UFOs have overflown Keys for years

‘Six dim points of light in circular position'
 

By John L. Guerra

Traveling south from Key Largo, where North America runs out in a diminishing string, the night sky is vast and deep. From the dark pockets along U.S. 1 where there are no street lights or lighted homes and stores, one can look up and see stars dusting the sky. It is the kind of heavens stargazers hope for.
For decades, residents and visitors who drive down U.S. 1 or sail the Florida Straits to Key West have reported seeing unidentifiable lights and bizarre solid objects in flight. The following reports, taken from the National UFO Reporting Network, include sightings from some pretty reliable people.

If you have seen something unexplainable in the sky, please write your experience in the comments section at the end or email me at johnlguerra@gmail.com with your UFO experience.

I've included many Keys UFO accounts, some dating as far back as 1962.
I note when the UFO images here are connected to Keys sightings. I pulled other images from outside the Keys.

June 30, 1975:

“This happened sometime between 1971 and 1977 (I'm sorry that I can't be more specific, but we took so many trips to Florida back then and I didn't record the info); my then-husband and I were traveling south through the Florida Keys on U.S. 1.  We were about to exit one of the bridges onto a Key, going south, when on my right (the Gulf of Mexico side) I saw the bottom of a huge metallic ‘ship’ — that's the only way I can describe it, hovering near and just above a waterfront home rooftop, straddling the rooftop and the water. It just hung there, just at a little above rooftop level.
I could only see the bottom of it, as I remember the top of it was cloud-, or mist-covered (although it was sitting not far off the ground). There were lots of people already pulled over to the side of the road and out of their cars, gesturing and pointing towards it.
I absolutely begged my then-husband to please ‘Stop, stop!’ I wanted to look at it, but he wouldn't, he just kept looking straight ahead with the pedal to the metal. (I think he was scared to death). I craned my neck as we drove by to see as best I could, and then it suddenly vanished.
This happened so long ago, but I distinctly remember that whatever it was created absolutely no sound. As to its shape, it looked to me like the rear end of a dirigible, only standing straight up, vertically. Like the bottom of a missile. It was metallic gray.”

June 1, 1978:

“It was late one night when my mom, dad, childhood friend and I were making one of the hundreds of trips up the Florida Keys from Key West we took back in the late ‘70s. It was very, very dark, very little traffic.

The sky was clear with lots of stars. My friend and I decided out of boredom to watch the sky for shooting stars. We saw an occasional plane or airliner with their blinking lights traveling across the sky.
At one point I was watching one of these ‘planes’ (no blinking lights) when all of a sudden it took off like a shooting star, so that got my attention. But it never went out of sight. Instead it stopped ‘shooting’ and continued at a regular speed like a plane. At this point, I called everyone’s attention to it.
Then it shot across the sky again, then stopped, and did it again. It was moving in irregular patterns, one way then another. We were all just amazed and could not take our eyes off of it, just watching it zigzag around at different speeds. It seemed like it went on for such a long time.

My dad was having a hard time keeping his eyes on the road and on the object too, but he didn’t stop, he just slowed down. We were all trying to guess what the heck it could be, because we knew it was not a shooting star or a plane. We do have a lot of military bases down in the Keys, but I don’t even think the stealth bomber was in existence or even being tested at that time.

I don’t think there was any aircraft at that time that was capable of this kind of movement. We continued to watch it as its movements seemed to take up the whole sky, when suddenly it stopped and just slowly faded out. It looked as if it went straight out into space at a very, very high rate of speed until it was just gone from sight. We still talk about it to this day.”

Jan. 1, 1996, Key Largo:

“At 3:30in the morning, I was anchored in Tarpon Basin, which is just off the Howard Johnson’s Restaurant and adjacent to the tower, which placed the tower north by east of our boat. This was just prior to crossing to the Bahamas. I got up to check out the anchor and went on deck as it was a clear, warm night, and looking up I noticed a line of white being reflected in a diagonal formation to its line of travel. It looked and traveled somewhat like a flight of birds.

I observed a black triangular-shaped craft fly directly over Key Largo, Fla., approximately 1,000 feet up and 2,000 feet north of the bell tower at the Howard Johnson. Size would be about 100 feet, plus or minus a small amount. It was completely blackened and traveling at about 35 mph, I saw no lights and no reflection other than off the upper edge of the fuselage.
A split second later, I realized that it was a hard-edge, reflecting light back towards me, but not downward. We sailors always have binoculars available, so I was able to get a better view immediately. I was able to see the bottom somewhat; it appeared featureless. At this point time it was impossible to see with the naked eye. I again watched it go slowly to the northwest until it completely blended into the night sky. I called Connie on deck and gave her the binoculars and she was able to see it also. My background as a private pilot and having built and flown my own planes and ultra-light (aircraft) allowed me to judge the speed. As low as it was we both were able to trade off the glasses and observe the progress. I am a retired teacher and have been for 22 years, most of which I have been captain and used to reporting factual reports.”

---------------------------
This photo was taken off  U.S. 1 by an unidentified car passenger, according to the photographer''s notes on the image. The image can be found on Yahoo image search under "UFOs in the Keys." Could it be a Chinook helicopter transporting military personnel?
----------------------------

Jan. 4, 2004, Marathon:

“We were driving toward Key West from Miami on U.S. 1 at about 12:30 a.m.last night (Saturday night). I was driving over a bridge and in the distance I saw something with a green and red light. I noticed it and told my friend I thought it was the balloon that transmits Radio Marti to Cuba on Cudjoe Key. I have seen the balloon in the daytime and assumed that's what I was seeing last night.

Right away, I noticed we were still far away from Cudjoe Key. Anyway, as we got closer to whatever it was, I noticed the lights were very noticeable. I was concentrating on seeing if it was a balloon, so I was looking mostly below the lights. I noticed it was not attached to anything and there was no tower below the lights. It was also too low to be a plane. My friend was looking out the passenger window and said he saw a white light and a red light. He did not see the green light that I originally saw.

When we got closer to the lights, they moved from my side of the truck because the road hadn't curved, but I couldn't see them anymore. My friend said whatever it was moved, and he saw it more over the road. He saw a red and white light 100 to 250 feet away, hovering directly over the highway. He also saw a black mass between the lights in what looked like a triangle, but didn't totally point at the top. From his account the white light was on the top and he saw a red light on the corner of one of the bottom of the points. There was never any sound it made. We opened the windows of the truck when we were close to it, and it was just quiet.

