TAMPA A 78-year-old mental health therapist faces up to life in prison after being convicted this afternoon of a federal charge that he drove to the Tampa area to sexually and physically abuse two boys he thought would be made available by their father. After the verdict was read, Charles Friedlander was overcome with emotion, according to his attorney, George Tragos. He was led away to jail in a wheelchair. ...more

December 16, 2008

As Randy Nowak was meeting with an undercover agent he thought was a hit man, the Internal Revenue Service officer Nowak wanted dead went into hiding, according to evidence presented this morning in Nowak's trial. ...more

December 16, 2008

Charles Friedlander is "a 78-year-old lonely man whose only social life is on the Internet," and not a pedophile who attempted to sexually and physically abuse two boys, Friedlander's lawyer told a jury today. ...more

December 15, 2008

Randy Nowak's own words will be the most important evidence in his trial on charges he tried to hire a hit man to kill an IRS officer, a federal prosecutor told jurors this morning. Nowak, 49, of Mulberry, is accused of hiring a man he knew as "Reaper" to kill an IRS revenue officer for a total of $20,000 because he was afraid of going to prison for tax evasion. ...more

December 15, 2008

Fort Myers mental health counselor Thomas Jackson Friedlander was described today as being either a sadistic pedophile or a lonely 78-year-old homosexual who was arrested for describing his corporal punishment fantasies. ...more

December 8, 2008

A jury convicted pop singer Boy George Friday of falsely imprisoning a male escort. ...more

December 5, 2008

Jurors deliberated for four hours Thursday before finding Sharon Sprout guilty of second-degree murder in the 2004 killing of her longtime boyfriend, Anthony Candiano. ...more

November 21, 2008

Jurors deliberated for four hours today before finding Sharon Sprout guilty of second-degree murder in the 2004 killing of longtime boyfriend, Anthony Candiano. She will likely be sentenced to life in prison at a hearing Dec. 23. Sprout, 51, shot Candiano in the head as he slept in their Regency Park home on July 10, 2004. Early that morning, Sprout retrieved a .38-caliber pistol from a desk in another bedroom. She then went into the master bedroom, pointed the gun behind Candiano's right ear and pulled the trigger. The bullet cut a path through Candiano's brain, instantly killing the 64-year-old. ...more

November 20, 2008