A 26-year-old man from Shady Hills was convicted by a federal jury this week of assaulting or intimidating a flight crew. Sammy Fontanez-Mercado faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Aug. 5. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Fontanez-Mercado and his stepfather, Luis Rodriguez, were on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 5, 2008. After the plane landed in Orlando and was taxiing, Fontanez-Mercado disobeyed instructions to remain seated and was approached by a flight attendant. He became confrontational and verbally abusive, the office said, lunged at the flight attendant and had to be physically restrained. Rodriguez then got involved, punching another flight attendant in the face. The flight attendants sustained bite wounds, bruises and cuts. Rodriguez has pleaded guilty to related charges.
NEW PORT RICHEY
3-year-old found wandering alone
A 3-year-old girl was found wandering alone at Lassen Avenue and Laird Drive at 10:14 a.m. Wednesday by a passerby who called 911. Pasco sheriff's deputies spent more than an hour trying to find the toddler's home, even sending out automated phone calls to homes within a 2-mile radius, before a sergeant found the child's family looking for her at 11:41 a.m. The caregiver is Tyler W. Buchholtz, 25, whose 3242 La Verne Court home is nearly a quarter of a mile from where the child was found. According to her arrest report, Buchholtz told authorities she left the house to buy cigarettes and asked her brother to watch the child. The brother denied that and said he was asleep. Buchholtz is charged with child abuse and was being held in the Land O'Lakes jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.
PORT RICHEY
Driver, child injured in crash
A woman is charged with driving under the influence and causing a crash about 8 p.m. Wednesday that injured herself and a child. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the driver, Melissa Giles, 30, was incoherent after she drove in a turn lane on Embassy Boulevard and hit another car. Troopers found an empty bottle of oxycodone next to her, and Xanax and methadone in her backpack. Giles and the child, who was a passenger, were treated at a hospital and released. Authorities did not release the child's age or relationship to Giles, who was arrested on charges of DUI causing injury and child neglect. She was being held without bail at the Land O'Lakes jail.
Corrections
• There were 13,414 delinquent tax properties from 2007 that went to tax certificate auction in 2008. The Pasco County Tax Collector's Office provided an incorrect number for a story Thursday. Also, investors who buy tax certificates at next week's "clean-up" sale are guaranteed 18 percent interest. Thursday's story was incorrect on that point.
• Gulf High valedictorian Jamielee Hyatt is the president of the National Art Honor Society. An item in Wednesday's Top of the Class was incorrect on this point.
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