Page 19 - Florida Sentinel 2-27-18

Crime
MOSES WILSON 11/11/1968 to 2/24/2018
A 23-year-old man has been charged in the stabbing death of another man. The crime took place in outskirts of Plant City Saturday.
According to the Hillsbor- ough County Sheriff’s Office, shortly after 10 p.m., James Michel Meeks and Moses Wilson, 49, became engaged in a verbal argument while outside Wilson’s home at 4308 James L. Redman Park- way.
As the argument pro- gressed, police said Meeks armed himself with a pocket knife and began threatening Wilson.
Employee At Hotel
Quarrel Between Men Leads To Fatal Stabbing
Businesswoman Gets 2 Years On Tax Fraud Charge
JAMES MICHAEL MEEKS ... Facing murder charge
walked away from Meeks and into his home, which also doubles as his business. Meeks followed Wilson in- side with the pocket knife still in his hand, witnesses told po- lice.
Police said the witnesses observed Meeks use the pocket knife to stab Wilson two or three times in his legs.
Wilson died at the scene and Meeks was taken into custody. He was transported to the Hillsborough County Jail where he was charged with second-degree murder with a weapon.
Last week, a Sarasota businesswoman was sen- tenced to two years in federal prison. She pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges in October 2016.
Ms. Mazie Hill, 52, of Sarasota, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government property and identity theft.
According to the plea agreement, Ms. Hill and others processed debit and credit cards in other people’s names containing tax re- funds generated by fraudu- lent tax returns through a computer designed for mer- chants to process credit and debit card payments.
Ms. Hill and others set up the merchant accounts related to a restaurant where she worked. The accounts were supposed to be used to
MAZIE HILL
process payments for restau- rant and bar services only. Instead, they were used to process credit and debit card transactions for both legiti- mate restaurant-related sales and for tax fraud trans- actions using prepaid debit cards such as Green Dot.
After the payments were processed, Square, Inc. elec-
tronically transferred the funds to Ms. Hill’s bank ac- count and to the accounts of others, where the proceeds were shared and used for personal items.
The Green Dot cards con- taining fraudulent tax re- funds were brought to Ms. Hill at the restaurant by oth- ers. Often, Ms. Hill and her co-conspirators would swipe the cards in lesser dollar amounts until a transaction was accepted.
Between August and No- vember 2012, Ms. Hill con- ducted 115 successful transactions with Green Dot cards had been funded with false tax refunds, in the amount of nearly $90,000. Almost $55,000 in transac- tions were not accepted by the Internal Revenue Serv- ice.
Wilson is said to have
Man Charged With Attacking
Last week, a woman re- ported to police that a man had followed her into the bathroom at a hotel and attacked her. The victim is an employee of the hotel.
According to Tampa Police, the incident took place around 7:30 a.m., last Tuesday. The woman was at the Marriott Hotel, 1001 N. Westshore, when she saw the man outside the men’s restroom. She en- tered the women’s restroom and was at the sink when she looked in the mirror and saw the man standing behind her.
He reportedly told her he was in the wrong bathroom while staring at her.
At some point, he threat- ened her with a knife and a physical struggle took place. She screamed into her portable radio, causing him to release her and run away. The victim received a small laceration on her finger from the knife, which was later recovered.
The investigation led police to John C. Eckhard, 41, after someone recognized the com- posite sketch the victim helped
JOHN ECKHARD
to create. When police ap- proached Eckhard on Friday, he agreed to allow his back- pack to be searched.
The officer found a pair of gloves that resembled the de- scription the victim had given. The officers also found a knife similar to the one left at the scene of the attack.
The victim also identified Eckhard from a photo pack.
Eckhard has been charged with aggravated bat- tery with a deadly weapon, and kidnapping with the intent to harm or terrorize.
He is being held at the Hillsborough County Jail under a $57,500 bond.
DAVID NOAH WETHERINGTON
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a warrant for a man and inves- tigators are attempting to lo- cate him.
According to a news re- lease, David Noah Wetherington, 38, was in- dicted on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Additional charges of fleeing to elude law en-
He is being held without bond.
forcement and being a habit- ual traffic offender are pend- ing against Wetherington. Those charges stemmed from an incident when Wetherington ran from police on January 22, 2018.
Officials believe he could be in Pasco or Pinellas County. Officials said
Wetherington is known to carry firearms and should be considered armed and dan- gerous.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay at 1800-873- TIPS or www.crimestopper- stb.com.
Man Being Sought By The FBI
UNCLE SANDY
If your actions inspire 2, 5, 9, 14 others to dream more, 15, 18, 24, 30 learn more, do more and be- come more, 1, 38, 43, 44 you are a leader. 6, 26, 50, 54.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2018 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 19