A man whose blood-alcohol level was 1.5 times the legal limit more than 5 hours after a fatal crash was found guilty of DUI-Manslaughter and Vehicular Homicide Friday, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Anthony Charles Hill Jr., 49, of Panama City, who emerged from his vehicle wearing only his boxer shorts, was estimated to have had a BAC of up to .23 at the time of the 2023 wreck. Circuit Court Judge Shonna Young Gay ordered the defendant held without bond until his May 28 sentencing.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Mark Graham and Prosecutor Zachary VanDyke called 15 witnesses and presented evidence proving the defendant was impaired when he caused the wreck that killed Javis Whipple.

“The defendant is responsible for driving drunk, causing a wreck and killing Javis Whipple,” Graham told jurors. “He is responsible for driving recklessly.

“I agree with one thing (the defense) said: this is about getting justice for Javis Whipple’s family,” he continued. “Go back, use your common sense. Hold him accountable.”

The evidence showed the victim’s car broke down on County 22-A near Cherry Lane on the night of April 14, 2023. A friend, Colby Williams, came to help and was parked behind the victim. Both vehicles, facing north on the side of the road, had their headlights and hazard lights on.

The defendant was driving south when he crossed the centerline and hit the victim’s Challenger head-on. The Challenger flipped backward, hitting and killing the victim before coming to a rest nearly 50 feet away in a graveyard. The defendant’s car then plowed into Williams’ Elantra.

“As I turned and looked, I see a white car in my peripheral vision and it just hit Javis’ car, it was so fast,” Williams said. “I saw that he flipped Javis’ car over and hit my car and I see my friend laying on the ground. I screamed first and then called the police.”

Hill’s car was going 60 mph in the 35-mph zone.

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Williams and other witnesses said Hill got out of his car wearing only a red pair of boxer shorts and repeatedly said he did not hit the Challenger and did not know what had happened. Hill told multiple witnesses, and gave a sworn statement, that he had not had anything to drink that day. At one point he said he did not even drink.

But at trial, Hill said for the first time that while he wasn’t drinking before the wreck, he did guzzle a large amount of liquor right after the wreck because his passenger – a woman he was having an affair with – agitated him.

Hill said he and the woman had just “made out” in a nearby park but he wasn’t drinking. After the wreck, he testified, he got out and didn’t see anyone injured and returned to his car.

“That’s when I took the bottle and started drinking because she was about to drive me crazy,” said Hill, a 4-time convicted felon. “Just going on and on about her boyfriend finding out and she needed to get back to the house.”

“So now, magically, 1,106 days later, he comes forward and says, ‘I was slugging liquor after the wreck,’ ” Graham said. “I would submit that is a four-time felon lying to try and avoid accountability.”

A legal blood draw obtained with a search warrant showed the defendant’s BAC was .114 to .115 five hours and 28 minutes after the wreck. An expert in retrograde extrapolation for blood-alcohol levels testified the defendant would have had a BAC of anywhere from .14 to .23 at the time of the crash.

The only witness at the scene who testified they saw the defendant drink after the wreck was his female companion.

Basford thanked the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol for their response that night and the ensuing accident reconstruction.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

 

A Louisiana man who was part of a 4-person burglary crew that stole more than $100,000 in collectible baseball cards from a Panama City business in 2023 was found guilty of Grand Theft Over $100,000 Wednesday, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Christopher Develle Brown, 40, was found guilty of Grand Theft over $100,000. The charge is a first-degree-felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Circuit Court Judge Shonna Young Gay set sentencing for June 4.

“Thirty-five years of work and more than $100,000 disappeared on the night of Feb. 16, 2023, when this defendant helped break into this store and steal these cards,” Prosecutor Zachary VanDyke said. “They were in and out in less than 3 minutes. Three minutes, and 35 years’ worth of work – gone.”

The jury needed 78 minutes to reach its verdict after prosecutor VanDyke presented the case. VanDyke said Brown was one of four people involved.

