A dead battery similar to the one above delayed reporting of election results for hours.

A bad battery about the size of a nickel caused a roughly seven-hour delay in the reporting of Baker County’s election results last week and exposed how small oversights can have big impacts when they occur on election night.

Everything was going fine, Supervisor of Elections Nita Crawford said, until about 4:30 pm when  her staff began setting up to download early voting totals, which are usually the first results announced after polls close at 7 pm.

That’s when elections staff discovered a small battery manufactured by Sony, which powers the memory card storing early voting results, was dead, and the information was lost.

“We said well, we have to re-run all the early voting ballots,” the elections supervisor said the following day. “We go in there and get three [voting] machines going, putting ballots in. That took us up until about 7:30.”

The election night glitch was a first for Ms. Crawford and her two full-time employees, plus the county’s IT manager, who assists during elections. The office is well known for processing election results quickly. In fact, Baker County is usually the first of Florida’s 67 to report its totals to the Florida Division of Elections in Tallahassee.

Breon Walker

A Jacksonville man is in custody in Baker County early this week following a high-speed chase that began in Sanderson and ended in Columbia County on Interstate 10 the morning of November 12.

Breon Walker, 21, who police later learned was wanted on a Duval County warrant for violating probation, was chased down by a sheriff’s department K-9 dog shortly after his stolen 1998 Ford pickup veered off the interstate and struck a tree.

Deputy Patrick McGauley said he and Cpl. Tony Norman reached speeds of 90 mph as the pickup, which had been stolen earlier in Jacksonville, headed west from the CR 229 exit through west Baker County just before 8 am.

The officer said Mr. Walker leaped over a barrier fence off the north shoulder and fled on foot as the K-9 Tango was released and took the suspect down about 150 yards into a heavily wooded area. The suspect was treated at the scene for bite wounds to the shoulder and neck, then taken into custody by Columbia County deputies.

He was brought to Baker County later that day and faces counts of reckless driving, fleeing police, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and resisting without violence.

Dustin Rhoden

Five north county residents involved in a poaching enterprise were recently cited for more than 30 wildlife law violations by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers.

Trenton Lee Stokes, 19, Joseph Johnson, 41, Dustin Rhoden, 26, Brian Harris, 21, and a 17-year-old juvenile, along with David Henry Jones, 52, of Callahan, were charged with multiple violations for the illegal taking of deer and alligators as well as several hunting license violations.

FWC officers in Baker County had received several complaints of illegal hunting activity in a remote part of the county.

“After following leads and gathering information, we were able to ascertain where the illegal hunting was happening and who was involved,” said FWC K-9 Officer Bret Gill, who put together the case.

Michael Wayne Washginton, Jr. during his sentencing hearing.

Michael Wayne Washington Jr. of Macclenny was sentenced last week to 15 years in prison for running over and killing a handicapped pedestrian during a confrontation with another young man on April 11, 2011.

Circuit Judge Phyllis Rosier accepted Mr. Washington’s guilty pleas October 31 to manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident involving death, aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony and violation of probation.

The first two counts related to the death of Rashard Belford, 18, who lived in the same southwest city neighborhood as the 21-year-old defendant.

The aggravated assault count was connected to Mr. Washington’s altercation with Kevohntae Hadley, then 18, which drew an estimated 50 people to the melee at the corner of MLK Boulevard and Minnesota Avenue about 8 pm.

Witnesses told police Mr. Washington got into his mother’s 2001 Chevrolet sedan parked near the intersection and aimed it at Mr. Hadley, who had intervened in a fight among their younger sisters, reportedly over a boy.

The victim, who had cerebral palsy, was struck by the sedan and dragged underneath as Mr. Washington pursued Mr. Hadley. Mr. Belford’s family said at the sentencing hearing the defendant did not heed pleas to stop the vehicle.

Mr. Belford’s adoptive mother, Eddie Mae Lee, read a letter she wrote back in September expressing her disbelief that Mr. Washington was sorry for killing Mr. Belford. She argued he did not deserve the court’s mercy.

The victim’s family sought a stiffer sentence than the 15 years recommended by prosecutor Ralph Yazdiya.

“Who will have mercy on Rashard Belford,” said Ms. Lee. “ ... Money is not important. I just want justice ... It’s about justice.”