Politics
Dog abandoned amid hurricane suffers major health scares as previous owner faces criminal case
A judge on Thursday pushed back a criminal case that went viral over a man accused of abandoning his bull terrier tied to a fence along Interstate 75 in the face of an approaching major hurricane.
Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23, of Ruskin, east of St. Petersburg, is facing a felony aggravated animal cruelty charge in a case that drew the attention of Gov. Ron DeSantis, national outrage – and a proposed new state law in Florida. He faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
“You don’t just tie up a dog and have them out there for a storm,” DeSantis said after Aldama Garcia’s arrest in October. “It’s totally unacceptable and we’re going to hold you accountable.”
The state attorney, Suzy Lopez, whose office is prosecuting Aldama Garcia, previously described herself as a dog owner and dog lover and said it was impossible for her to imagine tying a pet to a fence ahead of a Category 5 hurricane.
On Thursday, in a brief hearing in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, Judge G. Gregory Green set March 31 as the next stage of the case. Aldama Garcia had previously notified the judge that he did not plan to attend the hearing and would be represented by his defense lawyer, Tony Lopez of Tampa. Lopez wasn’t available after the hearing to discuss the case against his client.
The dog, renamed Trooper in honor of the Florida Highway Patrol officer who rescued him, was adopted by a family in South Florida, Frank and Carla Spina of Parkland, and underwent successful surgery in December to remove two cancerous tumors on his left side.
Then, last week, there was a new crisis in Trooper’s life: X-rays showed a foreign substance in Trooper’s stomach after the dog vomited a small piece of rubber. A specialist veterinary surgeon from Miami, Randy Dominguez, operated Saturday for three hours and extracted about 2 pounds of plastic and rubber material from Trooper’s stomach, Dominguez said.
“It was very challenging,” the veterinarian said. “You don’t really do that. You get in, you see that amount of garbage and you stop right there and convert to open surgery. But I took my chances and moved forward.”
Dominguez said he used an endoscopy, which is less invasive than stomach surgery and allowed Trooper to recover more quickly.
“The dog had suffered enough already,” Dominguez said.
Spina believed the dog ate the foreign matter because Aldama Garcia didn’t adequately feed it before abandoning it. The dog is back home and recovering this week.
“Trooper was full of garbage,” Spina wrote on social media. “That creep who abused him apparently was starving him also.” He added, “My best friend Trooper is home.”
Parkland Mayor Rich Walker expects to honor Trooper during a ceremony at the city hall meeting on Feb. 19.
Troopers’ plight is also provoking action in the Capitol. Lawmakers in Tallahassee are considering legislation that would make it illegal to abandon a dog that is restrained during a natural disaster. If passed, the bill would take effect July 1 and impose a fine of up to $10,000 and a prison term of up to five years—what Aldama Garcia is already facing under the felony aggravated animal cruelty charge.
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee will hold a hearing on its version of the bill on Tuesday of next week.
“ People need to understand that when we say we’re pro-life as Republicans, that’s all life, and an animal’s life is worth something as well,” said former Rep. Joel Rudman, a Navarre Republican, who introduced a version of the bill before he resigned to run unsuccessfully for Congress.
Rudman’s bill was scrapped and replaced with one by Republican Reps. Phillip Griffitts of Panama City, and Susan Plasencia of Winter Park. Rudman, a guitarist, said he is performing at a Feb. 13 charity event at Bowden’s in Tallahassee to raise money for the Alaqua Animal Refuge.
As Hurricane Milton approached, Aldama Garcia’s mother, Mabel Garcia Gomez, 53, had stopped their car on I-75 during the family’s evacuation to Georgia from heavy rain, letting the dog out of the vehicle, according to court records. Aldama Garcia said he last saw the dog in standing water and left it behind.
Investigators said Aldama Garcia had owned the dog, which he called Jumbo, since it was a puppy and had been trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the dog for weeks. “He could not deal with the dog,” the arrest report said.
