TAVARES, Fla.—There’s a new pup strutting his stuff through Lake County, sniffing out electronics and working economic crimes, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Electric Detection K9 Code—pronounced “Cody” — a 2-year-old Labrador retriever, will be working alongside his handler, Investigator Dunn, in the Economic Crime Unit, specializing in cryptocurrency investigations, LCSO Public Information Officer Deputy Stephanie Earley said.
“With a strong background in criminal investigations, Investigator Dunn took on the unique role of working with K9 Code,” Earley said. “Together, Investigator Dunn and K9 Code completed an intensive certification process, spending hundreds of hours side by side.”
PHOTO: Lake County Sheriff’s Office
At 18 months old, Code and Dunn participated in an intensive 5-month training program in Indiana, enduring long hours and no days off. During that training, Code mastered locating electronic devices, including cell phones, hard drives and SIM cards, essential evidence in a variety of offenses such as child pornography, fraud and financial crimes. Earning a perfect score during certification, Code successfully detected items underwater and in ceiling tiles. He is also trained to search vehicles, open fields, and even people, Earley said.
In his off time, Code enjoys relaxing with a blanket on the couch and playing with his favorite ball.
EUSTIS, Fla.—A Eustis man was arrested Friday, accused of exposing himself, and this isn’t the first time.
Around 7:30 a.m. Eustis Police Department responded to 326 Glover Street on a report of a naked man standing outside the home. An officer spotted Mark Ronald Banks, 56, who was fully exposed, standing both inside and outside his front door. The officer yelled at Banks to put clothes on as he approached the home and Banks went inside and refused to open the door, according to an arrest affidavit.
Police spoke to the complainant who said his teenaged daughters told him they saw Banks standing outside his home naked. The father told his girls to look away while he confirmed what they believed they saw. He told police Banks was naked and bent over outside of his residence and he could see his sexual organs from the roadway as he drove by. The father said he recognized Banks from driving by his house twice a day while transporting his daughters back and forth to school, and from a previous job he had, the affidavit states.
About an hour later, the arresting officer was driving back down Glover Street, and he saw Banks walking south on Glover Street near Orange Avenue. Banks was taken into custody and was told he was being arrested because the officer observed him standing outside naked. Banks reportedly said he was, “placing clothing outside to dry because his house smelled.” Banks was arrested for two counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition, two counts of exposure of sexual organs – prior conviction and one count of resisting arrest for refusing to open his door when the officer knocked on his door. He was transported to the Lake County Jail, where he was being held on no bond at press time.
Banks was arrested for a similar incident in August 2022. In that case, a neighbor accused Banks of standing at his doorway naked and masturbating while facing Glover Street on numerous occasions. The neighbor told police he observed Banks masturbating naked two to three times a week at 7 a.m. for six months, according to an arrest affidavit in that case.
A maintenance man for a nearby apartment complex told EPD he installed a fence panel to try to block Banks from view and the maintenance man said while he had never seen Banks masturbate, he had seen him stand naked in his doorway several times a week. When officers located Banks, they explained there were some complaints about his sexual behavior, and he immediately said, “I don’t do that,” the affidavit states. He appeared nervous and again said, “I don’t do that.” He was questioned about both standing at his door naked and masturbating and repeated, “I don’t do that.”
He was arrested and bonded out the same day. He failed to appear in court for that charge, and a warrant was issued for his arrest in September 2022. He spent a little over two months in jail, pleaded no contest and was sentenced to time served.
Less than two months ago, Banks was arrested again for petit theft, fleeing and eluding and resisting arrest stemming from a shoplifting incident at Dollar Tree, 1800 North State Road 19, Eustis on July 17. EPD responded to Dollar Tree on a shoplifting complaint and the accused thief had already left when officers arrived. Using the description provided by employees, an officer found the suspect, identified as Banks, driving his blue motorized scooter along the sidewalk on Grove Street near East Wilt Avenue. An officer ordered him to stop and he kept traveling on his scooter, ignoring the officer’s commands. As Banks approached East Bates Avenue, he was tased but still continued to ride away. He was tased again, fell from his scooter and was taken into custody. He was transported to LCJ, where he remained until pleading no contest to two of the three charges on Aug. 28, and was sentenced to time served, according to Lake County Clerk of Court online records. The fleeing and eluding charge was dropped.