I kept looking for a place to turn around because there was a car right behind me. I had to go about 1,000 feet before I saw a driveway and turned around. When we went back, there was nothing there. No lights. We looked to see if there was anything in the air that it could have been, and again nothing. It was as if it just disappeared.”

Aug. 30, 1989, Key West:

“At the time of the sighting, I was assigned to the U.S. Navy hydrofoil, the USS Pegasus, stationed in Key West Harbor. As an operating specialist and radar operator, I was trained by the Navy in lookout and reporting procedures with emphasis on attention to detail.

On or about the date above, I, along with my family, was driving home from the beach when my wife, who was looking out the window, asked me, ‘What kind of aircraft is that?’ I turned to look and at about 100 yards offshore, coming slowly from the east toward U.S. 1, I saw what appeared to be two bright lights (brighter than an arc welder’s torch). I pulled over, aiming the front of the car directly toward the inbound object, thus giving us a much better view.

The object continued flying toward us and stopped about 15 feet directly in front of us, hovering over the water at an altitude of about 10 feet. I could now see it much clearer. The object was in the shape of a teardrop, slightly flattened. It was silver in color with no identifiable markings. It measured approximately 7 feet long, 18 inches tall and about 3 feet wide, all measurements coming to a tapered tip, which I believed to be the tail of this craft. It hovered for a few seconds, then it, quite effortlessly, while remaining in its present position, it turned right, facing north, then turned left, facing south. A few more seconds it lowered itself to about 6 to 12 inches over the water and remained there for several minutes. I find it quite interesting that while it hovered and executed these few maneuvers, I couldn’t help but notice that it had no pitch and yaw, had no visible heat signature, had no rivets or weld seams to show how it had been put together and there was no dispersal of the water as this craft hovered directly over it.

The two bright lights that I saw I believed them to be its propulsion system but instead of pushing the craft, it appeared to be pulling the craft. The craft raised itself about 3 feet above the water and preceded south, out to sea. As it was outbound, it stopped and slowly started to rise. At this point I noticed the sunset cruise boat was outbound in the channel. It was as if this object knew that to continue on its present course that it would have been struck by the ship. 

The ship passed underneath the object, which was now at an altitude of about 200 feet and continued outbound until I lost it in the distance. 

 

Nov. 1, 1962, Key West:

“In the very early morning hours of 1962—I don't recall the date or month, at the time I was only 10 years of age—a very loud whistling sound woke me.

As I woke up, I noticed a bright light coming in my bedroom window. When I pulled back the curtain, I saw a very, very large glowing ball coming slowly over the top of my house. It was flying very low, but the only sound I heard was the whistling sound I told you about earlier. I was very scared and covered my head with the covers until it was gone.

I am not saying this was a UFO; I am only saying that it was something very unexplainable and it has stayed with me all these years, since Key West has a military base, I often wondered if maybe it wasn't something the military was testing.

But if so, I never saw anything like it again. If it had not been for the whistling noise, I may have even thought it was ball lightning or something like that, but the eerie sound makes me wonder.
The shape was completely round, very, very large, slow moving and had a constant whistle. There was only one object. Color was a very bight yellow-orange, not unlike the sun. I myself was only 10 at the time; I am now a housewife in South Carolina.”

Feb. 18, 2008, Key West

While observing the overflight of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station from Key West, I observed a third object. The shuttle and the ISS, moving together in orbit, were about 4 to 5 seconds apart, traveling from the northwest sky in a southerly direction.

I then saw a third object moving from south of the space shuttle and the ISS in a northerly direction; it crossed paths very close to the space shuttle and ISS. After passing the space shuttle and ISS, it made a very large, arcing turn to an east heading.

This object was not as bright as the space shuttle and the ISS and looked very much like any other man-made satellite, except that it changed directions; basically it moved from a north heading and changed directions to an east heading after passing the space shuttle and the ISS. This was also witnessed by a friend, five miles away.

June 6, 2006, Key Largo:

“We saw six dim points of light in circular position out in space!
It was around 11:30 p.m.I took my dog for a late walk at a marina in Key Largo. The clouds had moved from my vantage point and I could see stars. At that moment, with the naked eye, out in space, I noticed six points of light in a circular position. I know the objects were in space because it was almost as if they were amongst the stars. They were not as bright as the stars; the stars were dim (glowing). The perfect position amazed me! They seemed to be slowly floating to the northeast.
They also seemed to stop for a period of time and then continue. They never twinkled or changed color. After a while I went inside to call a friend who was also in Key Largo, but he was asleep. I looked out my window and I was shocked to still see them! Eventually the cloud coverage came back and I could no longer see them! Did anyone else see this? Very weird!”

Sept. 3, 2000, Long Key

At about 9 p.m., my wife and I were sitting at the edge of the water at the KOA campground looking at the stars and water. There were no streetlights, just darkness, except for the stars above and the headlights of traffic coming over the bridge from Islamorada.

We saw what looked like car headlights start coming from the horizon in the east, but as it got past the trees, we saw it was more like 14 lights lined up in a row! My wife asked, ‘What in the world is that?’ and I replied I wasn't sure. We sat and watched this thing slowly approach, and realized it was the largest aircraft we'd ever seen, approximately the length of two commercial planes lined up nose to tail.

As it got closer, we were almost blinded by the lights, as it was flying at a fairly low altitude. I remarked to my wife that I couldn't hear any engines and that's when we started getting scared. Surely an aircraft flying that low would have engines we could easily hear! She ran into the motor home to get another couple we were staying with, but by the time they got outside, it had passed over and was gone. I never believed in UFOs before this, but this shook me to the core, as well as it did my wife.

I know there is a naval air station near Key West, so we thought maybe it was some sort of stealth military plane, but it was so large we don't know how they would hide something that big.

It was black, or it was just too dark outside to see a color or shape. Approximately 14 "headlights" spaced evenly apart. It had about the speed of an airplane preparing for landing, and about as low as one approaching a runway. It was flying parallel to the earth at a steady speed..”

Nov.  11, 2004, Key West:

I saw an orange object over Key West, Fla.
High altitude, orange object observed nearly straight up from viewer and slightly east, first thought to be a satellite moving from south to north, but object slowed, stopped and then made slow, steady movements east, then south, then north, and repeated the motion with some variations.

Visible stars (that didn't move) confirmed the motion and actions of the light. Could have been a very high altitude Drug Enforcement Agency or U.S. Customs craft, but there was no sound. Sighting occurred one hour before sunrise in totally clear skies, three hours after a thunderstorm.

