- December 14, 2025
+ Four-vehicle crash in Putnman County kills Palm Coast man
A garbage truck turned left in front of a rock hauler on State Road 100, in Putnam County, causing a crash at 6:35 a.m. Wednesday, April 10. A Chevrolet 300 and a Ford F-150 got tangled in the crash, resulting in the death of a Palm Coast resident, Robert Laks. He was 33.
Laks was driving the F-150. As the rock hauler tried to avoid the garbage truck, the rock hauler sideswiped the Chevrolet and then drove Laks in the F-150 into the woods, according to the preliminary report from the Florida Highway Patrol report. The investigation is ongoing.
Neither the garbage truck driver, Willie Lane, 44, of Jacksonville, nor his passenger, John Manning, 52, of Palatka, was injured. The rock hauler, Mark Robbins, 59, of Palatka, sustained minor injuries, as did James Chapman, 57, of Palatka, who was driving the Chevrolet.
+ Green pleads no contest to dog stabbing
Sahmi Green pled no contest Wednesday to a stack of charges against him that stemmed from what prosecutors called “quite a crime spree,” including aggravated battery of a police officer and felony cruelty to animals.
“I’m sorry about how things played out,” Green said before he was sentenced to, in total, two years in prison and 13 years of probation. “I wish I could have done things differently, but I was off my medicine. Since I’ve been locked up, I’ve been on my medicine and haven’t had problems.”
Green suffers from a handful of mental health disorders, chief among them paranoid schizophrenia post-traumatic stress disorder, according to an analysis by licensed psychologist Todd Broder. As a child, Green was placed in foster care as a child because of physically and sexually abusive home life.
+ Local painter arrested for theft for second time in a month
Detectives with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Palm Coast man Wednesday night on a felony warrant for theft after having arrested him last month in a separate case for grand theft.
Daniel Hunter, 43, of Rockinghorse Drive, was arrested on a warrant charging him with theft by taking possession of another person’s credit card, dealing in stolen property, fraudulent use of a credit card and possession of ammunition. He was booked into the Flagler County Inmate Facility and released after posting $3,750 bond on each charge.
Hunter was arrested March 18 on a charge of stealing from a person 65 years of age or older after he posed as a painter to get inside her home. Once inside the 83-year-old’s home, detectives said the man stole several pieces of jewelry while he was supposed to be painting the interior of the home.
In this latest arrest, detectives said Hunter found a bank card on the driveway at the home where he was staying on Lake Success Drive. He took the card and made purchases totaling $1,068 at several Palm Coast stores. The card belonged to the homeowner.
Hunter, who is a convicted felon, also purchased ammunition for a pistol he owned. He told detectives that he had since traded the pistol for a fishing pole and no longer possessed the firearm.
Detectives believe there may be other victims. If you think you may have been victimized by Hunter, you are asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office’s Investigative Services Unit at 586-4801.
+ Citizens’ tips lead to arrest of man growing marijuana
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies executed a search warrant on a home in the Hammock area of Flagler County this morning and arrested a 22-year-old Palm Coast man on charges of cultivation of marijuana, violation of probation and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a press release.
Douglas Tyler was arrested at his home at 106 Hernandez Avenue around 8:20 a.m. by the Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigations Unit assisted by the Sheriff’s SWAT team and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre credits tips from local citizens to the successful outcome of the one-month investigation.
Tyler was being held in the Flagler County Inmate Facility on $6,000 bond on the drug charges and no bond on the violation of probation. Additional charges may be pending.
