Anastasia DawsonBreaking News Reporter
I’m an east Hillsborough County native whose ancestors were among the first settlers in the community of Dover. My parents built their home on an old family orange grove, sandwiched between my grandparents’ home (where my mother grew up) and a 100-year-old house built by my great, great grandparents. Still, I couldn’t resist my big city dreams, so after earning my journalism degree from the University of South Florida I moved to bustling Riverview. A two-week internship at the Tampa Tribune turned into three years of covering education in both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. In 2016 I joined the Times as a general assignment reporter in Tampa, which often means running into family, friends and former classmates while out gathering the news. A majority of those stories involve our local criminal justice system.
/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/tbt/1dda7712-d6f8-4098-a05d-1a1e13eb4778.png "Anastasia Dawson - Breaking News Reporter")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/ZEMBWXRXJVFINNRUS4TPUSF6NQ.jpg "The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says Dawson Elementary School principal Derrick McLaughlin, 41, chatted with undercover detectives posing as a 15-year-old boy on a social media app and tried to get the \"teen\" to engage in sexual acts.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/K6XCIDE6CZHKRP5WHJACOYI4GI.JPG "Los investigadores de la Oficina del Sheriff no han revelado la identidad de la persona muerta.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/3NUNFFFRYEIMVSAZVGPIDYIR3A.png "A pedestrian was killed after being hit by at least one driver, and possibly two, in Temple Terrace on Monday morning, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/UL7NMAZE35HAPKATLPMVWXECLY.jpg "Taron Criner, 39, is facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of an elderly Black man who was found with serious injuries in front of a 7-Eleven in Tampa early Friday. The man later died at an area hospital, according to the Tampa Police Department.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/CCD6QJ6PNFGN7AVD74D4ZLRVGY.jpg "A damaged tandem bicycle lies in the grass at the scene of a crash involving two bicycles and a car at the intersection of East Lake Road and Trinity Boulevard on Thursday. The driver of the car turned into the path of the bicyclists, causing them to hit the passenger side of the car, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Two cyclists on the tandem and another cyclist on his own bike were seriously injured, troopers said.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/LZ7RAMEROJDFPH3P5NS23DP7DA.jpg "A net full of channel catfish is shown before being released into a lake at Tropical Park, Tuesday, April 14, 2015, in Miami. About 3,000 catfish were being stocked for the \"Vamos a Pescar Miami!\" (Let's go Fishing Miami!) catch-and-release event being held at the park on April 18. The event will promote awareness and participation of fishing in the Hispanic community. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/YRUPG2SGHHBDPXD3ZLYRMXYEM4.jpg "Attendees hold up their ballots during the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. on June 14.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/6NCDTWQDJFACNAVTUIHHKEHXXQ.PNG "Investigators with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office are searching for two suspects involved in a shooting near a popular Tropical Smoothie Cafe Wednesday night that sent one teen to the hospital with injuries.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/5T2ISH25Y5G75COISNC7MECQYQ.png "One person is dead and another is injured after an all-terrain vehicle rolled over in Wesley Chapel Tuesday afternoon, according to Pasco authorities.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/A3A4I4A44JFGNNVQ2ERKQHRWA4.jpg "The pre game light show before the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the New York Rangers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on Friday, June 3, 2022 in New York City.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/IKZCODKA3RBBBI43BT3GHB5N54.jpg "Tampa Police Chief Mary O’Connor, center, speaks to reporters during a news conference Tuesday at the Tampa Police Department Headquarters in Tampa.")
:focal(710x497:720x487):format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/NRTHYLLHQNCYVHDOO3MS3S2BGI.jpg "Logan Schaer and girlfriend Caitelyn Leonidas, both 17, pose for photos before their senior prom at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel. Both teens died on Monday, May 30, 2022, after Schaer's SUV crashed into a retention pond.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/AO4ALNU6CXZGJG5D72SYDT23DI.png "Road Closed")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/XC7MSP4JX5DNLE2W2L47VZXKLY.JPG "Nicole Oulson, left, her daughter Alexis Oulson and attorney TJ Grimaldi display wrist bands in support of the Oulson Family Foundation on Thursday, May 26, 2022, at McIntyre Thanasides Bringgold Elliott Grimaldi Guito & Matthews, P.A., in Tampa. Oulson created the foundation with a goal to provide financial support, including the payment of medical bills, mental health counseling and/or tuition support, to children who have been directly or indirectly effected by gun violence and crimes involving guns. Nicole’s husband, Chad Oulson, was shot by Curtis Reeves in January of 2014 while attending Lone Survivor at the Cobb Grove movie theater in Wesley Chapel.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/MTIJ5HSYF5CU5ICEN5GX2IJFWY.jpg "James Davis (left), and his defense attorneys Jenna Finkelstein (center) and Anne Borghetti (right) prepare to face Pasco County Circuit Judge Gregory Groger after a 12-person jury found Davis guilty of first degree murder on Monday, May 23.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/MTIJ5HSYF5CU5ICEN5GX2IJFWY.jpg "James Davis (left), and his defense attorneys Jenna Finkelstein (center) and Anne Borghetti (right) prepare to face Pasco County Circuit Judge Gregory Groger after a 12-person jury found Davis guilty of first-degree murder on Monday, May 23.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/LDBQDZPIQRHATMBXTH63IZTGBY.JPG "James Davis, 56, has spent the past 12 years at the Pasco County Detention Center in Land O' Lakes. He faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder for killing and dismembering his roommate, cartoon author Stephen Perry, in May 2010. SCOTT KEELER | Times")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/L3UG6WIBDZFO3K557XU2RFAU7E.JPG "This May 21, 2010, photo shows 38046 8th Ave. in Zephyrhills. When \"Thundercats\" writer Stephen J. Perry fell on hard times and became homeless in late December 2009, a friend allowed Perry to stay in the home. According to police reports presented to the court on Monday, shortly after he moved into the house Perry allowed James Davis and his wife, Roxanne, to move into the home’s garage apartment. But the new living arrangement lasted just over five months before investigators say Davis murdered Perry in his bedroom, leaving behind pools of blood that were found by police days later.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/SIS2JD4ZSJDK3LQQE3L3TC2CVU.jpg "A 19-year-old Tampa man is dead after a collision on County Road 54 in Pasco County on Friday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/UF3SL6A6DZB55AXLGHW2PLEG3A.JPG "Activist Marlowe Jones speaks during a Black Lives Matter rally held outside the West Pasco Judicial Center in 2020. A jury acquitted him this week of charges of battery on a police officer and resisting arrest related to an arrest at a protest.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/6GZSJIBV7VBALD4PSFV66LCSG4.jpg "David Allen Thomas, 59, was arrested May 3 after his girlfriend's body was found hidden in the woods in New Port Richey. He faces felony charges of second-degree murder and tampering, removing or destroying evidence.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/NRN6WM2RVVBNJHEL7IX2KDQQNY.jpg "Jordan Patrick Leahy is facing federal hate crime charges after a road rage incident in which he used a Nazi salute, racial slurs and later threatened a mass shooting, Pinellas deputies say.")
