Page 19 - 4-21-15 Tuesday's Edition

Crime
Facebook Child Predator Gets 40 Years In Prison
Body Of Woman Reported Missing Found In Car
MS. LUCY MOORE Reported Missing
Last week, Ms. Lucy Moore, 31, was reported miss- ing after she failed to report to work at Tampa General Hospi- tal last Wednesday. The body of a woman tentatively identified as Ms. Moore was discovered in the parking lot on Saturday.
Tampa Police said she was re- ported missing by a friend who last spoke with her on Monday. No contact was made since that time and she was reported missing on April 13th.
On Saturday, the Hillsbor- ough County Sheriff’s Office conducted a death investigation in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, 8220 N. Dale Mabry. The 9-1-1 call was received shortly after noon. The caller told police a person in the vehicle appeared to be deceased.
Deputies responded to the scene and said the body was of an adult woman and appeared to have been there for several days.
The preliminary information known at the time of the inves- tigation suggested no foul play. However, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Of- fice will determine the official cause of death and confirm the identification of the woman.
No additional information was available at press time.
Clerk Injured After Armed Robbery Turns Into Gunfire Exchange
U. S. District Judge James D. Whittemore sentenced a Tarpon Springs man to 40 years in prison. He was con- victed of the production, re- ceipt, and distribution of child pornography. The Court also ordered him to forfeit the cel- lular telephones and comput- ers that had been used to commit the offenses.
Melvin Barber Bridgers, III, 34, pleaded guilty to the charges December 11, 2014.
According to court docu- ments, beginning at least in December 2012 and continu- ing until his arrest on May 1, 2014, Bridgers used multiple Facebook accounts to pose as a young teenage girl and be- friended other girls between the ages of 10 and 16 years of age.
After befriending the girls, he engaged in online chats and used manipulation, coercion, threats, and extortion to com- pel the minors to send him sexually graphic photographs through Facebook.
Bridgers then threatened the victims with exposing the sexually graphic photographs to their parents, or to other In- ternet users, in order to extort more sexually graphic photo- graphs and videos of them.
Bridgers moved to Tarpon Springs from North Carolina in the fall of 2013. He came to the attention of law enforce- ment when a 12-year-old vic- tim in Houston, Texas, reported the Facebook activity to her mother after Bridgers threatened to expose her un- less she sent him sexually ex-
MELVIN BARBER BRIDGERS, III
plicit photographs of her 7- year-old sister.
On May 1, 2014, law en- forcement executed a federal search warrant at Bridgers’s home and obtained computer media containing numerous chat logs with the minor vic- tims, as well as over 28,000 images and videos containing child pornography.
Officials estimate that over a two-year period, Bridgers at- tempted to make contact with and sexually extort or “sex- tort,” thousands of young girls on Facebook. So far, approxi- mately 129 victims have been positively identified.
Officials said this is one of the largest online child “sex- tortion” cases prosecuted in the United States.
“The staggering number of victims in this case is sicken- ing. While we cannot undo the damage to these young people, we can ensure that this crimi- nal will not be able to harm them anymore, Susan L. Mc- Cormick, Special Agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, Tampa said.
The Tampa Police Depart- ment is currently investigating an armed robbery that turned into an exchange of gunfire. The incident took place Sun- day afternoon at an East Tampa business.
According to the Tampa Po- lice Department, a Black man walked into the ABC Liquor Store, 3727 E. Hillsborough Avenue, entered the store shortly before 3 p.m. He was wearing a black hat and sun- glasses and covered the lower
part of his face with a towel. The suspect ordered the two clerks to the ground. At some point, one of the clerks was also armed and fired a shot at the suspect. The suspect re- turned fire and struck the clerk. However, police said the bullet grazed him and he sus-
tained minor injuries.
The man fled from the store
on foot with an undisclosed amount of merchandise. The investigation into the offense is continuing.
Two Men Indicted For Making Counterfeit Money
A federal grand jury indicted a man for manufacturing and passing counterfeit currency. A second man was charged with passing counterfeit cur- rency.
According to the U. S. Attor- ney’s Office, Darius Jondi Edwards, 35, of Clearwater and Timothy Deante Bur- roughs, 28, of Jacksonville, were arraigned on the charges earlier this month.
According to the indictment, Edwards reportedly began manufacturing counterfeit currency, beginning in No- vember 2014. Edwards and Burroughs then began pass- ing the counterfeit currency in Duval County.
DARIUS JONDI EDWARDS
If convicted of the charges, Edwards faces a maximum of 40 years in federal prison. Burroughs is facing a maxi- mum sentence of 20 years in prison.
DNA Left In Car Leads To Man’s Federal Indictment On Gun Charges
Man Who Asked Student For Sex At Bus Stop Sought
A federal grand jury indicted a Tampa man on several charges stemming from sev- eral auto burglaries. The bur- glaries took place Christmas night in Riverview.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said seven cars were broken into that night. The suspect reportedly took laptop computers, credit cards, and sunglasses.
One of the vehicles broken into was assigned to an FBI Agent. One of the items in the agent’s vehicle also contain-ed a diamond-plated lock box. The box contained several guns including a Llama model Especial, 9mm and four rounds of Winchester 9 mm ammunition; a Colt Model M- 4, .223 caliber rifle; a Spring- field Model .45 caliber pistol; a Glock Model 23, 40 caliber pistol; and five rounds of Win- chester .40 caliber ammuni- tion.
The suspect also took body armor, two collapsible batons, a ballistic helmet, gun belt, and two cameras, among other things.
The suspect who broke into the vehicle also left behind two blood stains on the back of the front passenger seat in the ve- hicle. Police extracted the
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office is currently in- vestigating an incident that took place at a bus stop earlier this month. A student was re- portedly approached by a stranger who asked her for sex.
According to police, the 15- year-old girl was at a bus stop at the corner of Lakewood Drive and Brandon Trace Av- enue, shortly after 6 a.m., on April 6th.
The girl told her parents that a Black man approached the girl and asked her to have sex several times. The suspect reportedly continued to get closer to the girl, who backed away from him. When the school bus arrived, the suspect rode away on a bicycle.
He is described as being about 6 feet tall and weighing about 190 pounds with a stocky bill and long dreadlocks that reach the middle of his back. He was last seen wearing
what appeared to be a fast food restaurant uniform, police said.
The girl told her parents about the incident, who re- ported it about a week after it took place.
A spokesman for the Hills- borough County Sheriff’s Of- fice said, “We want to capture this person before he does anything else. This is a public warning so that parents, bus drivers, and other members of the community can be alert to what is going on.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is asking any- one with information about the incident to contact them at (813) 247-8200, or anyone having information regarding the identity and whereabouts of this individual to contact Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 873- TIPS (8477). Callers can re- main anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
JARVOS LEONARD WHITE ... Arrested January 11, 2015
DNA from the blood stains and identified the blood as be- longing to 24-year-old Jarvos Leonard White.
White was taken into cus- tody on January 11th, and placed under a $32,026.35 Bond. He is currently being held at the Hillsborough County Jail on several charges. Those charges include: a felon in possession of a firearm dur- ing the commission of a felony; being a felon in posses- sion of a firearm; 7 counts of burglary of an unoccupied ve- hicle; armed burglary of a con- veyance; 7 counts of criminal mischief; and 3 counts of grand theft of a firearm, among other charges.
The investigation is continu- ing.
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 19