Polk County Sheriff Arrests State Corrections Officer After Shooting
Detectives say the officer gave a “full confession” to her involvement in the confrontation that ended in a shootout.
WINTER HAVEN, Florida. On Tuesday, detectives arrested corrections officer Polk for tampering with evidence following the Winter Haven shooting.
According to a statement from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, 38-year-old Stacey Newton admitted to carrying a spent cartridge case from the scene near Bradbury Road.
The statement said that Newton’s friend, Derick Wilkerson, 31, got into an angry confrontation with a man both he and Newton knew. Wilkerson then pointed a gun at the victim, threatening to kill her, then followed the victim to his car and fired a shot in the air over his head, the sheriff’s office said.
After the shooting, Newton reportedly told Wilkerson to leave and hid the shell casing in her pocket before leaving the area herself.
The statement also said that Wilkerson and Newton gave full confessions after witness statements and CCTV footage corroborated the victim’s account. No one was hurt during the shooting.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd stressed the importance of maintaining high standards of public service accountability: “A corrections officer should know better than to mess with someone with such a violent past; it will end up getting you in trouble, and in this case it did. Judd said.
Wilkerson’s “violent history” is reported to include past arrests for battery by strangulation, battery, dating violence, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and common criminal status.
He now faces new charges: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, driving with a suspended/revoked license, improper display of a firearm, public use of a firearm, and criminal negligence.
