Top 100 Volusia

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera King. Oak Hill police Sgt. Robert Walker gives NSBNEWS.net a tour of the flooding situation during Tropical Storm Fay.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Tropical Storm Fay dumped a lot of water over Florida, with DeBary, Deltona and Osteen getting the worst of it, though all areas of Volusia County had to deal with the precipitation and wind. Not only did the county suffer $13 million in property damages during Aug. 18-24, but a tourist drowned in the surf.

Courtesy video and photo. New Smyrna Beach photographer and surfer Kem McNair has received worlwide recognition for his July 3 photo of a 5-foot spinner shark that jumped behind two surfers near the South Jetty. "When the water is clear and you ride wave, you can see them while riding your surf board," he said, adding he was standing in 3 feet of water when he captured the shark with his camera. "We see sharks like that two to three times a day," McNair said. "I shot him in half a second -- three frames. Before I could get him again, he was gone. People can't belive a shark can jump out of the water like that, but I've seen it many times."

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- If 2007 was the "Year of the Shark" in Volusia County with 22 bites, then 2008 had to be the "Year of the Shark Part Deux" with 24 bite victims. Just ask 6-year-old Zane Atcha of Deltona.

Courtesy video and photos. Ryan Lochte didn't have a problem playing second fiddle to Michael Plelps. After all, the Volusia County son won gold as well  in Beijing. At right is Lochte and beach volleyball gold medal winner Phil Dalhausser.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Michael Phelps was the big star of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, but local son Ryan Lochte, the 24-year-old Spruce Creek High School and University of Florida graduate, was pretty good, too, winning a gold with Phelps and an individual gold in the 200-meter backstroke -- beating the world record.

 NSBNEWS.net video by Sera King. New Smyrna Beach resident Bill Koleszar gave city commissioners an ultimatum: Either cut the budget by $1 million or face voter wrath. The commissioners did as he asked.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A retired police chief armed with 40 years of budgeting experience and backed by more than 200 supporters told the New Smyrna Beach City Commission at a Set. 24 public hearing that an 11.2 percent mill-rate increase was not going to fly and that there would be hell to pay come election time or even sooner through voter recalls for any of them who didn't heed his warnings. He got his way with $1 million subsequently cut "

 Courtesy photo. Volusia County Judge Dawn Fields ruled in December that former City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Mike Shallow had a right of privacy when he was behind a closed bathroom stall in the Volusia Mall and because of that right, the accusation of lewd behavior was not found credible, and therefore, the case against him dismissed.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Former Daytona Beach City Commissioner Mike Shallow, who made two unsuccessful runs for mayor, was acquitted Dec. 16. of lewd and lascivious behavior amid accusations he was masturbating in a bathroom stall at Sears in the Volusia Mall.

Courtesy photo. Craig Leron Flynt, the son of a Daytona Beach police officer, shot and killed the mother of his four children in August, pumping the final bullet into her head with a .357 Magnum as police arrived. He was later sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Craig Leron Flynt, 37 and the son of a Daytona Beach police officer, stood above his fallen ex-girlfriend and mother of his four young children pumped a second bullet into her head across the street from her Maley Street residence just after midnight on Aug. 4.

Courtesy photo. Paul Newman, Hollywood icon, philanthropist and race-car driver, was a fan-favorite at the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. The 83-year-old actor died in February.

DAYTONA BEACH -- He was known for his role on the big screen as "Cool Hand Luke" and behind the wheel of a sports car, he had the steady hand as well, taking the checkered flag in the GTS-1 class at the Rolex 24 At Daytona at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 5, 1995. Paul Newman was 70 then, but continued to race well into the 2000s. The Hollywood icon and racing enthusiast who started out at a small racing track in Thompson, Conn., 30 minutes from his Hole in the Wall Camp for cancer-stricken children, died Feb. 26, after a battle with lung cancer. He was 83.

Coutesy photo. Roy Lee McDuffie was sentenced at re-trial in November to three life sentences after his first trial conviction and death sentences were tossed on technical grounds in the 2002 killings of two Dollar General Store employees in Deltona during a robbery that netted him $7,000.

DELTONA -- Roy Lee McDuffie got his wish Nov. 19, when a jury recommended three life sentences in favor of returning him to death row in the 2002 killings of two employees of the Dollar General Store in Deltona.

NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera King. Criminal defense attorney Rob Sanders had a dream year in 2008, keeping an Edgewater killer Russell Bradshaw from death row sentence and convincing another jury not to send Dollar General double-murderer Roy Lee McDuffie back to death. He was also named president of the Volusia Bar Association.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Robert Sanders had a dream year as a criminal defense attorney -- staving off an almost-certain death sentence for an Edgewater killer and later convincing a jury to put the Dollar General double-murderer in prison for life instead of his former place on death row.

Courtesy photo. Cynthia Horvath, who resigned from her teaching post at Warner Christian Academy Oct. 12, was arrested on charges of having sex with a 17-year-old male student at motels in Port Orange and Daytona Beach, according to police.

PORT ORANGE -- A former Warner Christian Academy teacher was arrested Oct. 22, by two police departments on charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old student over several months in local motels before she abruptly resigned earlier that month.