Jessica Ellen Ospina, 36, of Apollo Beach, made the original call to law enforcement and is a witness for the prosecution in Aldama Garcia’s case.
“ If you choose to take responsibility of an animal, then you take responsibility of that animal just as you choose to take responsibility of a child,” Ospina said in a new interview this week. “And if you can’t do that, then you sure shouldn’t go tie him up to a post when a … hurricane’s coming to hit.”
The highway patrol found the dog – trembling and in distress – tied to a pole in standing water. The agency posted a video on social media showing the black-and-white dog tied in an area where flooding water almost covered its legs.
The penalties spelled out under the legislative proposals could be a deterrent, said Amy Wade-Carotenuto, executive director at the Flagler Humane Society in Palm Coast.
“ It makes it very clear to people, ‘Don’t even think about it’.”
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Gabriel Velasquez Neira and Ella Thompson reporting via Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporters can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]. You can donate to support students here.
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Moments before the Legislature passed the controversial TRUMP Act, Rep. Lawrence McClure disclosed a dramatic incident that unfolded at his rural Hillsborough County home.
His wife, Courtney McClure, was turning on the front porch lights for the evening when she saw a strange man running on the driveway, Rep. McClure said last month on the House floor before the third passage of the bill.
The intruder had jumped the locked gate to their home while Courtney McClure was alone with their two young children and the representative was on the road almost all the way to Tallahassee.
“When he got to our front door, he grabbed that door and tried to break it down,” Rep. McClure said.
Public records obtained by Florida Politics revealed more details of what happened Dec. 1.
When the intruder refused to leave, Courtney McClure went into their home and pulled out a gun, according to a report from Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office that Florida Politics obtained from a public records request.
Rep. McClure did not mention his wife had the gun in his public remarks.
“My wife called me. She had a tone and a panic that I had never heard since the day I met her,” Rep. McClure said on the House floor. “I could hear my 5-year-old screaming, terrified, and my 1-year-old daughter equally as scared.”
Rep. McClure said the incident was captured on his home video surveillance system.
“I’ve gotten to play it back,” Rep. McClure said. “It was the closest thing I’ve seen to pure proof that you don’t get between the babies and the mamas.”
The man ran off and jumped over a barbed-wire fence into a pasture, climbed another fence and then broke into a screened-in back patio of a neighboring home, the sheriff’s report said.
It just so happened that neighbor happened to be Rep. McClure’s cousin, the lawmaker said on the House floor.
And the cousin was also armed – just like the lawmaker’s wife, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s indicated.
Esvin Guzman Morales, 31, of Dover, was arrested and has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor trespass charges.
The public defender’s office, which is representing Guzman Morales, did not return a message for comment. A phone number listed for Guzman Morales was not in service Thursday.
Some of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s arrest report is redacted and the 911 call was not released because of the ongoing criminal investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
Rep. McClure described Guzman Morales as “someone here illegally” in his telling of the story.
The arrest report does not detail his immigration status although it says that Guzman Morales has having a Guatemalan Identification Card.
Rep. McClure said Guzman Morales had an outstanding warrant for his arrest from a previous incident in Collier County.
A Collier County Sheriff’s Report detailed a woman reported a man had returned home from work and had been drinking in September 2023.
“He began to question her by saying, ‘What you did today? What are you doing?’” the sheriff’s incident report said. “He was being belligerent to her.”
The man punched and broke their flat screen TV and threw a water bottle at the woman. The woman went to lie down on her bed, and the man hit her leg and then grabbed her left hand and twisted her arm around her back, the report said.
The situation happened while a 2-year-old was home.
The man left the bedroom, and the woman locked the door behind him. He tried to get back in, but the woman told him to leave.
By the time the Collier County Sheriff’s Office arrived, the man was gone.
The man’s name was redacted in the report but the sheriff’s department released the report when Florida Politics asked for any records associated with Guzman Morales.
