Strange Tales from Florida – Volume 1
Sometimes, when I am running low on ideas for things to research, I’ll simply enter ‘Florida’ into the Google search bar and then select the ‘news’ icon.
Every day, the Sunshine State blesses us with bizarre, true stories of crime and murder. Last night’s search was no different.
Machete Fight at Publix
According to CBS12 News out of West Palm Beach, Florida –
Two men were charged with aggravated battery after a confrontation involving a machete and a hatchet outside a Panama City Publix, according to police records.
The fight happened Aug. 4 in the parking lot of the Publix at 4601 Lindsey Crossing. Panama City police identified the men as James Tristan Gay, 35, and Everette Eric Krichbaum, 52.
According to Gay’s arrest affidavit, Krichbaum was sitting in his vehicle when Gay drove up and stopped nearby. Witnesses told investigators Gay got out of his vehicle and approached Krichbaum in an aggressive manner, leading to a verbal confrontation.
Police said Gay then returned to his vehicle, retrieved a machete and approached Krichbaum again. Krichbaum allegedly displayed a hatchet, and the two men began struggling over the weapons.
At first glance, the story is just your run-of-the-mill Florida news story. A slow Tuesday perhaps. As I kept reading, however, the story got a lot more bizarre. Internet buzz would have you believe that the machete fight may have been over a girl. Someone that both Gay and Krichbaum had feelings for. Whatever the case, neither man was seriously injured, and both are in jail on bond.
Things only get weirder
The fight in front of the Panama City Publix grocery store was only the beginning.
Krichbaum’s arrest record is not readily accessible at this time, but it isn’t important to the rest of the story. James Tristan Gay’s arrest record is available, and the event he was a part of captured headlines in the state of Florida for a few months back in 2011.
The story involved a group of five people in Florida who may or may not have fancied themselves vampires. Whether they were a part of a cult is not really known, but at least one of the five admitted knowing that from the time she was 12 years old, she was part vampire and part werewolf.
Six years later – that same girl, Stephanie Pistey, found herself making friends with a sixteen-year-old boy from Indiana named Jacob Hendershot. That is where this part of the story begins.
Vampire Cult Murder?
One night, in July of 2011, a group of five friends was sitting around the apartment of 30-year-old Tammy Morris. Stephanie Pistey had just finished babysitting for Morris’ two children and now the five friends were listening to Pistey tell her story about how the new kid in town, Jacob Hendershot, had tried to rape her.
The friends were furious and told her to invite him over so that they could talk to him.
Hendershot, unaware of the trap that he was walking into, arrived a short while later. Jacob Hendershot was born and raised in Indiana. He had recently moved to Tennessee to live with his grandfather before reconnecting with his mother who lived in Florida, near where Pistey and her crew resided. He was only sixteen and looking for a new group of friends.
Before he even had the chance to step through the door, 20-year-old James Gay charged at the boy and punched him with a chain-wrapped fist that fractured his skull. Afraid of getting in trouble, Gay then fled the scene.
Hendershot attempted to flee as well but was quickly caught by the two other men at the apartment at the time, Pistey’s 17-year-old boyfriend, William Chase, and Tammy Morris’ boyfriend, 25-year-old Joel Millsap.
They don’t hold back
According to news stories, Millsap attempted to slit Hendershot’s throat. When that didn’t work, Chase then choked the young man until he stopped breathing.
The pair later dumped Hendershot’s body in a concrete storm drain near a wooded area and took his clothes and threw them into East Bay, police later said.
Time to Pay for their Crimes
Jacob Hendershot was missing for months before Pistey finally came clean to the murder. She was found unfit to stand trial after making strange comments to investigators.
“I didn’t even know he was going to die, but I honestly knew that they were going to beat him up, and in my opinion, he deserved to get the shit beat out of him. He didn’t deserve to die. Since I was like 12, every fiber in my body, basically everything, I know this is going to be crazy, but I believe that I am a vampire and part werewolf.“
She also told a local news affiliate that she and her boyfriend occasionally drank each other’s blood, but that they did not drink any of Hendershots.
For her role in the crime, Pistey was sentenced to 12 years in prison, followed by 3 years of probation. She is currently a free woman still living in Florida. Tammy Morris received 3 years of probation. Millsap and Chase both admitted to the murder and were given 25 years in a Florida State prison. They’ll likely get out sometime after 2030.
And what about James Gay?
As we can see from the Publix Machete incident, Gay is out as well… or was… He served 12 of his 15-year sentence and, according to social media, was trying to get his life back together. He was big into tattoos, fishing, and women.
Whatever led to this new incident may never be publicly known, but one would hope, or assume, that he will likely spend at least a little more time locked up behind bars.
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