Lakeland man sentenced to 20 years for using Taser to punish children

SENTENCING UPDATE: Lakeland man sentenced to 20 years for using Taser to punish children

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Eduardo Vazquez had been disciplining children by holding a stun gun to their bare skin and zapping them with it.

Eduardo Vazquez, 22, of Lakeland.

He pled guilty to nine counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child, seven counts of aggravated child abuse two counts of false information to a law enforcement officer and tampering with physical evidence on April 25 and received 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation.

As a punishment for disobeying, Vazquez was shocking the children with a Taser. Of the nine children 22-year-old Vazquez was around, two were removed from his custody because they had “patterned bruises” and “two-prong burns” on their backsides.

One of the children had 10 two-prong burns on his skin. The second child had at least 15 burns.

William Torres-Morales was also arrested for using a Taser on the children. Elizabeth Tarvin and Veronica Sanchez did not use the Taser but were aware of the abuse — they were also arrested.

From left to right: William Torres-Morales, Elizabeth Tarvin and Veronica Sanchez.

Tarvin, who failed to report Vazquez’s abuse to law enforcement, pled to six counts of child neglect and one count of neglect of a child with great bodily harm on March 1 and was sentenced to 10 years of prison, followed by 10 years of probation.

Sanchez is still incarcerated and has not yet been sentenced.

Torres-Morales was found incompetent by a judge on July 31 and was ordered to complete competency training, with reviews every six months. If he regains competency, the courts will move forward with his trial.

Man attacks boss with meat cleaver, is found guilty of attempted manslaughter

JURY VERDICT: Man attacks boss with meat cleaver, is found guilty of attempted manslaughter

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Zhong Huang claimed he only pretended to pick up a meat cleaver and cut his boss’ neck.

Zhong Huang

Huang raised the knife over his head and charged his boss, swinging the cleaver at him.

“If you call the police, I will kill you,” Huang said, pressing the cleaver to his boss’ neck, cutting him.

A jury found Huang guilty Tuesday of attempted manslaughter with a weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery. Huang is facing up to 21 years in prison and will be sentenced Sept. 15.

Assistant State Attorney William Beaver took jurors back to January 10, 2017, and explained the events that led up to the attack.

Huang had been hired as a new employee at China Park restaurant in Winter Haven and was helping the owners close up for the evening. Zheng Shan, one of the owners, asked Huang for his ID so she could complete his employment paperwork, and he immediately got upset.

“I insisted, and he kept refusing,” Shan said from the witness stand Tuesday. “He started getting really mad.”

Shan’s husband and co-owner of the restaurant, Jai Bao Dong, told her to stop arguing with Huang and to call the police for help.

“That sentence made him very upset,” Shan said.

Huang picked up the meat cleaver and ran after Dong, threatening to kill him if he called the police. Dong fought with him, but Huang swung the knife at him and kept it pressed against his neck, cutting him.

Shan rushed over to help her husband, whose neck was bleeding, by hitting Huang in the head with her hand. Dong was able to push the knife down and force Huang’s right hand to the counter, but Dong said, Huang didn’t give up.

During closing statements Tuesday, Assistant State Attorney William Beaver shows the jury how Zhong Huang swung the cleaver at his boss.

While trying to help her husband hold Huang’s hand and the knife down, Shan used her free hand to try to call the police. But Huang reached around with his left hand, grabbing a handful of Shan’s hair and slamming her head onto the counter next to the phone.

“I saw my wife’s pinky finger almost broken and her head bleeding, and I knew we could not get him under control,” Dong said, through the help of an interpreter. “I told him, ‘All right. All right. Just put the knife down. We won’t call the police.’”

Huang responded to Dong, saying, “You better not call the police because if you do, no matter how many years they put me in jail, when I get out, I will kill your family.”

He then let go of the knife, and Dong pushed him out of the restaurant and locked the door. Shan immediately called the police.

A security camera in the restaurant’s kitchen recorded the first half of the fight.

From the witness stand Tuesday, Huang admitted he was the one in the video who picked up the knife, but he claimed the altercation started not because Shan asked for his ID but because he’d been waiting all day for her to pay his salary. Huang said he missed a bus back to New York that day and had started to get upset because neither would pay him.

“I was just pretending, trying to scare them so they could pay me my salary,” Huang said through the help of an interpreter. “If I really wanted to hurt him (Dong), I would have. … I was just aggravated by him and his body language.”

As for the threat to kill Dong and Shan if they called the police, Huang claimed he never said anything like that.

In closings, Beaver reminded jurors that Huang was angry and decided to take matters into his own hands by picking up a knife and charging the victim.

“The statement about calling the police set him (Huang) off. He told them, ‘I’ll kill you,’ and he tried to do just that,” Beaver said. “And those choices are what the state is going to ask you to hold him accountable for.”

Davenport man found guilty of sexual battery on a child

JURY VERDICT: Davenport man found guilty of sexual battery on a child

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Jon Moyer first molested his victim when she was 7 and continued for nearly 10 years.