TAVARES, Fla.—An arrest warrant has been obtained for the brother-in-law of a Eustis woman found murdered in May.
Monica Islam, 44, was found shot to death near Scenic Hills Drive and Wolf Branch Road outside of Mount Dora around 7:30 a.m. May 2 after vanishing from Shell, 1701 South Bay Street, Eustis around 6 a.m. the same morning.
According to the missing person report obtained by Inside Lake, Islam’s daughter, Rimi Islam, reported her mother missing around 8:30 a.m. May 2. She told Eustis Police Department they left their home around 5:30 a.m. and arrived at Shell shortly after. She said her mom helped her with opening the store and then she went outside to take a walk around the parking lot, which was normal behavior.
Rimi Islam told police she got busy and lost track of where her mom was. Another employee told Rimi Islam she saw Monica Islam in the parking lot as she arrived at work, around 6:10 a.m. Rimi Islam tried calling her mom, who had left her purse behind at the store, and was unable to reach her. After going back to the home they shared and looking for Monica Islam and checking security cameras for her with no success, Rimi Islam reported her missing to EPD. While investigating Monica’s disappearance, EPD was made aware of a body found near Mount Dora; later identified as Monica Islam.
Eustis Police Department investigates after Monica Islam was reported missing May 2, 2025, Courtesy photo
Islam was found in Lake County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction; deputies responded to the scene and detectives took over the investigation. Through its investigation, LCSO found that Monica Islam had been the victim of a domestic violence committed by her husband, Rashedul Islam, and his brother Shahidul Islam in December 2024, in Eustis, LCSO Capt. John Herrell said in a press release.
In that incident, Rashedul Islam reportedly struck his wife and stole jewelry and paperwork related to a property in Bangladesh. Shahidul Islam pointed a gun at his sister-in-law and told her not to call 911, Herrell said. It was reported to EPD and Rashedul Islam fled the country before he was arrested.
Detectives also uncovered Shahidul Islam had previously been deported and had an immigration warrant for illegally reentering the United states, Herrell said.
Using information from license plate readers (LPR,) detectives connected Shahidul Islam to a home in Sanford and later found out he fled to New York in a rental car. U.S. Marshals located him, he was taken into custody on the federal immigration warrant and has remained in federal custody since May 6, according to Herrell.
“He will be served the homicide warrant and extradited back to Lake County once all the federal requirements related to his immigration status have been satisfied,” Herrell said.
TAVARES, Florida— A man arrested many times for multiple felonies but seldom convicted in past cases, was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 15 years in prison stemming from a 2023 case, according to the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.
Emmanuel Cazeau, now 41, of Eustis, was pulled over in June 2023 by Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies for a minor traffic offense as he pulled out of Circle K, at the corner of County Road 44 and County Road 473 in unincorporated Leesburg, according to an arrest affidavit.
Deputies asked for consent to search Cazeau’s vehicle, which he denied, and K9 Jim and his handler performed an open-air sniff on the vehicle. K9 Jim alerted to the odor of narcotics and Cazeau and his passenger were removed from the vehicle. Deputies searched the vehicle and found a small bag of a purple substance weighing 13 grams that field-tested positive for the deadly drug fentanyl, the affidavit states. Cazeau was taken into custody and arrested for trafficking in fentanyl.
After a two-day trial earlier this month, Cazeau was convicted of trafficking in fentanyl and heroin and possession of methamphetamine by a Lake County jury, and sentence to 15 years in prison by Circuit Judge James Baxley on Monday.
According to Lake County Sheriff’s Office online booking records, prior to this case, Cazeau had been arrested in Lake County seven times since 2019 for multiple offenses including drug trafficking and felony battery; the charges were dropped in each case, according to Lake County Clerk of Court online records.
MOUNT DORA, Fla. — A Tennessee man who police say hit three vehicles, two AC units and house while taking a drunken ride through Mount Dora and Eustis, has been released from the Lake County Jail on $9,000 bond.
Shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday, Mount Dora Police Department responded to a hit-and-run that reportedly occurred at 4th Avenue and Donnelly Street in downtown Mount Dora. The victim in that crash told police the front of a grey Polaris Slingshot struck the corner of the front bumper of his truck, causing approximately $2,000 in damage. The victim said the Slingshot sped off and almost hit another vehicle, according to an arrest affidavit.
While investigating that crash, dispatch received two more calls about hit-and-run crashes, one at State Road 44 and County Road 44B, near Circle K, where a vehicle was rear-ended and the third crash, 1.5 miles away at Eleven Oaks Circle and State Road 44, where another vehicle was rear-ended. The Slingshot took off down Eleven Oaks Circle until finally it crashed into two outdoor AC units and a home at 66 Eleven Oaks Circle, Eustis, causing an estimated $12,000 in damage, the affidavit states. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Eustis Police Department assisted MDPD with the incident.
Law enforcement officers from Mount Dora Police Department, Eustis Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office line the street near 66 Eleven Oaks Circle in Eustis. Courtesy photo
The driver, identified as Canon Thomas Cofrancesco, 38, of Chattanooga Tenn., fled the scene on foot and jumped a fence before he was apprehended by an LCSO deputy. Cofrancesco, who had a strong odor of alcohol emitting from his breath, was detained and placed into the back of an LCSO patrol car. An MDPD officer later assisted Cofrancesco out of the patrol car while he reportedly slurred his words and stated, “These are my friends,” and said an officer has “very pretty eyes,” according to the affidavit.
An MDPD officer assisted Cofrancesco out of the LCSO patrol car and read him his rights. He refused to pay attention, refused field sobriety exercises and could not stand still, the officer noted. He was placed into an MDPD patrol unit for transport to LCJ and kicked the officer’s door. When they arrived at LCJ, Cofrancesco allegedly said he would kill law enforcement, the affidavit states.
While at the jail, the arresting officer conducted a 20-minute observation on Cofrancesco and then a breath test was conducted. More than 1.5 hours after the initial crash, Cofrancesco blew a .291 at 6:39 p.m. and .285 and 6:43 p.m., according to the affidavit—both samples more than three times the legal limit.
Cofrancesco was arrested for DUI (second offense,) DUI with property damage, reckless driving with property damage and three counts of leaving the scene of a crash.
UMATILLA, Fla.— A head-on crash with a heavy-duty commercial truck sent an Astatula woman to an Orlando hospital by helicopter Monday night, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Around 9:45 p.m. Monday, Tammie Mast, 48, of Astatula, was driving a 2010 Honda Insight northbound on State Road 19 leaving the intersection of McKinley Road when she drove into the grass median and into the southbound lanes of State Road 19, between Umatilla and Eustis, Trooper Migdalisis Garcia told Inside Lake.
Mast failed to see a 2016 Dodge RAM 5500 approaching McKinley Road traveling southbound and the vehicles collided head-on, Garcia said. Mast was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center by AirCare. She was last reported in critical condition in the ICU, Garcia said.
The driver of the RAM, a 43-year-old Eustis woman, was not injured.
TAVARES, Fla.—A DeLand man was nabbed Thursday morning driving a stolen City of Tavares truck, following a break-in at the city’s Public Works Complex.
According to a Tavares Police Department report, TPD responded to the Public Works Complex, 920 Captain Haynes Road after an employee reported that when he arrived shortly after 5:45 a.m. Thursday, he found Lake Technical College’s doors open, and two vehicles and a building had been broken into.
Officers obtained surveillance video that showed Ronald Carlton Harmon, 43, just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night on the complex property. More than an hour later, he is seen on video again, this time using a white skid steer to force open a roll-up door, causing $40,000 in damage to the door. He is also seen walking through several hallways in the building.
While investigating, another employee told officers the front door lock of the Utilities Administration Building had been removed and the door was damaged, and another door was found shattered; the estimated total damage to the complex is nearly $60,000. Various items in the building were moved, a pry bar was found on a kitchen table, along with a hammer on the kitchen counter. Multiple sets of keys were missing from offices, and some of them were strewn about the building, the report states.
A third employee reported his office had been ransacked and he was missing a City of Tavares shirt and hat, and a City of Tavares truck was missing. The truck, a 2015 Ford 250 Super Duty 4×2, was entered as stolen, while officers collected the shirt Harmon was wearing on video, a pack of cigarettes, a lighter and two V8 drinks. The keys that belonged to the stolen truck were taken from an office, they were not in the truck, TPD PIO Courtney Sullivan told Inside Lake.