A second defendant, Leon Rowe, Jr., has already been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. A third defendant agreed to a plea in exchange for his testimony against the others. The fourth defendant has not been located.

The group is believed to be involved in a series of similar burglaries stretching from Florida to Louisiana.

In the Panama City Police Department case, the defendants took hundreds of collector’s cards ranging from a 1955 Sandy Koufax ($4,500) and 1963 Pete Rose ($4,000), to a 1954 Hank Aaron ($4,000) and a 1948 American Association Babe Ruth ($3,000). The collection included 65 Mickey Mantles, 34 Hank Aarons, 11 Whitey Fords, and cards from Tom Seaver, Roger Maris, Nolan Ryan, and Johnny Bench.

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VanDyke called three witnesses: the cooperating codefendant, Bay County Sheriffs Office Lt. Nicholas Hall, and the victim who had been collecting the cards much of his life.

Key evidence was video surveillance that showed four men smashing through the glass front door, smashing glass showcases inside, and fleeing with bags full of cards within three minutes.

Basford thanked the law enforcement network across the Gulf Coast that collaborated in connecting the cases, and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office for its work on a similar case that assisted the Panama City Police Department’s case.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

A Holmes County jury recommended 9-3 Friday afternoon that Johnny Mack “Skeeto” Calhoun be put to death for the 2010 kidnapping and murder of Mia Brown, announced State Attorney Larry Basford.

The jury’s vote came after a little more than two hours of deliberation and eight days of testimony.

Basford and Prosecutor Peter Overstreet presented nearly 20 witnesses and evidence that the death penalty was the proper sentence. The victim was kidnapped, bound, gagged, and burned alive in her car in December 2010. Chief Circuit Court Judge Christopher Patterson will set a sentencing date.

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Calhoun was previously found guilty and sentenced to death in 2012, but his was one of many Florida cases sent back for new sentencings following a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Basford and Overstreet proved the murder met three aggravating factors required by law: it was committed during a kidnapping that facilitated the murder, it was particularly heinous, atrocious or cruel, and it was cold, calculated and premeditated. The jury unanimously agreed that all of the aggravating factors had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sixteen family members and friends wrote victim impact letters describing how the murder affected their lives. The victim’s mother, father and three siblings addressed the jurors in person.

“I still have dreams where Mia is perfect and whole, and I ask her where she has been and she always says she’s been here all along,” said the victim’s youngest sister. “I wake up to the disappointment that I can’t touch her and see her blue eyes twinkling back at me. But I know my dreams are real and she is with me and our family.

“And she is ready for justice.“

Basford thanked the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office for their work and collaboration on the original case.

For more information or questions contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov or call 850-381-7454.

A man convicted of trafficking in enough fentanyl to kill every person living in Bay County was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday and fined $500,000, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Luchen Jerome Daley, 33, known as “The Jamaican,” was found guilty of Trafficking in Fentanyl (more than 28 grams) Feb. 25, the highest level of fentanyl trafficking addressed by statute. A jury needed 24 minutes to find him guilty after Prosecutor Morgan Morrell presented the State’s case.

Monday, Circuit Court Judge Timothy Register delivered the sentence, which includes the first 25 years being minimum/mandatory.

“We rarely see fentanyl in this quantity – 485 grams, almost half a kilo,” Prosecutor Morgan Morrell said after the trial. “In its proper form it could have supplied a medical dosage to every person in the 14^th Judicial Circuit. On the street, it was enough to cause more than 200,000 overdoses.

“Thanks to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, its work with our office, and this sentence, it will be a very long time before this defendant can poison our streets.”

Daley was arrested Feb. 7, 2025, by Bay County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Division investigators after he ran away when they tried to serve a search warrant on his apartment.

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In the defendant’s bedroom – which had an air mattress, mail addressed to him, and his passport – they found a black backpack. Inside the backpack they found a large “pressed brick” of fentanyl and numerous pill capsules containing fentanyl.