Jon Moyer

It only took 15 minutes for a jury to find him guilty Thursday of sexual battery by a person with familial or custodial authority.

On a controlled phone call with the victim that was played in court, Moyer told the victim that the sexual experiences they shared were beautiful “even though it was on the wrong side of the fence.”

Moyer told the girl he never just went through the motions of the sexual acts.

“I love you,” he told her. “You felt me, what’s in my heart.”

When Moyer was questioned from the witness stand about whether he sexually abused the girl, he replied, “I did nothing wrong.”

Moyer faces 30 years in prison and will be sentenced August 31.

Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Swenson tried the case and said she credits her success to Polk County Sheriff’s Office Detective Desirey Wright, who put together a solid case. Moyer had molested the victim in other counties, with the incidents in Polk beginning when she was 13, and Swenson said, Wright made sure she gathered everything the other counties had and more.

Lake Wales man guilty of attempted second-degree murder after shooting at truck

JURY VERDICT: Lake Wales man guilty of attempted second-degree murder after shooting at truck

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Robert Daniel was driving to work when he saw a man in a black corvette pull up beside him and fire three shots into his vehicle.

John Decesare, 74, of Lake Wales.

After 25 minutes of deliberation, a jury found John Decesare, 74, guilty July 12 of attempted second-degree murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle and discharging a firearm from a vehicle. Decesare faces a minimum of 20 years for attempted second-degree murder and will be sentenced August 25.

Assistant State Attorney Randi Daugustinis walked jurors through the chain of events on Nov. 4, 2014.

Daniel left his house before 6 a.m. that morning and was driving on rural roads to get to his job in Lake Wales. About 6:15, Daniel looked in his rear view mirror to see a vehicle approaching him from behind, which was odd to him as it is uncommon to see traffic in rural areas.

He watched as a black corvette pulled into the left lane, and Daniel assumed the driver would pass him, which was common when he drove his work truck. He let off the gas to allow the corvette to pass.

“I noticed after I let off the throttle, the car was still next to me,” Daniel said from the witness stand. “It stayed with me even as I was slowing down.”

That was when Daniel heard a gunshot and felt an impact on the driver’s side door. He leaned to the right to avoid getting struck and heard two more shots go off as he hit the brakes and pulled off of the road.

Daniel was not injured in the shooting.

“I was confused and shocked. It was something I’d never experienced before,” Daniel told jurors, adding that he was unable to see the driver of the corvette. “I have no idea who would’ve been shooting at me. I couldn’t think of any enemies.”

Assistant State Attorney Randi Daugustinis addresses jurors during closing arguments July 12. Decesare was found guilty as charged after only 25 minutes of deliberation.

When law enforcement arrived on scene, Daniel told them he’d never seen the black corvette before. But he did tell them it
wasn’t uncommon for him to have incidents with a motorcycle rider in the early mornings when he drove to work.

The man, who rode a black motorcycle with three headlights, would ride alongside his work truck, pull in front of him and slow down. He never spoke to the rider or antagonized him in any way, but he continued encountering the man on his way to work.

Daniel recalled seeing the rider enter the same housing community he lived in.

A PCSO deputy who’d been patrolling the area for 18 years had an idea of who the rider was, based off the description Daniel had given off the motorcycle. Decesare would make small talk with the deputy over the years when the two would cross paths during breakfast at Perkins, often chatting about his motorcycle.

When the deputy saw Decesare riding his motorcycle that day, he stopped him and asked to search the bike. Decesare cooperated with deputies, who found a handgun and magazine with ammunition in one of the locked saddle bags.

FDLE testing proved that the bullet holes and projectiles from Daniel’s truck matched the firearm deputies found in Decesare’s motorcycle.

When questioned, Decesare admitted he was involved in the shooting. He told deputies he was driving his corvette, and the other driver was in a truck.

Decesare told deputies in a taped statement that he felt the truck driver was tormenting him each time they crossed paths while he was on his bike.

“I got sick of it,” Decesare said in the statement. “I thought I’d just scare him off, put a couple bullets in his fender, teach him a lesson. … I didn’t shoot to kill him.”

Daugustinis reminded jurors that Decesare’s actions proved otherwise.

“It is an evil intent to scare someone by firing multiple rounds into their vehicle. It shows an indifference to human life,” she said in closing arguments. “The rounds were aimed at the door. He knew there was a person on the other side of that door.”

The defense argued that Decesare meant to shoot at the front of the vehicle but struggled with aim while driving fast and steering with just one hand – that although he went about it the wrong way, his intent was to scare the man and not hurt him.

“Why fire at least three rounds if you’re just trying to scare someone?” Daugustinis asked the jurors. “It’s just not reasonable to believe. He was intentionally shooting at driver side door knowing there was a driver on the other side of that door. … The defendant’s actions and intent that day showed ill will, hatred, spite and evil intent.”