Florida State prosecutors have asked the FBI to return a man from the Bahamas to Florida to face an attempted murder charge connected to a string of shootings and firebombings.<\/P><\/p>\n
Bounty hunters say Marcus D. Johnson, who is charged with attempted first-degree murder, fled to the Bahamas before his trial was set to begin in 2004, Manatee County court records show.<\/P><\/p>\n
Johnson was also named a suspect in an April 2004 murder in Bradenton, but he has not been charged in that case.<\/P><\/p>\n
Prosecutor Julie Binkley said Tuesday that the state has asked the FBI to compel Johnson’s return to Manatee to face the attempted murder charge. The so-called Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant is a rarely used tool.<\/P><\/p>\n
“We are talking about an attempted murder. That’s worth pursuing,” Binkley said after a court hearing Tuesday about Johnson’s bond.<\/P><\/p>\n
Johnson was arrested in February 2003 in connection with a shooting that was part of an ongoing feud among former friends. Johnson managed to post a $100,000 bond.<\/P><\/p>\n
Authorities believe Johnson, a native of the Bahamas, left Manatee County in the weeks after detectives identified him as a suspect in an April 2004 homicide.<\/P><\/p>\n
Sheriff’s detectives say Oneco resident Guillermo Coira, 33, was shot and killed after an argument or a robbery.<\/P><\/p>\n
Witnesses picked Johnson out of a photo lineup as one of two men seen running from the scene of the shooting in the 200 block of 61st Avenue East.<\/P><\/p>\n
When a criminal defendant goes missing, bail bondsmen worry.<\/P><\/p>\n
They must find the person or face losing the bail money they put up to get the defendant out of jail.<\/P><\/p>\n
Agents with Bonds and Cases, the company Johnson used to post bond on the attempted murder case, developed information that Johnson was living in the Bahamas.<\/P><\/p>\n
Authorities in the Bahamas said in January 2005 that they wouldn’t assist in tracking down and arresting Johnson without a federal warrant, according to court records. <\/P><\/p>\n
By MICHAEL A. SCARCELLA, www.heraldtribune.com<\/SMALL><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Authorities in the Bahamas said in January 2005 that they wouldn’t assist in tracking down and arresting Johnson without a US federal warrant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}