmore
while they were in the front porch area, but claimed he did not mean to kill him.
The defendant, right side of photo, with his attorneys.
Medical Examiner Jay Radtke testified the fatal shot pierced the arteries and veins at the top of Gilmore’s
heart and that he likely died within seconds or minutes. A second bullet caused injuries along the front
side of Gilmore’s face.
Fowler, evidence indicated, was further back in the house across a room and a shot fired at him went
through his heart. Radtke said his death would have occurred quickly.
Basford, addressing the jury and the defendant’s claim that he did not intend to kill anyone, noted
Radtke’s testimony about a bullet hole found in the front porch floor that was near Gilmore’s head.
Radtke agreed with Basford that the location of that hole was consistent with someone standing over
Gilmore while he was already down and firing a bullet down at him, grazing his face. Both of the shots
that hit Gilmore were fired from less than 3 feet away, Radtke said.
State Attorney Larry Basford goes over a piece of evidence with Jay Radtke, Medical Examiner for the 14th Judicial Circuit, with co-counsel Jacob Cook seated to the left.
The victims were not discovered for about four hours, and though they were identified quickly there
wasn’t a clear suspect through the first 48 hours, according to testimony.
Then investigators examining Gilmore’s phone found an alert that Gilmore’s Cash App card had been
declined twice at a nearby store the day after Gilmore was killed. Video from that store showed a suspect
using the card. A still photo was taken from that video and distributed to deputies, and one of them
recognized the man as Hicks, who had been a witness in an unrelated disturbance.
He was picked up within two hours and arrested later that day.
In total, the state called 10 witnesses. The defense rested without calling any witnesses and the defendant
chose not to testify.
Quantavious Burns, who hid the murder weapon at the defendant’s request after news reports surfaced
about the killing, pled guilty earlier this week to Accessory After the Fact to Second Degree Murder and
Thursday was sentenced to 3 years’ probation, with the first 12 months of that being served in the Bay
County Jail.
For more information contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov or 850-381-7454.