Object faded away after five minutes of the movement. Location was above Key West Naval Air Station, but was very high. No pulsating light, solid. Photo taken, not yet developed. Not expecting much by way of photo due to light levels and high altitude, even with lens extension.”

June 1, 2000, Key West:

My wife and I observed strange light formations in the sky over Key West and the Straits of Florida, in the early summer of 2000.
We were 20 feet above the beach. We were facing, due south. The sun was below the horizon, at our right and rear.
The entire sky, from east to west, was lit up by the red wave-length light, bending through the atmosphere and coloring the humid air mass. Scientists call it "after-glow.”
The sky was pink, except for the shadows cast by the horizon and dirty atmosphere, rising up from the east and south. Night was coming and the shroud of evening was creeping above the horizon. If you paid close attention, you could see the cross-section of the atmosphere, as the red light from the setting sun passed through the various atmospheric densities—dirt and dark on the bottom and thin and clear at the top. You could see the shape of the top layer of clouds as the light of the world outlined their billowing shapes, across the sky.
Suddenly a huge V-shaped formation filled the sky. We saw two, maybe three, huge inverted V shapes blotting out the afterglow. They were due south, over the Straits of Florida. They extended from the southern horizon to a point somewhere overhead and behind us.
Just as suddenly, we were in eclipse-like, lighting conditions. The pink, except, for some wedge-shape light still reflecting off the clouds in the southern sky, was gone.
Things that should have been reflecting the afterglow were suddenly, dark. The sea stopped reflecting the pink sky, that seconds, ago, played off the mirror-like ocean that characterizes the shallow waters found atop seven miles of reef. The white stones that made up the jetty were in shadow. It was pretty darn sudden. We never saw anything remotely like it before, except in pictures of a developing eclipse.
Then, we noticed evidence of a fourth object, overhead and stretching due east.
My wife grabbed her 35mm camera and started shooting. The images that she captured are unexplainable. The pictures show what appear to be the images of two, maybe four, arrowhead shaped objects casting shadows against the southern sky and directly overhead.
For two years, the photos were in a drawer—they were of odd light formations, but there are a million of them, everyday. Then I happened to show one of them to a man who makes his livelihood measuring things and recording things accurately. He is a professional “expert” witness, and architectural details and pinpoint accuracy, are his bread and butter. When we casually showed him one of the photos, he physically flinched and sat straight up. It certainly got his attention.
That is when I started to examine just what it was that was making the images.
After much thought, I realized that in the case of the most well-defined image of an inverted arrowhead, I was looking at a shadow being cast by a V-shaped object, suspended point-side down, flat side facing the sun. The object appeared to be hovering in a fixed position, at a point that would place it between the sun that had set -the light source—and the pink sky and dark-shadowed atmosphere in the southern skies, in effect, the movie screen.
The image in the sky was an artifact of the atmosphere, as it bent the light and focused the dark image of the V-shaped object onto the movie-screen like background.
We snapped 10 pictures that day and they showed that the above-mentioned V shaped object had changed its alignment to the sun. The pictures contain a wealth of scientific information and raise a whole lot of questions.

 

Jan.  9, 1979, Key West:

“This is about a small, unexplainable hovering object I spotted as a child of 10 while walking home from school one day in the ‘70s.
I was walking home from school down Flagler Avenue one day in about the fourth or fifth grade. This was around 1978 or 1979. I had walked home every day since the second grade.
It was between 2:30and 3 p.m.I was walking on the sidewalk against the traffic. It was a four-lane with a median. I was one block from my home when I looked across the street ahead of me and saw a strange, small object hovering above the sidewalk about 15-20 feet up.

From that point on, I did not take my eyes off of it, but I did try to see if there was a string on it or if it was being controlled from someone on the ground. This was a residential neighborhood and there was little to no traffic at this time. Or if there was, I do not remember, I was so fixated by this object.
I continued to watch it, walking slowly as it just hovered there. Suddenly it seemed to "’notice’ me and it made a direct bee-line across the street toward me. As I write this, I am getting chills upon chills just recalling this. It didn’t move fast nor slow but just steadily in a very straight line at the same altitude.
Soon it was right over my head, maybe 10 feet above me, and following me exactly as a continued to walk. I was not afraid but extremely intrigued. I couldn’t imagine what it was! It was a small very colorful disk. It was slightly tilted, with a small cylindrical ‘handle’ going through the center. If I can remember, I believe the handle was red. It looked kind of like a toy but it baffled me because it was spinning and it was silent and there was nothing attached to it.
I couldn’t understand how it could be suspended up there, and at that time, I was not aware of any remote controls like this. It hovered over me, spinning quietly until I reached the end of the block and stepped off into the street, then it immediately went back across the street. I still continued to watch it, looking back at it until I got to my house.
At that point, I felt afraid and went into the house, locked the doors and called my mom at work as I watched out the kitchen window trying to spot it. I didn’t have a good view. I never saw it again.
I was not particularly aware of UFOs. Our family was not into that. So it didn’t occur to me that this could be a UFO. I drew a picture of it for my mom and dad and my mom wrote down what I said and we kept that. But I have never forgotten anyway.
From that day on, I always tried to find an explanation for such an object. I looked at kites and remote controls or whatever I could find to explain it. I never could. Then when I saw a toy or colorful kite that reminded me of it, I would feel a sense of panic.
To this day I still have not found a plausible explanation for it.
There were no other witnesses.
This is the first time I have reported it. I am 40 years old.
Watching a UFO special on the Discovery Channel this afternoon prompted me to report this, finally!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Nov. 15, 1973, Key West:

“I saw a saucer craft with red/green alternating lights on its midsection; seen within 500 yards traveling slowly at first then vanished.
While walking out of the now-defunct naval base in Key West, my friends and I saw a large, saucer-shaped craft hovering over a line of trees, no more than a 1/4 mile from us. The craft had a bank of alternating green and red lights that rotated around it as it moved slowly from our right to our left.

It traveled directly across our line of sight, slowly at first. The rotating lights seemed to correspond with the speed of the craft as did a low-pitched, deep whirring sound. As the craft sped up, the lights and the frequency of the sound increased accordingly. We watched it for about 10-15 seconds, when all of a sudden, it streaked up into the sky at an incredible rate of speed.

We watched it until it virtually vanished high in the sky. It was reported to have also landed inside the navy base, as several other sailors indicated in their report to the commanding officer of the base. The base was unexpectedly closed three to four weeks later.