Basford thanked the BCSO and its SID for its proactive work in making a case and preventing such a large quantity of potent drugs from making it onto the streets.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

A 30-year-old Westville man was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday for the 2023 death of a woman in a head-on collision in Holmes County, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

William Allen Meeks pled guilty to Vehicular Homicide on Feb. 18. It was an open plea, meaning Circuit Court Judge Devin Collier would decide the sentence. The only agreement was that it would be a minimum of 6 years and up to the maximum 15 years in prison.

Prosecutor Peter Overstreet asked for an upper-end sentence for the death that resulted from the violent Dec. 19, 2023, head-on collision on Coursey Road. The evidence proved the defendant was driving 62 mph in a 35-mph zone then floored the accelerator as he approached a “crest” in the road. He was going 66 mph, his vehicle heading into the opposite lane and his front tires losing grip with the road, when he hit the 27-year-old victim head-on.

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“The decisions that the Defendant made that evening put many people at risk due to his reckless driving,” Overstreet said. “Sadly, the victim ultimately ended up dying due to those very decisions the Defendant made.

“Cases like this should be a reminder that we all share the road and that our choices have very real consequences,” he continued.

At Wednesday’s sentencing, Victim Advocate Nancy Williams read a letter to the court from the victim’s mother. She wrote that when she was told her daughter had died it “felt like everything inside me was ripped out of my chest.” She wrote about the lifetime of pain the victim’s children and husband will endure.

“I pray you use your time in jail to think about and reflect on what you have done,” she wrote. “Think about the pain and suffering you have brought upon my family. I pray we get justice here today and I know one day I will have to forgive you in order to make it to heaven to see my daughter again.

“But today is not that day.”

Meeks was driving west on Coursey Road in a Honda Insight when he hit the victim’s Honda Accord, destroying the front ends of both vehicles. He was arrested after an investigation that included data extracted from his car that showed exactly when and how hard he accelerated.

Basford thanked the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol for their response and work on the investigation.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

 

 

A man who repeatedly messaged and phoned his girlfriend and another couple that he was on his way to harm them was found guilty of multiple charges Friday, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Daniel Paul Sansone, 26, from New Hampshire, was found guilty Friday of 3 counts of Aggravated Stalking, 3 counts of Written Threats to Kill or do Bodily Injury, and 1 count of Domestic Battery. A jury deliberated 8 minutes before returning its verdict. Circuit Court Judge Shonna Young Gay set sentencing for April 10.

Sansone was arrested July 21, 2024, by Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputies after his girlfriend called to report he had battered her, left the residence where they were staying with another couple, and was claiming to be on his way back to cause them harm if anyone interfered.

Prosecutor Morgan McAfee called four witnesses and showed jurors evidence that included some of the threatening messages the defendant was sending his girlfriend and the other couple as he warned them he was headed back to the home.

“I will 100 percent kill her,” McAfee quoted from one of the defendant’s messages that night. “That was one of the many messages that Daniel Sansone sent as he committed the crimes of aggravated stalking and written threats.”

Testimony proved the defendant and the victim were a long-time couple who had traveled here from New Hampshire. They met a woman and her fiancée and the four decided to hang out at their home. They invited the defendant and his girlfriend, who were living out of their car, to stay the night.

The victim testified that she and the defendant had an argument the first day while driving down the beach and he threw her phone at the window and hit her. The next day, she said, he suddenly decided he wanted to leave. He tried to force her to go with him, but she broke free from him by climbing out the car window and he took the car and all their belongings.

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The defendant then began what would be an hour-long back-and-forth Snapchat messages between him, his girlfriend, the local woman and her fiancée. The victim wanted her belongings back, but the defendant repeatedly threatened them, at one point saying it was ironic that the bullets he had were paid for with his girlfriend’s money account.

He warned others to stay out of his way, or they would become “collateral damage.”

“They began to become afraid, concerned for their safety,” McAfee said. “This man knows where they are, knows where they live. They end up going to the Callaway Bay County Sheriff’s Office Substation out of fear so that would have somewhere to be safe and where someone could help them.”

As deputies flooded the area searching for the defendant, the victims let him know they had called law enforcement, and he said that was fine.

