LADY LAKE, Florida—A Georgia man busted Wednesday with 130 pressed pills that tested positive for cocaine is facing a trafficking charge and being held in the Lake County Jail on no bond due to a probation violation.
Corey Michael Payton, 43, of Douglas, Georgia, was pulled over near the intersection of U.S. Highway 27/441 and Water Oak Boulevard after a license plate reader alerted Lady Lake Police a stolen vehicle had entered the town, according to an arrest affidavit.
PHOTO: Lake County Sheriff’s Office
Lady Lake Police detained Payton and began to inventory the vehicle before having it towed and found a prescription bottle in the center console that contained 130 pills that resembled Xanax bars, the arresting officer noted in the affidavit. The pills were filed tested and tested positive for cocaine. Payton’s legitimate prescription was also located in the console.
Payton told police a friend of his lent him the vehicle and he knew the pills were in the console, but they did not belong to him. “Based on the statements made in reference to the stolen vehicle, there was insufficient evidence to proceed further with charging Mr. Payton with grand theft auto,” the officer stated in the affidavit.
Payton was arrested for trafficking cocaine and transported to LCJ. He is also facing a violation of probation and is being held on no bond.
LEESBURG, Florida—The trio accused of being in a car that attempted to run over a Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputy are facing a litany of charges, according to several booking sheets.
Jeffrey Elijah Gilbert, 20, of Orlando is facing the most serious charge, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a motor vehicle, after being accused of being the driver in Monday’s incident.
According to LCSO, a deputy attempted a traffic stop near Water Oak Country Club Estates on a white Dodge Charger believed to be involved in a shoplifting incident at Walmart, 2501 Citrus Boulevard, Leesburg. Gilbert, along with passengers, Pierre D’Haiti, of Orlando, and Calvin Anthony Williams, of Davenport, both 20, fled the stop in a white Dodge Charger after trying to run the deputy over to “facilitate an escape,” a detective noted in Gilbert’s affidavit.
As the car came towards him, the deputy fired two shots, striking two of the car’s occupants. The Charger fled and the trio abandoned the car near Country Life Mobile Home Park and fled on foot across U.S. Highway 27 into a Dunkin Donuts near the corner of U.S. Highway 27 and County Road 48. When law enforcement arrived, they found Gilbert and D’Haiti in the bathroom, along with scales, a glass jar and two gallon-sized bags of marijuana, the affidavit states.
Gilbert is facing one charge of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute, fraudulent use of a credit card and criminal use of personal identification; He is being held on no bond.
D’Haiti is facing one charge each of, possession of marijuana over 20 grams, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of another person’s identification, illegal use of a credit card and petit theft; he is being held on $9,000 bond.
Williams is facing four petit theft charges, one charge of scheme to defraud, four charges of illegal use of a credit card, four charges ID theft, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute, three counts of violation of probation from an Orange County case and a pending charge that was not available at press time; he is being held on no bond.
LEESBURG, Florida—Two people were shot by a Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputy after the vehicle they were in drove towards him when he was outside of his vehicle, according to LCSO Lt. John Herrell.
LCSO deputies were looking for a suspect vehicle after a stolen credit card was used at Walmart, 2501 Citrus Boulevard, Leesburg. Deputies spotted the vehicle in Lady Lake and attempted a traffic stop, but the vehicle fled, Herrell said in a press release.
“At some point during the chase, the deputy, after getting out of his vehicle, reportedly fired shots at the suspect vehicle as it drove towards him,” Herrell said.
The three suspects fled and abandoned their vehicle at Country Life Mobile Home Park, 3813 Victor Boulevard, Leesburg. Numerous witnesses told Inside Lake the car was a white Dodge Charger, but LCSO has not confirmed that. The trio were apprehended at Dunkin Donuts, near the corner of U.S. Highway 27 and County Road 48.
Two of the suspects were transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center with what appears to be non-life-threatening injuries, Herrell said. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.
LADY LAKE, Florida—A 73-year-old man from The Villages is facing charges after being accused of trespassing and threatening employees of the Lady Lake T-Mobile store that he would put a bomb in front of the store if they did not help him.
Donald Stuart Brown was trespassed from the store on Dec. 2 and returned around 11:05 a.m. Wednesday, screaming and being verbally abusive towards employees, according to the arrest affidavit. Employees called Lady Lake Police and Brown had already left when police arrived; an employee told LLPD Brown had also been causing disturbances at T-Mobile’s Leesburg store.
Around 4 p.m. the same day, LLPD responded back to the Lady Lake store in response to a false report of a bomb. Brown is alleged to have called from his T-Mobile phone shortly before 3 p.m., and told an employee, “If they did not help him, he would put a bomb in front of the store and blow his way in,” the affidavit states.