I witnessed the same craft less than 10 days later at another location in Key West.”

July 3, 2000, somewhere in the Keys:

“I saw a chrome ball that was the size and shape of a basketball flying in the Florida Keys, making a variety of 90-degree turns. I was on vacation in the Florida Keys. It was the night before the Fourth of July. I was laying in a beach chair on a small part of the beach looking at the sky.

I noticed something moving; it was in the shape and size of a basketball and looked as if it were chrome-plated or some sort of silver color. The way it was moving, there was no way it was any sort of plane, balloon, helicopter, etc. The object would move forward, then move 5-15 feet to either side (not a zigzag pattern) but more like it was making a variety of L-shaped turns at 90-degrees and kept going until I couldn’t see it any longer. It was traveling in a west-northwest direction at about 10 mph. I wish I would have chased it.”

July 1, 2001, Key West:

“I saw a sphere formation over Key West.”

I wanted to report a sighting which has me puzzled. About two weeks ago, I was in Key West and staying at a hotel.

I was in the pool, which is obviously outside; the time was approximately 10 p.m.As I was relaxing (I had not been drinking!) and staring into the night sky, I suddenly noticed a "V" formation of orange spheres. They were moving fairly slowly from my point of view, but I realized that at the altitude that they were traveling, their speed must have been much greater.

The odd thing about this: One ball was zigzagging in and out of formation. As much as I am interested in UFOs, I am a logical person and do not jump to conclusions. But I have no explanation for what I saw!”

Feb.  24, 2008, Key West:

“I was sitting on a starboard deck of a cruise ship that was traveling in open sea westward, positioned south-southwest of Key West, Fla. I was observing the stars in the northern skies, which were mainly clear with a few scattered clouds on the horizon.

I became intrigued with one particular object as it was definitely spherical, and appeared to be situated between the scattered cloud cover and my line of sight. Its size was consistent with that of the stars, or perhaps a bit larger.

The object then began to spin in a pinwheel fashion for about 8-10 revolutions and then sped off at tremendous speed toward the northwest. It spun very rapidly and with each revolution, its area of circumference became larger. It was akin to watching water drain down a sink but only in reverse.

I was able to observe the object as it sped off for only 1-2 seconds, due to the rate of speed. There were no sounds or any other anomalies associated with it. I found the experience to be rather eerie, but for some reason I felt comfortable with it, almost to the point of satisfaction. I am an agnostic when it comes to aerial phenomena. However, this sighting was definitely a mind stimulating experience.”

Dec.  19, 2002, Key West:

“I never reported this to anyone officially. I have discussed and shown the object I accidentally captured in a photo December a year ago with family members and some co-workers. Some were intrigued, some very skeptical. In my mind, it's a UFO, no doubt about it.

My husband, my sister-in-law, and myself were on a four-day cruise in the Caribbean. On the evening of Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002, we were getting ready to depart Key West. We were on the uppermost deck of the ship watching the sunset to our west. The time was between 5:30and 5:45 p.m.

The sun sets very quickly this far south, so I was intently watching the sun go down through the view finder of a simple Kodak 35mm disposable camera. Music was playing but not loudly. There was no noise coming from overhead and no motion to take our attention away from getting the sunset on film. There were lots of people on the starboard side of the ship doing the same thing. I took only two shots, just a few seconds apart.

I had the film developed at a local camera shop. I looked at the photos before I left and when I saw the object in the sunset photo, I asked their rep if there was a scratch on the negative or any trash on it.

He looked at the negative closely with a magnifying eye piece and said no there wasn't. He thought, like I did, it was a very curious photo and even jokingly said that ‘You may have captured a UFO without even knowing it.’ The object is gone in the photo taken almost immediately after the first one.”

Oct. 5, 2001, Key West:

UFO hovers over cruise ship in Key West

We were on a cruise ship out in the Key West area. Suddenly, I saw this strange craft, with a rectangular shape with lights on top all around, and lights on the bottom all around.

It seemed to hover over the cruise ship, as if it were watching us.
First, it would jet to the right and [make] quick movements to the left. It was faster than any man-made object that we know of today. Then it would fly back toward the ship.
Of course, I decided, ‘Let’s see if it hears me.’ So I yelled out ‘if you are a UFO, I dare you to come closer.’

My god, my god, it did, as if it heard me. Several hundred people were on deck at the time, all staring at this craft.
I asked one of the stewards/crew members: “Don’t you think we should report this? Their reply was ‘Awwww … we see this all the time. As long as they don’t hurt us, we don’t want to alarm the passengers, who didn’t see this or cause panic.’

I had always somewhat believed in UFOs, but this was the first time, and now I am a believer — that someone out there is watching us and observing us. The ship continued to flash back and forth up and down sideways and then just float in one spot like it was hovering!
Again, the object was rectangular and somewhat also of a sphere shape, with lights all around it, with different-colored lights. And to me, it seemed like it was monitoring the ship’s activities and watching the people, including me, on the ship.

I wish I knew about this site sooner and hope this helps. But now at least it’s on record to help prove, that Yes, we are being watched and observed, from where only God knows!

P.S.: We were on the ship, Majesty of the Seas Royal Caribbean.

Jan. 19, 2002, Key Largo:

On vacation in Key Largo, I was standing on the terrace watching the stars on a clear, dark night, with no moon visible. Earlier, there had been a rather nasty traffic accident not far from where I was staying and the Medevac helicopters had been in the vicinity.

Also, there were several police helicopters that seemed to be searching the area for several minutes. Unfortunately, this area of the United States is known for illegal 'drug running' due to its remoteness and closeness to many islands in the Caribbean.

During this 'busy' period in the sky, I noticed a slow-moving object, very high up in the night sky. Its location was so high I couldn't comprehend it being part of any potential scouting trip. Using a pair of binoculars, my friend and I noticed that this object had lights flashing red and green, similar to that of an aircraft.

We continued to watch and as we did, the object began to change from a hovering position to one of movement. It would “zigzag” to the right and left, up and down very quickly and then seemed to return to its original 'hover' position. We watched for more than an hour. By that time, the other aircraft had long disappeared.

