Buster
Daily Florida Police Blotter (Chicken Crimes Edition)
Here are today’s entries in the poultry police blotter (Florida edition):
1) A brotherly “argument over some chicken” turned violent Monday evening when a Florida man allegedly threw a knife at his sibling, according to cops who say the airborne weapon “got stuck in the victim’s right leg.”
Messiah Harris-Smith, 19, is facing a felony aggravated battery charge in connection with the June 14 incident at his family’s St. Petersburg residence.
The victim, who told police he did not want his brother prosecuted, will “need to receive stitches,” according to an arrest affidavit which does not further describe the chicken argument.
Harris-Smith, who has pleaded not guilty, was released last night from the county jail on his own recognizance.
Harris-Smith was arrested earlier this year for allegedly pushing and threatening to kill his mother during an argument in their home. Prosecutors subsequently decided not to pursue a misdemeanor domestic battery case against the 6’ 1”, 250-pound teenager.
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2) A Florida Woman is facing a domestic battery charge after allegedly pelting her boyfriend in the face and chest with a plate of chicken, records show.
Investigators charge that Jennifer Booth, 43, struck the 56-year-old victim with the chicken while the couple was eating last Wednesday night on the porch of their Bradenton home.
Booth’s companion, who cooked dinner, was not injured by the poultry fusillade. He told police that Booth “became violent” during a verbal argument and “picked up the paper plate of chicken and threw it in my face.”
After the man called 911, Booth was arrested and booked into the Manatee County jail on the misdemeanor rap. She was released Friday on $500 bond.
Booth, who works at a Lakewood hospital, has three prior arrests, “most recently 2015 Domestic Violence,” according to a court filing that does not include case dispositions. While Booth and the victim share a surname, a pretrial services report lists her marital status as “single,” while an arrest report identifies the victim as her boyfriend.
Booth is an avid hunter whose Facebook page is stocked with pictures of her posing with animals she has shot dead, images that have prompted online derision. One photo shows Booth holding the head of a giraffe killed during a 2017 hunt in South Africa, which she described in a Facebook caption as “One of the best days of my life.”