“I want this to blow up,” he messaged. “And I want to drag everyone down with me. You’re doing what I want. I want to get shot by the cops tonight.”

He also said he meant what he said in the previous messages.

“There’s no veiled threat,” he wrote. “I will 100% kill her.”

Deputies spotted the defendant’s car and took him into custody.

The victim said her life changed that night and she was convinced he was going to kill her.

“It still affects me to this day and I don’t think it’s ever going to stop,” she testified. “I keep my life very private now … I’m afraid to leave the house, scared for my son, afraid to do the things that normal people do.”

Basford thanked the Bay County Sheriff’s Office for its swift work in apprehending the defendant before anyone was harmed.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

MARIANNA – A jury Friday night decided David Wayne Weddle is guilty as charged of two counts of DUI Manslaughter for the deaths of two women in a car he struck after running a stop sign in 2021, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Weddle, 60, was also found guilty of DUI with Serious Bodily Injury for causing critical injuries to a man in a third vehicle who was airlifted to Tallahassee for treatment following the Sept. 5, 2021, crash. Circuit Court Judge Ana Maria Garcia set sentencing for May 4.

“All the evidence in this case points to the defendant being drunk, running a stop sign, and killing two people and seriously injuring another,” Assistant Chief 14^th Judicial Circuit Prosecutor Mark Graham told jurors. “What’s important is he admitted to the paramedic that he had drank a 12-pack, he admitted to the triage nurse that he had drank a 12-pack.

“The defendant is responsible, hold him accountable.”

Graham called a dozen witnesses, including the surviving victim, and presented evidence proving the defendant was under the influence when he caused the crash.

The testimony and evidence showed Weddle was driving south on El Bethel Church Road toward Hwy. 90 around 2 p.m. The victims were westbound on Hwy. 90 in a Cadillac approaching the intersection. A third vehicle, a Jeep, was eastbound on Hwy. 90 approaching the intersection.

Witnesses and Florida Highway Patrol Trooper L. Battle said Weddle ran the stop sign and struck the passenger’s side of the Cadillac hard enough to push it into eastbound lane, where it hit the Jeep. The impact killed both women in the Cadillac. The Jeep caught fire. Its driver, who had two broken legs, escaped but collapsed.

“In my peripheral vision I see this burgundy car (approaching the highway from El Bethel Road) and he just never stopped, he never stopped,” said the driver of the Jeep. “It hit the side of the (Cadillac) and pushed it over and hit me. It was a bad wreck; it happened so fast.”

One of the first responders at the scene smelled alcohol on the defendant. A 15-pack of Natural Ice – cans scattered in the debris – was in the defendant’s car. The defendant told one medical first responder he had drank a 12-pack and said the same thing to a triage nurse at the hospital.

An expert testified blood drawn with the defendant’s consent about 2 hours after the crash showed his BAC was somewhere between .11 and .15 at the time of the crash. The defendant also took a pain pill before going to church that morning and then a Xanax for anxiety.

Trooper Battle investigated the wreck and later interviewed the defendant, who at that time denied drinking. But the FHP employee who drew blood heard the defendant tell a nurse he had 4 beers. Battle concluded the defendant, while driving under the influence, made no effort to stop and was the sole cause of the wreck.

The defendant testified he went to church that morning, stopped at the store for a slushy for his wife, and returned home. He said he suffers from chronic pain and anxiety and sometimes needs to “drive around” so he left the house after 1 p.m.

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He testified that while he drinks 12 to 15 beers every day, he said he had not drunk anything up to the time he left the house. He claimed he did not remember anything that happened after he left to drive to a nearby park to look at wildlife and flowers.

Under cross examination by Graham, the defendant said while he does drink 12-15 beers a day – Natural Ice with a 5.9% alcohol content – he did not know how the 15-pack of it got in his car the day of the wreck.

“So, you don’t know anything basically since leaving the house where your wife was?” Graham asked.

The defendant said he assumed he went to the park he usually visits to enjoy the wildlife and flowers.

