Law Catches Up With Battery Suspect

Law Catches Up With Battery Suspect

BROOKSVILLE - Two months after he punched out the teeth of his child's mother, the long arm of the law caught up with Gregory Booker in New York, a report shows.

The victim told deputies on Nov. 28 that Booker, 44, grew angry when she refused to drive him back to New York. The victim volunteered to drive Booker to the nearest bus station, but as she approached the car, Booker knocked her out with a vodka bottle, an affidavit states.

When she woke up, she was back inside the car and Booker was driving. She faked a seizure to make the suspect pull over. When he checked on her, the victim began to fight. Booker reportedly knocked out several of the victim's teeth, but two witnesses stepped in to break up the roadside fight.

Booker sped off when the witnesses confronted him, leaving the victim to find medical help. A detective noted in a report that the victim had multiple bruises across her face and that she had lost hearing in her left ear because of brain swelling.

Booker was tracked down to Long Island and booked into the county jail Thursday on charges of domestic-related kidnapping, robbery and felony battery.

DUI Suspect Drives Through Woods

SPRING HILL - A suspected drunk driver drove off the road and into a patch of trees on Thursday before skidding to a stop in the front yard of a Horizon Drive home.

The suspect, Brittini Blankenship, 20, had just left a Mariner Boulevard bar around 11:30 p.m. when she failed to negotiate a turn on Horizon Drive, near Gaspar Drive, a report shows.

Blankenship drove through a wooded lot then crashed into a large flower pot and several concrete garden curbs outside a house, a report states. The suspect was arrested on charges of DUI and DUI with property damage after failing field sobriety tests. Her blood alcohol level was listed at .148 and .150; Florida law presumes intoxication .08.