Dan Sullivan

1 week ago | tampabay.com | Dan Sullivan

TAMPA — Early one morning in 2022, a car moved down a quiet, darkened Tampa street, doubled back and stopped at the roadside. The time stamp on a nearby home’s surveillance video showed its headlights cutting off almost exactly at 3 a.m. The car sat in the dark for about 50 seconds before the lights switched on, then off again before it sped back the way it came. In that short span, inside that car, Nilexia Alexander was killed.

1 week ago | tampabay.com | Dan Sullivan

TAMPA — Joshua Roelofs had choices. He could make the state prove that he drove drunk one early morning three years ago, causing a crash on the Courtney Campbell Causeway that killed Kris Koroly and Ricky Gongora. Or he could plead guilty and let a judge decide his punishment. As he sat in a Tampa courtroom one day in April, the beefy, bearded ex-deputy mulled another option. He told his lawyers he needed more time to pray and talk with his family.

1 week ago | tampabay.com | Dan Sullivan

The Times Publishing Co., which publishes the Tampa Bay Times, has settled a federal lawsuit that accused itof failing to make full payments to a trust controlled by the late widow of Nelson Poynter, the company’s former owner. The lawsuit was filed in March on behalf of a trust in the name of Marion K. Poytner, who died in 2024 at 97. The complaint alleged that the Times owed the trust more than $7 million. The lawsuit was dismissed this week, court records show.

2 weeks ago | tampabay.com | Dan Sullivan

TAMPA — Frank Dennis Alvarez, who as Hillsborough County’s longtime chief judge championed reforms that became staples of the local criminal justice system and helped the careers of many prominent lawyers, died Thursday at home in Tampa. His close friend, Simon Canasi, said Alvarez had been in hospice care. He’d received a heart transplant about 15 years ago and had experienced declining health in recent years. He was 79. “He was an icon in the courthouse and a great friend,” Canasi said.

2 weeks ago | tampabay.com | Dan Sullivan

TAMPA — A man who acted as a “money mule” in a nationwide scheme that involved government impersonators and bilked a pair of Tampa Bay-area women of close to $1 million will spend six years in federal prison, a judge ordered Tuesday. U.S. District Judge William Jung called the crime “evil and wicked,” noting that the scheme ripped off older adults who were led to believe they’d be arrested if they didn’t turn over their life savings.