“When you T-boned the victims’ car and killed them, were you looking at flowers?” Graham asked.

The jury deliberated for about 40 minutes before returning its guilty verdicts.

Basford thanked the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Highway Patrol, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their work on the case.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

BONIFAY – A Graceville man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday for stealing an SUV, ramming a responding Holmes County Sheriff’s Deputy, and leading deputies on a high-speed chase four days after being released from prison, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Tyler Wayne Hutto, 34, pled to Aggravated Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer (with a deadly weapon), Resisting an Officer with Violence, Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon, Grand Theft of a Motor Vehicle, Grand Theft, Criminal Mischief, Fleeing or Attempting to Elude (High Speed Reckless), and Possession of Less than 20 grams of Marijuana. Circuit Court Judge Russell Roberts adjudicated Hutto guilty on all charges and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Holmes County Chief Prosecutor Jacob Cook said the defendant’s history includes 4 previous prison sentences dating back to 2012. The most recent was a 3-year sentence for Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer. He was released from prison on January 10, 2026, and was arrested on the current charges on January 14, 2026.

“We take a hard line on offenders who have been recently released from prison, and if Mr. Hutto wishes to continue the same conduct once he gets his freedom back 20 years down the road he will go to prison for a 6th time,” stated Prosecutor Cook.

Cook was prepared to call witnesses and present evidence proving that defendant stole an SUV and attached trailer, tried to run over the owner, struck a patrol deputy’s vehicle, and then fled at speeds nearing 130 mph.

Testimony would have shown that on January 14 the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a stolen SUV. The owner said the defendant took the vehicle, and an attached 12-foot trailer from his residence.

The defendant was fleeing from that residence when Deputy J. Thomas spotted him and recognized the vehicle as being reported stolen. The defendant saw the deputy and left the roadway. The deputy tried to block him, but the driver of the stolen SUV struck the front side of his marked patrol vehicle.

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The deputy’s knee was injured in the collision, but he was able to pursue the defendant west on Highway 2 toward State 79. The deputy said speeds averaged between 70 mph and 130 mph during the pursuit with the defendant driving recklessly. Deputy Thomas performed a “PIT” (Precision Immobilization Technique), causing the SUV to leave the roadway. The defendant attempted to flee again but Deputy Thomas and Sgt. Curtis French boxed him in and removed him from the vehicle. The defendant continued to resist and was tazed before deputies were able to take him into custody.

Basford thanked the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office for its handling of the incident and safe apprehension of the defendant.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

 

A woman whose truck crossed the center turn-lane on 15^th Street and struck a sedan head-on, killing the driver, was found guilty of DUI Manslaughter Thursday, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Kourtney Sage Hofheinz, 33, of Bristol, was found guilty as charged in the July 5, 2024, 4 a.m. wreck that claimed the life of Damian Donniel Kerr, 39. The victim was on his way to work from the beach in his Ford Fusion. The defendant was on her way to the beach. Circuit Court Judge Dustin Stephenson set sentencing for April 27.

The charge is a 2^nd-Degree Felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and with a minimum-mandatory 4-years by Statute.

Lead Prosecutor Peter Overstreet and Prosecutor Rachel Gause called 14 witnesses and presented evidence, including bodycam and surveillance video of the crash, proving Hofheinz was impaired at the time of the wreck.

Blood drawn at the hospital as doctors treated the defendant showed her blood-alcohol level was .124. The defendant’s westbound Chevrolet truck crossed the center median of 15^th Street near Beck Avenue, hitting Damian Donniel Kerr’s eastbound sedan head-on in what was described as a “horrific” collision. Kerr died at the scene.

This truly was a horrific and violent collision that resulted in the death of a man trying to get to work, all because this defendant made the choice to drive impaired,” Overstreet said. “The defendant made some bad choices in the hours preceding the victim’s death. Choices have consequences and the jury took 45 minutes to decide this defendant should be held accountable.”