While still on scene investigating, a call came in regarding a vehicle driving erratically in the area of Burleigh Boulevard and Duncan Drive around 9:20 a.m. Officers responded to the area and confirmed it was the city’s truck. The truck traveled southbound down U.S. Highway 441 through Tavares and Eustis and was pulled over in Mount Dora near East Crooked Lake Drive with the assistance of Mount Dora Police Department and Eustis Police Department. Harmon was driving the truck and taken into custody. He was arrested for grand theft auto, criminal mischief more than $1000, two counts of burglary and driving while license suspended. He was transported to the Lake County Jail, where he is being held on $57,500 bond.
EUSTIS, Fla.—A 20-year-old man is behind bars and is being held on no bond, accused of shooting a teenager in Eustis last month.
Ja’baree Lane, of Deltona, was picked up in Volusia County on a Eustis Police Department warrant for attempted second degree murder, shooting into an occupied dwelling and discharging a firearm in public, EPD Chief Craig Capri said, and more arrests are imminent.
According to a heavily-redated report, around 8:45 p.m. July 6, EPD responded to a call of a 14-year-boy who had been shot on Hazzard Avenue. As officers arrived, a woman flagged officers down and said the teen was inside a home, suffering from a gunshot wound.
Police entered the home and found the boy lying on his back with a gunshot wound to his inner thigh, according to a report. An officer rendered aid and applied pressure to the wound until Lake EMS arrived and took over the boy’s care. He was airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando for treatment and later released.
MINNEOLA, Fla.—It’s been one year since Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the call that claimed the life of Master Deputy Bradley Link and Saturday, a stretch of U.S. Highway 27 in Minneola was renamed in his honor.
The Minneola City Council adopted the resolution earlier this year that renamed the portion of the roadway between Division Street and County Road 561. Link’s parents, Daniel and Christi, accepted the resolution and were in attendance for the official renaming on Saturday, along with Link’s wife, Brittany, members of LCSO’s command staff and numerous deputies. Minneola Mayor Pat Kelley led the ceremony, which included an invocation by LCSO Chaplain Joshua Douglas, and remarks were given by LCSO Major Todd English, Pamela Jones of Congressman Daniel Webster’s office, and State Representative Taylor Yarkosky.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Master Deputy Bradley Link’s parents, Christi and Daniel. Photo courtesy of Shannon Cook
On Aug. 2, 2024, deputies responded to an altercation in unincorporated Eustis and subsequent well-being check. Link and K9 Master Deputy Harold Howell, along with several other deputies, were performing the well-being check at the home Julie and Michael Sulpizio shared with their adult daughters, Savannah and Cheyenne Sulpizio, following a Baker Act of Julie Sulpizio. After finding two dead dogs in the yard and a window with a broken screen, Link made multiple unanswered announcements over his PA system, at the home located at 38144 Brookside Drive. Link, Howell and three other deputies attempted to enter the Sulpizio home shortly after 9 p.m. They entered through the rear door near the driveway that opened to a small laundry room and into a hallway that goes left and right.
Link approached the hallway and announced he was going left and indicated Howell should go right. As Link walked into the hallway, his bodycam picked up several frames of what appeared to be a male wearing a black shirt or body armor, with a rifle, positioned on the arm of a couch, ready to ambush deputies. Link did not see the man because he was looking left down the hallway, and the bodycam was facing forward, Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said last year.
Link entered the hallway and the suspect, believed to be Michael Sulpizio, opened fire, shooting Link in the back several times, and Howell was shot in the arm. Howell and the other deputies were forced to retreat out of the residence and Link was immobilized, suffering multiple gunshot wounds. He attempted to crawl on his back to cover but was unsuccessful. Link emptied his duty weapon of all rounds, Grinnell said, and moved his hand in what appeared to be an attempt to answer his radio as his ID number was called out but was also unsuccessful. He was shot several more times.
Link’s bodycam continued to record audio and video and was pointed toward the ceiling, and at 9:24 p.m., a female yelled, “My king kill all of you. You are Lucifer’s children,” in response to deputies asking for Link’s release.
