OFFICE OF THE STATE ATTORNEY SIXTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR MONROE COUNTY DENNIS W. WARD STATE ATTORNEY 530 Whitehead Street, Suite 301 Key West, FL 33040-6547 (305) 292-3400 KEY WEST, February 21, 2019 – For the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office, 2018 brought justice for numerous victims of crime and protection for the community from repeat violators of the law. Through the diligent efforts of the office’s 50 employees, from attorneys to investigators to victim/witness coordinators and others, and through partnerships with the law enforcement community, dangerous people were taken off the streets and the community was made safer. Following are some highlights from the State Attorney’s Office from 2018. Violent crime Vehicular homicide A Key West woman who killed a popular dental hygienist by running her down with a car was sentenced to 32 years in state prison. April Dawn Thomason, 46, claimed she was temporarily insane from withdrawing from the use of Xanax but a jury didn’t buy it. Thomason was convicted on September 26, 2018, of one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of attempted manslaughter, one count of leaving the scene of an accident involving death and one count of assault. She was sentenced on November 5. Thomason ran down Stephanie Collins, 46, on September 16, 2015, while behind the wheel of a Mercedes on South Roosevelt Boulevard. Collins died that night at Lower Keys Medical Center from what the attending medical examiner called “blunt force injuries.” Her convictions are also for trying to run down two other people. Assistant state attorneys Colleen Dunne and Cristy Spottswood represented the state. 30 years for killing three A former Key West man who killed three people in the Lower Keys while driving drunk was sentenced to 30 years in state prison last year after pleading guilty to two counts of driving under the influence-manslaughter and five other DUI- related counts. Daniel Sommerfeldt, now, 35, was sentenced on March 2, 2018. He had his driver’s license revoked for life. Assistant state attorneys Val Winter and Christine Poist represented the state. Sommerfeldt was driving a Ford F-250 south on U.S. 1 on the Shark Channel Bridge near mile marker 11 on August 23, 2015, when he struck a Dodge Ram driven northbound by a Sebring man. Two women in the Ram were killed, as was Sommerfeldt’s wife, who was in his truck. Her family requested Sommerfeldt not face a DUI-manslaughter charge for her death. Suspect admits to manslaughter A Plantation Key man pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing his girlfriend and was sentenced on September 11, 2018, to 15 years in state prison. Jeremy Stigler, 46, killed Jade Green Dixon, 47, in November 2016. He walked into the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office substation on Plantation Key on November 7 that year to report the death and told police “that he was a suspect,” according to an arrest report by Detective Manuel Cuervo. Monroe County’s medical examiner later ruled Dixon died by “manual strangulation.” Stigler had told police he and Dixon had gotten into an altercation the day before and he went to sleep. When he woke up a few hours later, Dixon was dead, he told police. Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne represented the state. Prison for stabbing death A Marathon man received 25 years in prison on May 8, 2018, after pleading no contest to stabbing another man to death. Kyle Miller, now 31, pleaded to a charge of second-degree murder, plus grand theft auto, in the death of Andre Howard, 34, at the Key by the Sea mobile-home park. Howard was killed on April 24, 2017. Miller told police Howard had made unwelcome sexual advances toward him. Miller was arrested in Tavernier after stealing a car and fleeing following Howard’s death. Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne represented the state. Attempted murder of police officer Timothy Thomas, now 28, received two consecutive terms of life in prison plus 15 years after a jury convicted him of trying to kill a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputy. Thomas was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, plus burglary of a dwelling armed with a firearm and fleeing a law enforcement officer. In the case prosecuted by assistant state attorneys Colleen Dunne and Gail Conolly, Thomas was convicted on April 25, 2018, and sentenced the following month. Thomas had previously served time in prison for robbery. On October 24, 2015, Deputy Joshua Gordon attempted to pull Thomas over on Stock Island for having a stolen license plate on the Mustang he was driving. Thomas sped away but crashed into a stop sign. Deputy Gordon shouted commands at