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Amy Gehrt - Production Editor

Production Editor

I’m a second-generation journalist. I fell in love with the written word as a young child, and I knew early on that I wanted to follow in my mom’s footsteps and help readers stay informed about their communities. I landed my first paying journalism job as a college freshman working for my school newspaper, The Vidette. Born and raised in Illinois, I worked there until 2015. But after driving home during yet another blizzard, I decided to say goodbye to cold, snowy winters. A few weeks later I drove across the country to my new job in the Sunshine State. I spent several years as the web editor at The Ledger in Lakeland, and I survived and covered Irma, my first major hurricane. I’m excited to be part of the Times’ breaking news team, and I thank you for trusting us to give you the latest news and the information you need to keep your family safe. When I’m not working I can be found rooting on my beloved Chicago Cubs, reading, swimming, watching the wildlife in my yard or obsessing over my plants. My golden retriever, Santo, is never far from my side.

  1. Greco Middle School teacher James Goff, 56, was arrested and booked into a Hillsborough County jail Friday, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. He faces charges including promotion of a sexual performance by a child, lewd or lascivious battery and possession of child pornography.
  2. Osmin Castillo, 21, turned himself in Sunday on a second-degree murder charge in connection to the Sept. 23 death of a man on Sanchez Ranch Lane in Wimauma, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said Monday night. He also faces multiple counts of lewd and lascivious battery, use of a child in a sexual performance, in-state transmission of child pornography using an electronic device and possession of child pornography.
  3. Jimmy Lee Mathews, 55, faces a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his roommate,  Julius Moore, the St. Petersburg Police Department said Monday. Mathews was arrested in Tampa and booked into a Hillsborough County jail, where he is being held without bond while awaiting transfer to a Pinellas County jail.
  4. Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Deputy James Linen, 51, faces a charge of aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability after an argument turned physical in the 1500 block of Tallulah Terrace in Wesley Chapel on Tuesday, according to authorities.  He was arrested by Pasco deputies around 4:20 a.m. Wednesday.
  5. Tampa detectives are seeking help from the community as they try to identify several people who “may have been involved” in an early morning shooting in Ybor City the weekend before Halloween. A 14-year-old boy and 20-year-old man were killed and 15 others were wounded by gunfire. Police say one other person sustained injuries that were not caused by gunfire.
  6. President Joe Biden will nominate U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie S. Sneed to the United States District Court for the Tampa-based Middle District of Florida, according to a White House official. 
Sneed has been serving as a federal magistrate judge in the Tampa division of the Middle District of Florida since her appointment on June 15, 2015, according to the court district’s website.
  7. Detectives are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found in the 900 block of West Cypress Street in Tampa around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to police.
  8. Dameisha Tyana Ceasar of Tampa was arrested Friday in connection to the hit-and-run death of Darrell Lee Dawson, a bicyclist, on Tuesday night, according to police. She faces charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving the death of a vulnerable road user and driving without a valid driver’s license, resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
  9. Police are investigating after the body of a woman was found in the 300 block of Wellington Court in Tampa, the department said Wednesday. The woman, described as being in her early 70s, had “upper body trauma.”
  10. Tropical Storm Tammy has strengthened into a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center's 11 a.m. update Friday.
  11. Clearwater police Officer Nicolas Paloma, 29, was arrested Tuesday and booked into a Pinellas County jail after authorities say he stopped a tourist who was crossing a street at the Clearwater Beach roundabout early Sunday morning, told her she was jaywalking and asked for sexual favors in return for giving her a ride to her hotel and not citing her. He faces charges of sexual battery by a law enforcement officer and false imprisonment.
  12. Mosaic Westshore Apartments,110 S Hoover Blvd., in Tampa is shown in this  Google street view from February 2023. A 3-year-old girl has died after a fall from a fourth-story window of the building on Sunday, the Tampa Police Department said Wednesday evening.
  13. Vincent Romanino, 42, of Lutz, was booked into a Hillsborough County jail Tuesday and is being held without bond, jail records show. He is facing a charge of being an accessory after the fact to first-degree felony murder in the fatal shooting of Dominick Paternoster, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. Joshualee Garcia, 33, also was arrested in the case Tuesday and faces the same charge. His booking photo was not available Tuesday night. Both men were members of the Mongols motorcycle gang when Paternoster, who was believed to be a police informant, was killed, according to authorities.
  14. Michael Bradford, a 55-year-old teacher and ROTC captain at Chamberlain High School, is facing felony charges of child abuse and possession of a firearm on school property after he was accused of hitting a 16-year-old student and grabbing him by the neck, according to the Tampa Police Department.
  15. Patrick Douglas Scruggs, 38, of Tampa, was arrested and booked into the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday. He faces charges of aggravated battery, aggravated assault and armed burglary after authorities say he repeatedly stabbed a driver on the Howard Frankland Bridge after the driver struck Scruggs' sedan. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the driver who was stabbed had collided with another vehicle before crashing into Scruggs' sedan. The incident shut down part of Interstate 275 for nearly three hours Tuesday morning.
  16. Tampa Police arrested 37-year-old Alberto Rodriguez Stephenson on Sept. 22, 2023, in connection with the murder of a man who was shot and killed earlier that same day at the intersection of E. Busch Boulevard and N. Connechusett Road.
  17. A Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority driver was taken to an area hospital by ambulance after he was attacked by a man he didn’t know while getting onto his parked trolley at the end of his break shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, the St. Petersburg Police Department said Thursday. The driver, who was not named, suffered injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening, the agency said.
  18. The Tampa Police Department arrested Chelsea Hernandez, 20, on charges of DUI manslaughter charge and driving with a suspended license after she ran a red light in Tampa early Wednesday, causing a crash with a dump truck that killed one of her passengers, police said.
  19. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies stand at the scene of a fatal shooting in Riverview on Saturday. A 14-year-old boy fatally shot his mother and critically wounded his mother's boyfriend, deputies said.
  20. Jamie Fonville, 47, of Tarpon Springs, was arrested Tuesday and faces 13 new charges related to hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from homeowner association accounts she managed as an employee at First Choice Association Management, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. The combined losses to the HOAs total around $754,734.44, detectives say.
  21. An argument between two groups over social media ended with people from both groups shooting at each other in the area of 29th Street and 6th Avenue South in St. Petersburg Wednesday, according to police.  Lewis Johnson, 17, was killed, and the three teens who went to the St. Pete home with Johnson were arrested Friday.
  22. Clearwater Police Chief Eric Gandy speaks during a news conference Friday in Clearwater. Gandy provided more information about the stabbing of two students Thursday at Countryside High School.
  23. Clearwater Police Chief Eric Gandy speaks as Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Kevin Hendrick looks on during a news conference outside Countryside High School in Clearwater on Thursday afternoon. Gandy said a ninth grade boy stabbed another ninth grade boy and an 11th grade boy at the school earlier in the day.