Two minutes later, the Street Crimes team, comprised of Deputy Stefano Gargano, Deputy Corey LaBrecque, Deputy Matthew Green and Cpl. Tyler Palmer, entered the home, with Gargano in the lead using a ballistic shield as cover. It was later revealed Gargano insisted he go first because he was the only member of the team who did not have children. As he approached the threshold of the hallway, Gargano was shot through the wall multiple times by high-caliber rounds, causing him to become incapacitated. The team returned fire and extracted Gargano. LaBrecque immediately began assessing and treating Gargano’s injuries and accompanied Gargano in the ambulance as he was transported to HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital as a trauma alert.
Top: Deputy Stefano Gargano; Deputy Corey LaBrecque Bottom: Deputy Matthew Green; Cpl. Tyler Palmer PHOTOS: Lake County Sheriff’s Office
Just after 11 p.m. deputies heard two rapid gunshots and a third shot a few minutes later and LCSO’s SWAT Team ripped a wall off the residence and extracted Link. He was rushed to a waiting ambulance for transport to a landing zone so he could be flown out for treatment. While en route, the decision was made to transport him to AdventHealth Waterman in Tavares, where he was ultimately pronounced deceased.
As the SWAT Team cleared the home, they found two deceased females, identified as Savannah and Cheyenne Sulpizio, on the couch, dead from what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head. Michael Sulpizio was found on the couch with a gunshot wound and a faint pulse. He was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased.
A search of the home revealed a stockpile of 20 firearms placed strategically around the home. Ammunition, food and water, medical bags and bugout bags, in addition to anti-government propaganda were also found. No illegal drugs were found in the home. Accused of the plotting the crimes, Julie Sulpizio was later arrested for a multitude of charges. She’s been found incompetent to stand trial twice and was involuntarily committed to the Department of Children and Families in late May.
If found competent at a later date, she is facing charges of principal to first degree murder of a law enforcement officer, conspiracy to commit first degree murder, three counts of principal to attempted first degree murder of a law enforcement officer, three counts of battery and one count of battery on a law enforcement officer
Gargano returned to light duty in May and Howell continues to recover from his injuries.
EUSTIS, Fla.—A babysitter accused of leaving the infant she was caring for in a Eustis parking lot has been released from jail on $2,000 bond.
Wendy Michelle Kirk, 46, was arrested after someone reported a baby was left unattended in a car seat in the parking lot of Martial Arts World, 284 West Ardice Avenue, Eustis, around 4:10 p.m. Thursday, according to an arrest affidavit.
When Eustis Police Department arrived on scene, a witness told officers Kirk dropped off another child at the business around 3:30 p.m. She returned about 30 minutes later, picked up several children, and left. After class ended, the witness saw the baby in a car seat on the hot asphalt, alone. The temperature was 96 degrees.
After unsuccessfully searching for an adult, the witness brought the baby inside and called police.
Lake EMS and Eustis Fire Department responded to the scene and the baby was transported to AdventHealth Waterman in Tavares to get checked out, and hospital staff said the baby “did not present any medical concerns,” the affidavit states.
EPD spoke with an employee and reviewed security footage showing Kirk leaving the business at 4:02 p.m. The call to EPD reporting the baby was found came in seven minutes later, at 4:09 p.m. While officers were investigating, Kirk returned to the business at 4:36 p.m.—34 minutes after she left—and appeared visibly “distressed and crying.” Kirk told police she returned as soon as she realized she left the baby behind. She said she dropped several children off at the business at 3:30 p.m. and then went home to pick the baby up from her 18-year-old daughter, who was watching him. She went back to the business to pick the other children up at 4 p.m. After walking outside, she placed three older children in her vehicle and set the baby down on the asphalt.
She drove to a local church; the name and address of the church are redacted from the affidavit, so it’s unclear how far she drove. She let the three children who were with her play on the church’s playground, while she sold some merchandise, according to the affidavit. After staying at the church for around 20 to 25 minutes, she drove back to Ardice Avenue and met with police.
Kirk was arrested for child neglect and transported to the Lake County Jail. According to the affidavit, the Department of Children and Families has opened its own investigation.