In all honesty, its appearance resembled a star, twinkling red and green and at an extremely high altitude. What seemed so unusual to me was the length of time this object hovered. No other aircraft came near it whether it was hovering or moving place to place. After approximately an hour and a half of observing it, the object simply disappeared.
These and other UFO accounts can be found at http://www.nuforc.org/

--------------------------------
Many Keys residents and visitors will remember this image, which was taken on New Year's Eve three years ago. The dramatic arc of the aircraft and the phenomenon of the fiery horizon puzzled many witnesses. Some believed it was a Navy missile test, while others thought it was otherworldly in origin. Alas, it was just a commercial airliner taking a little-used flight path to avoid heavy air traffic around airports in the South.
Or so the authorities said.
------------------------------------

Ex-Navy flier understands, enjoys his school work

By John L. Guerra

The good news about School Board member Duncan Matthewson's retirement is the rich slate of passionate and qualified candidates fighting for the District 3 (Big Pine) seat. I liked each District 3 candidate at Finnegan's Wake bar last Thursday evening and I believe each is competent and would give the job his best. This is good news for voters, because voters usually must choose from a field of uninspired candidates who are hoping to supplement their incomes with the $30,000 (or so) the seat pays. Nothing wrong with liking that money, but the Monroe County School District is at a crucial point in its transition from a political patronage organization to a lean and professionally run school system.
Whoever gets the board seat in that district must be an extraordinary person. The job requires strong preparation before every meeting. Learning the budget and proposed spending amendments thoroughly; understanding all changes in state education requirements; inspecting proposed construction and service contracts for problems--board members must master an endless stream of information by meeting time. By the way, that doesn't include spending time away from home in the evenings talking to parents, teachers, and students. Attending night games--the list goes on.

Schools still in transition

Your vote will have power because the board is in uncharted territory. The School Board is the proud, new boss of a school superintendent who draws his power not from political patronage or the polls. He need only keep the board happy. All five members best-case, but at least three of them.
Nor is the new superintendent a governor-appointed napkin holder. I write this not as an affront to outgoing Superintendent Jesus Jara, who worked hard fulfilling the governor's mandate that he run the school system, but to make the point that the school board is now the boss.
Now that Superintendent Mark Porter from Minnesota must answer to them, the five board members have more power than ever before--certainly it has more say than it did before the Acevedos opened their family credit card account at the First Bank of Trumbo Road.

It is this new reality--that five board members must act with one voice when managing poor Mr. Porter--that I suggest voters pick a candidate with a clear understanding of what ails the school system. That someone should be familiar with board politics; understand the recent history of the school system; attend board meetings regularly, and speak with common sense.

I'm going to suggest voters take a good look at Ed Davidson, best-known to the community in the Middle Keys as Capt. Ed. If there is a fifth Beatle, then Davidson is the sixth School Board member. The dive captain and decorated Navy fighter pilot has attended more than 200 board meetings and Audit and Finance Committee meetings and participates in board debate via the public comment period at each meeting. He doesn't just gripe, though. He offers solutions and in some cases, the board has taken his suggestions.
I like the guy because he has that attitude that one must finish what one starts; that a hard day's work means something; and that when something is a bad idea, it's a bad idea to implement it. He has the endorsement (and a $200 contribution) from Ocean Reef PAC Inc., which represents homeowners in the Ocean Reef community.

Sorry, John Welsh

I hope my friend John Welsh, the sharp former principal of Key West High School and accomplished runner (he just took part in a marathon run along the Great Wall) will pardon me for what to him must sound like betrayal. I am not saying Davidson is what Welsh isn't. Both are men of courage and commitment.
At roughly the same time Davidson hit enemy targets from his F-4 Phantom over the North Vietnamese capital, Welsh was on the jungle floor engaging in what one can euphemistically call "up-close-and-personal conflict resolution" with the enemies of South Vietnam.

I don't want to mislead the reader, however. Welsh is gentle, kind, compassionate and much-beloved by many students, teachers and parents.
Welsh also is a veteran of the school district, having served as a teacher and administrator in the county schools for decades. Welsh also knows what it takes to run the largest public school in the Keys and has had to implement state school mandates from requirements for physical education teachers to student-teacher ratios. He has seen many changes in his years in the district, including the imposition of the No Child Left Behind regime and shifting attitudes of parents, teachers, and students. I doubt there's anything that could surprise John Welsh in a school.
But I make Welsh my second choice behind Davidson. Experience running a school does not always translate into an effective School Board member. If that were true, Board Member Ron Martin would be a change agent on the board. He isn't though he does offer sage advice at times.
To get the District 3 seat, Davidson has for years studied the issues to prepare himself for the each board meeting. He followed teacher union/district negotiations, learned student-teacher classroom ratios, and other issues the board debated.
Was he always auditioning for a spot on the board? I would have to say yes. He has spoken at nearly every meeting and has actively worked for the election of individual board members. I believe his hard work before meetings indicates that he'll tackle this board seat and make it his own quickly. He'll do what he says he'll do: help the district change into an effective, mean, lean fighting machine.
That's why I believe he should get that Big Pine seat.

Monroe County voters want corrupt officials prosecuted

By John L. Guerra

Do you think your local, county and state officials are corrupt?
Is that nice employee at the Housing Authority, the Sheriff's Office, or wastewater treatment plant skimming money from the organizational till?
Is the meter maid accepting $20 bribes from car owners who walk up as she writes them a parking ticket?

Is the housing inspector giving a pass to his friends and family in the construction business while making it impossible for you to finish the addition you're building on your house?

When you go to pick up your dog from the animal shelter, is the counter person pocketing the $150 fee you just paid to get Fido back?
If you live in an average American city, chances are someone is grabbing public money for personal use.
Corruption seems to be a kind of institution in the Keys. In spite of the promise of public humiliation and jail time, there's always one more government official waiting in the hallway outside the grand jury room.

Is anyone watching the store?

At the Monroe County School District, former Adult Education Coordinator Monique Acevedo not only rang up hundreds of thousands of dollars in groceries, clothing, jewelry, furniture, and other goods on her school district credit card, she stole tens of thousands of dollars in cash from adult students hoping to earn state beauty licenses. The evening beauty school would accept only cash from students hoping to learn hair styling and manicure skills. Though scores of students paid up to $1,900 for classes, the line item in the annual school district budget for "Adult Education fees collected" were followed by empty accounting columns. In other words, the budget was prepared every year with no indication that money was ever collected from all those students.
The empty columns were there for the district's Finance Director to discover if she so desired. The proof was there, too, for the Florida Auditor General's Office, the state agency that reviews each school district's budget for fraud every year.

