Luther Sasser, a 22-year-old Anna Maria Island resident, has earned six months jail on Thursday for illegally gill-netting 700 pounds of mullet in May. Sasser was convicted Dec. 2 of having mullet and a gillnet in the same boat, and failure to transit a gillnet directly to federal waters about 10 miles offshore.
Circuit Judge Lee Haworth also sentenced the fishermen to six months of house arrest and three years of probation. The judge also ordered him to forfeit the money from the fish caught, to pay $100 to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and $5,000 civil penalty. He also revoked for life Sasser’s saltwater products license.
In a similar case a 22-year-old gang member was sentenced prison time after pleading guilty Thursday to a charge of conspiracy to racketeering. Under a plea deal with prosecutors, Laura Garcia will receive three years in prison and two years of probation when she is sentenced in April, informed Statewide Prosecutor Diane Croff. She also said that Garcia, of Palmetto, is one of 14 West Side Locos/SUR-13 gang members who were part of a criminal enterprise.
