BARTOW — A central Florida jury has recommended the death sentence for a 21-year-old man who killed a Florida Highway Patrol trooper. Sgt. Nick Sottile was fatally shot during a traffic stop near Lake Placid in 2007. Joshua Lee Altersberger pleaded guilty last month to first degree murder. ...more

April 3, 2009

"Ten twenty-four, I've been shot. Ten twenty-four, I've been shot." The call was the second one Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Edward Finneran said he heard from Sgt. Nicholas Sottile on the afternoon of Jan. 12, 2007. ...more

March 30, 2009

The man charged with killing Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Nicholas Sottile pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder, three days before jury selection was to begin in his trial. ...more

March 13, 2009

Monday will be the second anniversary of a tragic time in our county. It's the date State Trooper Sgt. Nick Sottile was shot down along U.S. 27 north of Lake Placid. It's a date that those who knew Sottile, and those who did not, were in shock at the brutality that happened that afternoon against a man known and loved in his community. ...more

January 11, 2009

SEBRING — With 13 murder cases on his hands, Assistant State Attorney Steve Houchin is just running from one thing to another – his words. If it's not Joshua Altersberger, it's Leslie Lewis, Albert Stevens, Brandon Johns, Arthur Aul, Terrence Barnett, Leann Parker, Silvia Zanchez, Donald Henry, Edgar Otero, Joseph Graham, Gerald Sanders or Nicholas Mezie. ...more

May 8, 2008

LAKE PLACID — No fanfare. No standing ovations. No being carried off the field by her players or buckets of water being doused on her. Nothing but a smile crept over Liz Sottile's face as she gathered her things and walked off Roger Scarborough Memorial Field on a misty Friday night. ...more

January 20, 2008