In the months before she was caught, Ms. Acevedo gave a special presentation before the School Board about all the money generated by her Adult Education Department beauty school classes. During the presentation, she told board members that the fees from the classes generated hundreds of thousands of dollars for the school district. She said that with a straight face, without a trace of irony. A recording of that meeting shows Board member John Dick expressing disbelief, but the truth was not learned for some time.
Now that she's well into her eight-year sentence for fraud in a Florida prison, the district is still trying to find its feet in the sand.
What if the newspapers reported all of the financial mischief in the school district--with the poor children literally robbed of publicly funded school books, clothes, dental care, and other benefits--and the Office of the State Attorney decided not to prosecute?
In the public call for justice, what if the state attorney decided that enough damage had been done to the district? Let Ms. Acevedo resign (she did) and let the school district clean its own house, some in the community suggested. After all (a state attorney could have decided) a long, penetrative investigation would only hurt the morale of well-meaning school employees and destroy the public faith in its school system.

U.S. Attorney prosecuted cases in the past

Many of the public corruption cases before Dennis Ward became Monroe County State Attorney were handled not by that office on Whitehead Street but investigated from the Miami FBI office and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney, Ward's supporters argue.
Glen, a good friend who was born and raised in Key West, told me the Keys have changed in one respect in recent years: Now when there's a case of public corruption, the public learns the details of what happened. The public gets information about cases that once were dealt with quietly.
Ward, who got in trouble for greeting a juror (in full view of the courtroom, not in secret) and who neglected to keep up with continuing state bar association education requirements, is getting pummeled for these mistakes by his campaign opponents.
Ward's mistakes shouldn't be ignored, but given their proper weight. The judge declared a mistrial in that assault case and Ward apologized for breaking courthouse ethics.
Ward has since completed his bar education requirements. He was temporarily suspended from the bar, as were more than 800 other attorneys statewide, state bar officials said. Those same state bar officials consider it a minor administrative matter. Ward was rightfully criticized after his suspension became public, but I don't consider it a vote-breaker by any means.
Though former State Attorney Mark Kohl is hoping to win his seat back from Ward in November, I believe Kohl has had two terms to fight corruption in the Keys and Ward's supporters believe Kohl showed timidity in his pursuit of government criminals. Voters will have a chance to decide whether that criticism is fair. Kohl's supporters can point to Kohl's conviction of Louis LaTorre, the former head of county social services who recently began serving his 42-month sentence for DUI with serious bodily harm. LaTorre  had been free since 2008 appealing his conviction.

Ward should be re-elected

I am voting for Ward; he ran for his office on the promise to prosecute corrupt Keys officials. That is just what his office has done.
I first met Ward at the Studios of Key West one evening during his first run for office. As we stood outside the studios during an open house there, he introduced himself and as we talked, he told me he wasn't going to shy away from prosecuting dishonest local politicians. It was a safe promise to make; at the time there were no corruption cases on the horizon. So, Monique Acevedo is in prison; her husband, Randy, earned three felony obstruction convictions and is on probation. Norma Jean Sawyer, who ran the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust but misspent money meant to help poor and elderly residents in Bahama Village, also was convicted under Ward's service. The public had been pounding the table for someone to do something about the BCCLT problem for a long time.

Former Mosquito Control Director of Operations, Mike Spoto served 90 days in the Monroe County Detention Center for theft of cell phone services paid for by taxpayers. Kohl declined to prosecute Spoto, but Ward reopened the case after  he was elected.
Now Ward's assistant prosecutors are warming up in the bullpen for Lisa Druckemiller, the former Monroe County Technical Services Director charged with illegally selling about 50  iPhones and iPads that were slated for official use. A grand jury Tuesday indicted her for those alleged crimes.

Prosecutors are solid team

Ward's aces are Chief Assistant State Attorney Manny Madruga, assistant State Attorney Mark Wilson, and other assistant prosecutors who convinced juries to convict in criminal cases. Building strong cases and presenting simple but solid arguments to juries, Ward's prosecutors have helped Ward deliver satisfaction to a public tired of corruption in the Keys.
Ward faces fellow Democrat Catherine Vogel in the Aug. 14 primary; the winner of that race faces Kohl, who is a Republican, on Nov. 6. Vogel, who defended former Schools Superintendent Randy Acevedo in his obstruction trial, has criticized Ward's style for years. She argues that Ward tries his cases in the press when he should remain silent. Vogel believes his public comments in the run-up to Randy Acevedo's trial hurt her attempts to build a defense. She asked a judge to regulate Ward's statements to the press during Acevedo's prosecution, but the judge rejected her motion.
As long as a prosecutor agrees to release recordings, files, notes or other investigative documents to the press, I don't think the state attorney needs to comment anyway.
It's not that complicated, though. Ward is a fighter and Keys residents need someone who understands that corruption is expensive, destroys the public faith in its government, and hurts the morale of those who get up every day and do the right thing.

This opinion column first appeared in John Guerra's blog, at http://johnguerra.blogspot.com.

Is this a photo of ghost children fleeing 1886 fire?

By John L. Guerra

I am a skeptic. I am especially wary of those cable shows that purport to show videos of light orbs or leaping bed trolls or something fleeing in the dark.
When John Opp, who manages Ripley's Museum in the former Jefferson Hotel on Duval Street, showed me a string of "spooky" photos on his camera phone, I decided to join him in a nighttime tour of the museum to see if we could determine whether a floating face, or a disembodied hand in his photographs were really images of people long passed.
John said he started taking photos in the empty museum one night after he heard noises and felt chills. He said he was just "fooling around to see what he could photograph."
With me in tow, Opp stopped at five points in the museum where he'd snapped a photo and pulled an image up on his screen. The place has the greatest stuff in it and his flash had played havoc, creating the oddest images.
What he believed was a floating ghostly face in one image, for instance, was in fact a unique African death mask in one glass display case reflecting off the front of another display case. A "ghost" in a little dress was actually the reflection of "Thumbelina," the world's tiniest woman, showing up on the glass of another display case. In this manner, we determined that most of the "apparitions" were reflections created from other display cases as his camera flash went off.
We couldn't debunk this one.
When we got to the back stairwell--the same stairwell that served the old Jefferson Hotel--I could see no object, light source, or other item that could create the shadow figures he captured on his camera. (You can see the shadow of John's head against the wall just in front of the shadow figure in the foreground). The second figure is on the top landing in the corner. There are no stairs above this set of stairs. Therefore, there is nothing to the left of the landing but a wall. The notation in the top of the photograph is from a photo labeling feature from the software in his camera phone.
The fire of 1886 began next to the San Carlos Institute near the La Concha Hotel and spread down Duval Street to Front Street. It destroyed commercial buildings as well as grand homes, sending people  into the street. The Jefferson Hotel also caught fire and its guests must have been in a rush to get out.
Are these the ghostly images of children or young people from 1866 fleeing down the stairs of the Old Jefferson Hotel during the fire? I don't know, but I have known John for some time and he easily agreed when we were able to dismiss other suspect photos in his phone's image file. In other words, he was just as curious and skeptical as I was as we sought answers for his other suspect photos. I sense he's being honest when he told me he had done nothing on PhotoShop or other software program to create the "shadow people."
Anyway, I thought this photo would be of great interest to readers who have an open mind and/or know camera phone software. There may even be a feature that allows one to convert images of people into shadow people, but I doubt it.
Until I hear from someone who knows differently, this photo goes into the bizarre and creepy file.