Thomas, who exited the Mustang and started shooting with a handgun. A bullet struck the deputy but luckily, he was saved by his bullet-proof vest. 15 years for stabbing A former Big Coppitt Key man was sent to prison for 15 years after admitting to stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and stabbing the ex-girlfriend, as well. On January 18, 2018, Ramon Sanchez, now 32, pleaded no contest to attempted second-degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Prison will be followed by 10 years of probation. Assistant State Attorney Christine Poist represented the state. On February 8, 2014, Sanchez went to the new boyfriend’s house on Big Coppitt, where he found the boyfriend and Sanchez’s ex in a bedroom. Sanchez stabbed the new boyfriend five times and slashed his ex-girlfriend, then fled. Police found him a short time later in a truck around mile marker 6 of U.S. 18-year sentence in Duval shooting A Louisiana man was sentenced to 18 years in Florida State Prison following his conviction for shooting up Old Town Key West, injuring three other men. Derek David, now 37, was given three concurrent 15-year terms on three counts of attempted manslaughter with a firearm, plus three years to be served consecutively for his conviction of aggravated assault without a firearm. He also was sentenced to 364 days in jail for improper exhibition of a firearm and resisting arrest, plus using a firearm under the influence and violating his concealed-weapon permit. David was arrested on March 21, 2016, after he shot three men following an altercation on Charles Street. Two of the victims had been walking on Duval Street and one on Charles Street. A jury convicted David on March 1, 2018, and he was sentenced on June 6. Assistant state attorneys Val Winter and Colleen Dunne represented the state. David is appealing his convictions. Sex crimes 30 years for convicted rapist A Key West man who sexually battered a woman on his boat, which the victim described as “several hours of torture,” and who possessed child pornography was sent to prison for three decades. On July 26, 2018, Jeffrey Sundwall, 47, pleaded to sexual battery and to 20 counts of possessing child porn. He received two 15-year sentences, to run consecutively. He also pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and tampering with evidence and received five years on each of those counts to run concurrently with the 30 years. Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne represented the state. Sundwall was arrested on March 8, 2017, two days after the woman reported the crime. The victim told investigators that she had accompanied Sundwall to his boat, anchored in Key West Harbor, in hopes of possibly renting it for housing. Once aboard, he restrained and assaulted her. The next day, Sundwall took the woman to Key West proper on his water taxi. She borrowed a phone to call her mother to tell her what happened and police arrived shortly thereafter. 10 years in boat rape case A Key West liveaboard boater was convicted of raping a woman in December and later sentenced to a decade in prison. Miguel Pestano, 44, was convicted of sexual battery on December 5, 2018. The crime occurred on January 6, 2108, aboard Pestano’s boat, anchored of the Key Haven boat ramp. He was sentenced on January 11 and the sentence includes him registering as a sexual predator with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The victim was a Marathon woman. Pestano met the woman while walking. She had planned to stay the night at the Sunset Marina but Pestano offered to let her stay on his boat, and she accepted. She went to sleep and was awakened in the middle of the night to Pestano molesting her. She told him to stop but he forced himself upon her “at least three times.” He told her she should be “grateful” for a place to stay and to “stop playing the victim.” Pestano at first denied meeting the woman, then changed his story twice when speaking with police. Assistant state attorneys Patrick Flanigan and Christine Poist represented the state. Four years for child porn A Marathon man found with a big cache of child pornography was sent to prison and placed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s sex-offender registry. Michael Savinelli, now 51, pleaded no contest on May 8, 2018, to 10 counts of possession of a sexual performance by a child and was sentenced July 30 to four years followed by 24 months of sex-offender probation and another 48 months of regular probation following that. He was arrested November 17, 2016, at his house after law enforcement received a tip someone at the residence might be uploading child porn. Monroe County Sheriff’s Office investigators and agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and U.S.