Rep. McClure did not respond to a Florida Politics’ inquiry for this story as he framed the Dec. 1 situation as influencing his views when he spoke to his fellow lawmakers.
“We have to take action,” said Rep. McClure, the sponsor of the House version of the TRUMP Act, as he urged his colleagues to pass the bill despite Gov. Ron DeSantis’ criticism that it wasn’t strong enough legislation.
Rep. McClure also reflected on the emotions lingering from what happened at his home.
Rep. McClure said his 5-year-old “asks you every single day, ‘What was that bad man doing trying to get in the house?’ And if you want to feel even worse, ‘Why weren’t you here to help mommy?’”
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On the heels of a record-breaking year of hosting more travelers than ever, Jacksonville International Airport (JIA) is adding more flights to its schedule.
JIA announced Thursday the airline hub will add more Southwest Airlines flights to Austin, Texas, this year. Officials with the airport also are adding flights to St. Louis, Mo., aboard Allegiant Airlines.
Both destinations will involve direct, nonstop flights. The St. Louis flights will take travelers to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. The St. Louis route isn’t so much a new one. Rather, it’s a return of the service on Allegiant. It begins again in March.
The Austin route will exchange travelers with Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Those flights won’t begin until October, though. The service on Southwest Airlines will depart from JIA at 11:58 a.m. and arrive in Austin about 12:35 p.m. Then the flights from Austin will depart about 12:50 p.m. and arrive in Jacksonville about 4:15 p.m. That flight schedule will be offered every day except for Saturdays when Southwest begins the service in the fall.
“Southwest is a beloved airline with strong brand loyalty,” Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) CEO Mark VanLoh said. “We have no doubt that their service to Austin will be successful.”
It’s the latest addition of First Coast flight service being offered involving JIA and Southwest. The carrier already offers nonstop travel to Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Nashville and St. Louis. That’s on top of another addition beginning later this year as Southwest will begin Saturday-only service from JIA to Kansas City on June 7.
The new routes and flights come as JIA just marked a record-setting year for travelers in 2024.
JIA officials announced in January the airport broke records again as more than 7.6 million travelers passed through the facility in 2024. That’s up from the 7.45 million passengers who used the airport in 2023. Passenger travel in 2024 was up 2.4% over 2023, smashing the record that had already been set in 2023.
Jacksonville International Airport officials had noted expanded service and new flights were a significant part of the reason for record-breaking use of the facility.
“Our passenger volume continues to increase as Northeast Florida and the local economy grow,” Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) CEO Mark VanLoh said. “Airlines have taken note, adding frequencies, cities and larger aircraft at JAX.”
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A Spring Hill Republican thinks 16 years is enough time in the state Legislature, and he hopes voters agree.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia’s SJR 536 would give voters the chance to limit lawmakers to eight years each in the Senate and the House, and foreclosing their path to return to a seat they previously held after being out of it for a period of time.
“Let’s stop the practice of people continually running for the same office and bouncing back and forth between chambers. Serving the people of Florida should be a privilege, and an honor, not a career,” Ingoglia, a former chair of the Republican Party of Florida, said Thursday.
The bill would take effect in November.
The matter is relevant given state Rep. Debbie Mayfield, elected again to the House after eight years in the Senate in November, wants to replace Sen. Randy Fine as he pursues a seat in Congress.
The Secretary of State ruled her ineligible to run citing term limits, saying her candidacy would violate the Constitution because a person cannot run for Florida Senator “if, by the end of the current term of office, the person will have served (or but for resignation, would have served) in that office for eight consecutive years.”
Mayfield claims Gov. Ron DeSantis used “the executive branch to punish me for endorsing Donald J. Trump for President (and) weaponized the Department of State just like Joe Biden weaponized the Department of Justice against Donald Trump.”
She has appealed to the Florida Supreme Court for redress. The state of Florida is compelled to respond to her pleading by end of business Monday.
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Jacob Ogles contributed reporting.
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