-- John Guerra

'Dunc' Driving and Drinking

By John L. Guerra

It would be so easy to berate Duncan Matthewson, the pugnacious Monroe County School Board member who was caught driving down U.S. 1 after apparently drinking a beer or two.  For those who know him, however, there's much more to him than this public embarrassment.

I say only a beer or two because the breath tests indicated a blood alcohol content of .06 and .07.
Duncan is a big guy, too, which means to be really drunk, the man would have to down a lot more than what it took to register .07.
____________________

Matthewson has many reasons to be proud of his work with education and Keys students. His DUI arrest should not overshadow his contributions to Keys children.
____________________

The Monroe County Sheriff's deputy who pulled him over said though Matthewson's .07 did not break state law against driving with a .08 BAC, his driving was sloppy enough to indicate impairment. Crossing the double-yellow line on U.S 1, driving too slowly, and a "Be on the Lookout" radio dispatch for his vehicle set the stage for the arrest.
Matthewson also allegedly failed a roadside sobriety test, which we all know resembles more a gymnast's practice session than an accurate test of one's ability to drive. Don't get me wrong, if a guy can't walk straight, or looks screwed up, he should be stopped and tested. But a 73-year-old after a long day isn't going to be chipper and accurate as police order him to perform magic tricks.
On a great day after plenty of rest, it's tough to hop on one foot while counting backward from 100 with your neighbors driving slowly past. Mistakes during sobriety checks carry dire consequences and the cop determines whether you pass or not.
By the way, the officer said Matthewson's clothes were unkempt or sloppy, but those who know Duncan understand that he's frumpy like other Dartmouth alumni. Matthewson is an intellect whose world takes shape between the ears. He's smart like that. He concentrates on higher issues, such as the best way to organize a textbook on Spanish treasure, or as a founding member of The Dartmouth Club of the Florida Keys, finding ways to recruit more Keys high school students for Dartmouth. Matthewson is a dedicated soul but not a clothes horse.
As for his pants being unzipped, there's not a man on the planet who hasn't inadvertently "left the barn door open."  It indicates nothing.

Let's pause and think

There is no excuse for drinking and driving. By now we've all heard about what happens.
Here are some examples of what has happens on U.S. 1 when a drunk driver takes the wheel:
A 22-year-old Key West woman was charged with manslaughter in August 2010 after killing her passenger and injuring others during a DUI crash on U.S. 1 on Stock Island. Or how about the DUI suspect who killed a motorcyclist in May 2011? Or the four people killed on upper U.S. 1 in a drunk driving crash?
There are drunk drivers everywhere in the Keys. All day, all night.
I believe Matthewson should have been held, even though his .07 BAC was below the .08 legal limit.
Here's why:
In Sarasota last year, cops told drunk partiers to leave a beach area and though the driver was visibly drunk, police didn't stop him from driving away. Police believed the suspect when he said he wouldn't drive, but the inebriated young man drove off when cops weren't looking. Less than an hour later, he was in a crash that killed a mother of three who was walking her dog next to a road. Police don't second guess anyone's condition anymore. If they suspect something's off, you don't drive.

Unless you're another cop

The police give colleagues rides home when they pull a fellow cop over for drunk driving, but that doesn't mean they have to do it for everyone. And though police don't press DUI charges against one another as a matter of courtesy, that doesn't mean a School Board member should get a break.
There's no indication that Matthewson either argued against his arrest or has said that he didn't deserve what happened to him. He apologized to fellow board members and the public and that's good enough for me. The court will take care of the rest.

The state calls for the following penalties for misdemeanor DUI offenders:

• No less than a $500 fine, no more than $1000, unless BAL exceeds .15% or there is a minor in the car. In these situations, the fine will be $1,000 or more, not to exceed $2,000.
• Mandatory 50 hours of community service, or an additional $10 fine for each hour of community service required.
• Total period of probation may not exceed 1 year.
• Total period of incarceration may not exceed 6 months, unless BAL is .15% or higher, or there is a minor in the vehicle. In these situations, incarceration may be no longer than 9 months.
• License revocation for at least 180 days, not to exceed 1 year.
• Car may be impounded for at least 10 days.
• An interlock ignition device will be installed on offenders whose BAL exceeds .15.
• Must attend a DUI school, Level I, for first time offenders.

But on another subject, Duncan

While we're talking, I think it's more important that Matthewson recuse himself everytime his summertime Cultural Awareness Music Camp (the acronym's meaning keeps changing; the latest is "Collegiate Arts Magnet Program") comes before the School Board for funding. The program is operated by the Educational Coalition of Monroe County, which Tina Belotti and Matthewson founded years ago.
When it comes to his pet program, he shows no courtesy to those who believe it does not meet guidelines for Florida Department of Education class credit and thus, funding from the school district.
Matthewson becomes energized for CAMP funding issues like no other subject the board considers. He sought school district money for the program at a time when the district is cutting summer programs for kids.
If you are against full funding for CAMP (which is not the same as being against CAMP, Duncan) you will hear from Mr. Matthewson, in spades. He takes it personally, often accusing opponents of bias and bad politics. But all this is moot, now. He isn't running again and he's leaving the board on this embarrassing note.
But the man has done a lot for students in the Keys, giving time and energy to ensure they succeed. That should be kept in mind as he makes his exit in a few months.

