FLORIDA KEYS KEYNOTER (Marathon Key, Florida) 05 April 06 3 more charged in croc death (Kevin Wadlow)
Four men now face felony charges in the December killing of an American crocodile in Key Largo.
A warrant has been issued for a fifth suspect, but he remained at large earlier this week.
All five will be charged with two felony counts related to the Dec. 3 incident at Manatee Bay Marina, near the Monroe/Miami-Dade county line on the 18-Mile Stretch.
“This was a heinous crime and there was no reason for it to happen,” said Bobby Dube, lead investigator on the case for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
All five suspects live in Miami.
Nelson Martin, 38, was taken into custody by federal agents last week at Miami International Airport when Martin returned from an overseas trip, Dube said.
Two other men, Guillermo Jesus Permuy, 38, and Fernando Barizonte, 47, previously turned themselves in after being notified that warrants had been issued for their arrests.
Pedro G. Morales, 42, was arrested by Dube at the scene, after witnesses reported that a crocodile long familiar to residents had been killed and dragged behind a Humvee.
The remaining suspect - identified as Carlos Menendez, 41 - is believed to be the man driving the vehicle when the crocodile was dragged down a street at the marina.
When authorities arrived, the reptile was still alive. It was taken to Miami MetroZoo for treatment but died.
Residents knew the crocodile as Charlie, an 11-foot reptile who inhabited the mangroves near the park.
American crocodiles are considered timid, unlike their African counterparts. There are no reports of an American crocodile attacking a human.
Charlie was a little bolder than most of his species, known to sun himself along the shoreline or on a dock.
“People enjoyed seeing him. It was neat,” marina staffer Loretta Westphal said after the killing. “That's why what happened is so sad.”
Said Dube, “Some people have said maybe these guys were worried about Charlie attacking kids in the area. But he'd been there 15 years without incident.”
American crocodiles, far less numerous than the familiar Florida alligator, were nearly hunted to extinction as its habitat shrunk. At one point, fewer than a dozen mating pairs were believed to exist, all in the Keys and southern Miami-Dade.
The Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a 6,600-acre refuge off North Key Largo, was created to protect the species. American crocodiles are known to abandon nests because of a single disturbance, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
If convicted, five years imprisonment could be imposed for each count.
A separate investigation into the February shooting deaths of two American crocodiles on Sugarloaf Key continues under the direction of Officer Gordon Sharp.
3 more charged in croc death

[ Hide Replies ]

• FL Press: 3 more charged in croc death - W von Papineäu, Fri Apr 7 19:18:01 2006