- November 19, 2024
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Former Flagler Beach police officer Nathaniel David Juratovac was sentenced Friday to 51 months in prison for shooting and injuring a local firefighter during a road rage incident in March.
The sentence was the result of a plea agreement Juratovac entered into after changing his plea in the case from not guilty to guilty, and the prison time will be followed by nine months of community control — a strict form of house arrest — as well as five years of probation with no early termination. Juratovac will also pay restitution in excess of $5,500, said Lynne Bumpus-Hooper, spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office 18th Judicial Circuit.
The road rage incident happened March 29, 2013, in St. Augustine. Juratovac resigned from the Flagler Beach Police Department in 2008.
The encounter began when Juratovac noticed an SUV following close on his tail and brake-checked the car, driven by Flagler County firefighter Jared Parkey.
Parkey threw a jug of water at Juratovac’s car, and both cars started driving aggressively, and then they collided, witnesses told deputies.
Both cars pulled off to the side of the road. Juratovac got out of his car, walked over to Parkey and shot him twice in the chest, witnesses told deputies.
Parkey was hospitalized and later released.
Juratovac was released from jail June 21 on $300,000 bond, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office’s website.
Juratovac’s case was handled by the 18th Judicial Circuit, which covers Brevard County and Seminole County, instead of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, which would normally hear a case from St. Johns County or Flagler County.
The Seventh Judicial Circuit recused itself, said Seventh Judicial Circuit spokeswoman Klare Ly, because Juratovac was a former police officer, and his wife was a deputy with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
Read past coverage of the case HERE.
