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Hernando Home Police Briefs for Sept. 9
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Woman sentenced to 40 years in fatal hospital carjacking
A woman who pulled a 70-year-old man from his car outside a Brooksville hospital and then ran over him twice has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said.
Lisa Nicosia, 42, pleaded guilty in Hernando County Circuit Court to second-degree murder, carjacking, fleeing or attempting to elude, and resisting an officer without violence. She was sentenced Aug. 26.
Deputies were called just after noon Oct. 12, 2024, to Tampa General Hospital-Brooksville for a reported hit-and-run crash in the parking lot, according to the sheriff’s office. Witnesses, most of them nurses, said a woman deputies had brought to the hospital earlier that day under the Marchman Act — Florida’s law allowing the involuntary assessment of people believed to have a substance abuse impairment — had run out the emergency department entrance.
In the parking lot, Nicosia approached a man sitting in his vehicle, forced him from the driver’s seat and got in, deputies said. The man ran to the passenger side and opened the door in an effort to stop her.
Nicosia drove off, and the man fell from the vehicle and became pinned under the rear passenger wheel well, deputies said. She then reversed, running over his upper body.
Nurses ran up and pleaded with her to stop so they could help him, according to the sheriff’s office. Instead, investigators said, she drove away, running over him a second time.
Nurses treated the man at the scene until he was flown to Tampa General Hospital in Tampa. He later died.
K9 Tazz tracks down man wanted on Pasco warrant
A man wanted on a felony warrant was arrested Aug. 27 after a Hernando County Sheriff’s Office K-9 found him hiding beneath a home, the agency said.
Deputies responding to a reported disturbance learned that Jorge Najera, 31, had run from a residence and jumped a fence, the sheriff’s office said. Najera was wanted on a Pasco County warrant charging violation of probation.
Deputy Allion and his K-9 partner, Tazz, were called in to help search. The dog picked up a scent and tracked Najera through several yards before finding him under a home, according to the sheriff’s office.
After Najera refused repeated commands to come out, the dog was deployed and bit him on the shoulder and arm, deputies said. Najera was medically cleared and taken to the Hernando County jail.
He faces charges including burglary of a dwelling, resisting an officer and giving a false name to a law enforcement officer.
Man killed, three injured in State Road 50 crash
A 58-year-old Weeki Wachee man died, and three other people were injured in a three-vehicle crash Sept. 1 on State Road 50, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
About 2:15 p.m., a Lexus SUV and a Dodge pickup were traveling east on State Road 50 east of Deltona Boulevard, the Lexus in the center lane and the pickup alongside it in the inside lane, troopers said. The Lexus driver attempted to change lanes and struck the pickup, then rotated into the westbound lanes and hit an oncoming GMC SUV nearly head-on before overturning.
The GMC driver was taken to a hospital, where he later died of his injuries, the Highway Patrol said.
The Lexus driver, a 17-year-old Spring Hill girl, was taken to a hospital. Two passengers in the GMC — a 15-year-old Weeki Wachee boy and a 16-year-old Spring Hill boy — were also injured and hospitalized. The pickup driver, an 89-year-old Brooksville man, was not injured.