--John Guerra

The body on Simonton Street

Elijah "Saunders" didn't have any plans for Memorial Day.
He was still on his bicycle after pedaling all night around Key West as the sky began to lighten on May 31, 2010.
Saunders, whose real last name is being withheld, was one of scores of night wanderers of this city, one of the homeless men and women who bounce from one vagrant encampment or gathering place to another, seeing who was about and what was up.
As Saunders rode his bicycle across the parking lot behind First State Bank on Simonton Street, he saw his friend Tracy lying face down on the asphalt, her bicycle standing a few feet away. Stillness inhabits a dead body so thoroughly that the absence of life is apparent a hundred feet away. Saunders knew she was dead even before he saw the blood pooled around her head.
Tracy Leigh Heshmaty, 37, with three sisters and a mother in Georgia, was a homicide victim, and the killer was someone in the clan. Like Saunders and the battered woman he had just discovered, the murderer was a restless soul seeking satisfaction on a nighttime bicycle ride. Elijah called the Key West Police just after 6 a.m. and waited with his deceased friend for the law to arrive.
Once at Heshmaty's side, Detective Scott Standerwick and a crime scene investigator analyzed the murder scene. A large piece of coral rock stained with blood and tissue was just beyond the victim's head. CSI Donald Guevremont also photographed a bloody shoe print, left behind by someone wearing athletic shoes. If the victim had carried a purse, it was now nowhere to be found.
Saunders told Standerwick and another Key West Police detective, Frank Duponty,  that he had seen Heshmaty with a Hispanic male about two hours earlier at the all-night CVS store at Truman Avenue and Simonton Street. He described the man as thin with long, black hair parted in the middle. The man had been on a silver mountain bike and talking with the victim outside CVS, Saunders remembered.
Duponty drove the three or four blocks down Simonton Street from the murder scene to the CVS and watched the security video. As he watched video that had been shot around 4:30 a.m., the time Saunders said he'd last seen Heshmaty alive, he saw the suspect on the screen. With the night just outside the doors, the high-quality video captured Heshmaty entering the store. In the next few frames, a man on a silver bicycle rolls past the store's entrance in the dark parking lot. The man is thin, with black hair parted down the middle. A few frames later, the man walks into the store, looking to his right toward the beer coolers, the direction Heshmaty had just walked. Finally, the two are taped leaving the store together. Detectives now had a suspect.

'A cipher'

The thin man in the video is Pablo Solano Jimenez, a 29-year-old drifter from a small town outside Vera Cruz, Mexico. He has no history in the United States before making it to Key West. Jimenez was living in a mobile home across Simonton Street from the Gato Building at the time of the murder. His trailer is between the CVS and the murder scene several blocks up Simonton Street.

According to Mark Wilson, the assistant state attorney who prosecuted Jimenez last week, there is very little known about Jimenez. There is no family in Mexico asking about his well-being and there are no defense witnesses going  to bat for him, Wilson said.
"He is a cipher," Wilson said. "We know nothing much beyond the intersection of the two and how it ended. She is from Macon, Ga., and he came to Key West from Mexico. She was sleeping on friends' couches and he was staying with friends at a mobile home."

Heshmaty had been arrested for credit card theft and fraud in 2005; her last arrest was in 2009 for a probation violation, Monroe County Sheriff's Office records show. There was marijuana in her system at the time of her death, an autopsy showed.
There are no witnesses to the murder so the question of motive may never be answered. All police have is Jimenez's version of events.
A former resident of the trailer park said Heshmaty and other women would occasionally go to the trailer park to perform sex for money. The former resident said he saw Heshmaty, long before the night of her death, knock on the door of the trailer where Jimenez and his male roommates lived.
That adds the possibility that the two had been discussing a sexual liaison on the night of the murder, but doesn't answer what led to the attack that killed her.
When police found him on Duval Street at 3:45 that afternoon, Jimenez denied knowing anything about Heshmaty's murder. In fact, Jimenez later suggested that African-American men who had been outside CVS may have killed her. He also told detectives that one of his roommates had talked of murdering someone.

The following detective notes indicate that his story kept changing:

• He saw the victim at CVS around 4 a.m. as he was buying beer. "He and the victim had gone to his trailer, kissed and had sex. She said something about looking for her roommate Richard and she left and he never saw her again."
• Jimenez then told police the two had walked down Simonton to a corner near the murder scene, where she left him, still alive. He then told police he last saw her "at the corner of CVS."
• Jimenez said he went to CVS with the victim, but stayed outside. He said he was waiting by Simonton Street but when told about the video showing him in the store, he changed his statement, saying he had waited for Heshmaty by the shopping center's Truman Avenue exit.

It was a bicycle, the silver mountain bike, that brought Jimenez down to earth, police said. Jimenez gave detectives permission to search the trailer where he was staying. Police could not find the pants, shirt, or athletic shoes Jimenez had worn in the CVS video, but they did find a blood-stained, silver mountain bike in the trailer. When detective showed the blood on the bicycle to Jimenez, he told detectives he didn't know anything about the blood stains.
The next day, on June 1, detectives found the clothes and shoes Jimenez wore in the CVS video; the athletic shoes that matched the bloody footprint had been put in the trash can outside the trailer.

The question: Why?

When asked what happened, Jimenez told detectives:

 "He had stolen a car and found two packages of cocaine in the trunk. He hid the packages and later he shared the cocaine with Heshmaty. At one point she started to demand money in exchange for her not to tell the owners of the cocaine about him. He also was [inexplicably] assaulted a couple of times," detectives wrote. "The morning of the incident she told him the guys were in town and she wanted money. She mentioned her daughter and he hit her with the rock."

Because the Monroe County Medical Examiner had found no cocaine in Heshmaty's system, detectives did not buy Jimenez's statement that he killed her to protect himself from drug dealers.

As Jimenez sat in his cell at the Monroe Count Detention Center a few days after his June 1, 2010, arrest, detectives dropped by to ask follow-up questions. Here is the report they gave of that conversation.


"Jimenez did not remove any of her jewelry, only her purse and he threw it in the trash. He said his friends [in the trailer] were not involved and knew nothing about the incident. Jimenez said he never threw the rock. Only hit her while holding the rock. He did not remember his exact hand placement.
 Jimenez said he did not do drugs; [that he] only had five beers and he did not know why it happened. Jimenez said he went to Denny's after a beer and a cigarette. He bought coffee and nachos.

Jimenez said they did not have sex in the parking lot. He said he pushed her down and hit her and believes he hit her in the back first. Jimenez said they did not fight. She scratched him as he pushed her. He grabbed the rock after she fell down. She never yelled after he hit her only at first during verbal argument.
Jimenez said he was not sure why it happened but it may be over anger, vengeance, reaching a limit, or hate."



 --John L. Guerra