LLPD contacted Brown and told him to return to the store, where he was arrested for false report of planting a bomb and trespassing. He was transported to the Lake County Jail, where he was released on $6,000 bond.
LADY LAKE, Florida—It has been three years since Mariann Decker heard her son, Danny’s voice.
December is an extra hard month for her; her son’s birthday is Dec. 6, the anniversary of his disappearance is Dec. 15 and of course, Christmas.
“It’s not a great time of year,” she said.
Daniel “Danny” Decker, who was 34 at the time of his disappearance, has not been seen or heard from since the early morning hours of Dec. 15, 2018, Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detective Clay Watkins told Inside Lake earlier this week.
Double D, as Decker was affectionately known, literally gave a homeless man the shirt off his back one cold night and was a fun person who liked to bust people’s chops, his mom said. “Danny had a sense of humor from the day he was born. I can’t explain how funny he was.”
He loved his dad, and they were joined at the hip, Mariann Decker said. He always wanted to go to work with him, you could separate them.
On Dec. 14, 2018, Decker was at a friend’s house in Carlton Village when he and another friend borrowed a car and went to Sumter County to play fish games at an arcade and then later returned.
“We know he was at a friend’s house, (and) we know he was looking for a ride away,” Watkins said.
The friend wanted his car back and Danny and another friend left to meet the owner and return the car.
“They believed they were being followed,” Watkins said, and Decker called his mother at 2:11 a.m. and told her he thought they were being pursued. Decker had some prior minor run-ins with the law.
“He wasn’t an angel,” Mariann Decker said. “He was his own worst enemy sometimes, he trusted everybody.”
Mariann Decker said she will never forget that last phone call from her oldest son. She remembers his tone and everything he said.
“Ma, they’re chasing me,” he told her. She asked who was chasing him and he said, “I don’t know, the cops. Somebody is chasing me.”
Danny Decker PHOTO: Courtesy of Mariann Decker
It was not law enforcement chasing him, Watkins said, but it still unknown who was chasing him. Decker sped up and drove down Eleanor Lane, a small dirt road off Marion County Road, abandoned the car and fled the scene. Mariann Decker does not believe it happened that way. “My son would never a vehicle because it’s his last line of defense.”
Decker’s friend said he ran one way and Decker ran another and, “Danny was never seen again,” Watkins said.
A neighbor found the abandoned car and after LCSO received the case, it was processed at the tow yard, “No physical evidence; nothing inside the car that would indicate a crime,” Watkins said. The keys to the car were never found.
Originally a Lady Lake Police Department case, it was turned over to LCSO and LCSO utilized helicopters and K-9s in the area that is mostly rural cow pastures, wooded and includes several lakes, but nothing was ever found. “We canvassed the area, and nobody saw anything,” Watkins said.
Watkins believes Decker is likely dead since so much time has passed, and no one has heard from him. He is asking anyone with information on Decker’s location to come forward and give Decker’s family some closure. Mariann Decker agrees her son is no longer here. Her mother’s instinct told her he was gone before he was officially missing. About five hours after receiving his last phone call, she went looking for him and was drawn to Marion County Road. She said she felt pulled in a northwestern direction and still feels his body is in that area.
“He wouldn’t go a day (without) talking to me,” she told Inside Lake. Choking back tears, she said he would hug her and kiss her cheek every day. “I miss him very much.”
Danny Decker PHOTO: Courtesy of Mariann Decker
There have been numerous rumors and tips over the years; some plausible, and some extremely far-fetched, but Watkins chases them all down.
“Mariann deserves to bury her son and know what happened to her son,” Watkins said, “They want to put him to rest.”
If you have information on Decker’s disappearance, call Watkins at 352-343-2101.
OCALA, Florida— The head of a major drug trafficking organization who was busted earlier this year was sentenced this week to 25 years in federal prison, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Devonne L. Walker, 36, of Lady Lake pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance a little over a month after being arrested in Leesburg by Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies on June 25, 2021. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr. in Ocala federal court.
At the time of his arrest, Walker was found to be in possession of a stolen firearm, more than 260 grams of methamphetamine, more than 80 grams of fentanyl and a small amount of cocaine and marijuana.
The evidence presented at Walker’s sentencing showed he was the leader and organizer of a Lake County drug conspiracy that imported more than 100 kilograms of methamphetamine, 50 kilograms of both marijuana and cocaine and 1 kilogram of heroin between 2018 and 2019. Walker organized his accomplices in Phoenix, Arizona to ship the drugs to Florida and Walker would then distribute the dope to other dealers in Central Florida.
Two of Walker’s co-conspirators have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting their sentences. A third person has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial January 2022.
The investigation was conducted by numerous agencies, including LCSO, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA,) the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and prosecuted by Assistant United State Attorney Michael P. Felicetta.