The evidence showed Hofheinz was traveling west on 15^th Street in a GMC Sierra truck approaching Beck Avenue on her way to the beach. The victim was eastbound on 15^th Street from the beach headed to his job.

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The defendant’s truck crossed the center turn-lane and hit the eastbound victim head-on, destroying both vehicles. The victim died at the scene. The defendant had a laceration and minor injuries.

Bodycam from Panama City Police Department officers show the defendant at first stuck in the truck, before officers escort her to the curb. As bodycam shows officers trying to help the victim, the defendant can be heard in the background.

“I’m not falling out, I’m trying to get out,” she said. “Did he hit me? What happened?”

The defendant repeatedly asked what had happened and showed signs of impairment.

“You can hear the slurring of her words, you can see her mannerisms,” Overstreet told jurors. “She’s sitting on the curb, she literally can see the wrecked vehicles, and she didn’t know what was going on because she was so impaired by alcohol. She didn’t even realize she’s the one who drifted into the other lane and struck Damian Kerr.”

In his closing argument, Overstreet told jurors to look at the facts, use their common sense, and hold the defendant accountable.

“Damian Kerr on July 5, 2024, had no idea that as he drove back down into Panama City that early morning that he would die,” Overstreet said. “Nobody on the roadway … had any idea of the horrific crash that was about to happen.

“And just like that, a life was over, lives were changed, because of one  person and the choices they had made … and Kourtney Hofheinz made a lot of bad decisions. Today you are here to hold her accountable for those decisions.”

Basford thanked the Panama City Police Department for its thorough investigation that helped lead to a guilty verdict.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.

 

A man who grabbed a Panama City police officer by the wrist and tried to hold on while fleeing a traffic stop is set to be sentenced on four charges April 6 following his bench trial Tuesday, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.

Travis Waylon Franks, 42, who listed a Mississippi address, chose a bench trial rather than a jury trial, meaning Circuit Court Judge Dustin Stephenson heard and decided the case. Prior to the start of the trial, Franks entered pleas of no contest to three related charges – Fleeing or Attempting to Elude, Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer, and Driving Under the Influence.

That left the Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer charge – a second-degree felony that carries a minimum-mandatory 3-year sentence. Judge Stephenson heard from two Panama City police officers and the defendant before finding the defendant guilty.

“People like this defendant who put officers’ lives in danger and subsequently put every other driver on the road in danger will face consequences,” Walters said. “This officer was just doing his job and our office will continue to assist them in doing it safely.”

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Walters was prepared to call witnesses and present evidence that on May 10, 2025, the defendant fled from a traffic stop that had turned into a DUI investigation and grabbed the officer who was trying to get him out of his car as he fled. The defendant fled onto 23^rd Street and onto U.S. 231, where Bay County sheriff’s deputies and Florida Highway Patrol troopers took turns continuing the pursuit. It ended off Star Avenue when the defendant was trapped on a dead-end road.

Because of his pleas to three of the charges, the trial focused on what happened at the initial stop.

Panama City Police Officer Matthew Cosme testified he was on patrol and saw the defendant driving the wrong way, without his lights on, near Bayview Avenue and 12^th Street. He made a traffic stop and bodycam showed him asking the defendant, who appeared to be under the influence, for his driver’s license and registration.

Cosme twice asked the defendant to get out of the car, but he refused and kept his door locked. Cosme reached in to try and unlock the door and the defendant grabbed him by the wrist, revved the engine and pulled him toward the vehicle.

Cosme drew his taser and was able to pull free as the defendant sped away.

The defendant testified he was not trying to hurt anyone, wasn’t under the influence, didn’t hit the police officer and stopped on his own at the end of the chase.

On cross-examination, Walters questioned that.

“About an hour ago you pled no contest to that charge, so I’m a little confused,” Walters said of the defendant’s claim he didn’t hit the officer trying to unlock his door.

“Oh, I see where you’re going with this,” the defendant replied.

He then agreed he had admitted to hitting the officer, being under the influence and fleeing.

Basford thanked the Panama City Police Department for its proactive patrolling and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol for their quick response to assist.

For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.