Keys cops still impacted by 2015 rolling shootout

In 2015, law enforcement in Monroe County narrowly missed ringing in the new year by mourning the deaths of two of its own.

And the man responsible, who led Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper on a rolling gun battle early Jan. 21, 2015, wounding one deputy and leaving the trooper with permanent hearing damage and both with nightmares, is standing trial this week almost three years to the date of the crime.

No one is disputing that Robert Schminky, 60, fled from police on U.S. 1 and through several Key Largo neighborhood streets traveling well in excess of 100 mph at times in his white Lexus SUV, opening fire on officers when the chase got to County Road 905.

And no one is disputing that what precipitated the chase was Schminky beating his wife of 16 years, Honour Schminky, so savagely with a shotgun, swinging the weapon six to eight times as if it were a baseball bat, that the stock broke off and he fractured several of her ribs and one arm.

Police, prosecutors and Schminky’s attorney, Hal Schuhmacher, said all of this happened.

But Schuhmacher — and Schminky’s wife — argue none of it was planned and it was all out of character. Robert Schminky had never been violent in the past, and he “snapped” late at night Jan. 20, 2015, after Honour hounded him about a doctor’s appointment at the Miami Veteran’s Affairs hospital, according to the defense.

“She can be a bit much,” Schuhmacher told jurors of Honour during opening arguments at the Plantation Key courthouse Wednesday, in comparison to her to the low-key Robert Schminky. “Quite intense, quite talkative.”

What made him “snap” though, Schuhmacher argues, was withdrawal from the anti-depression and anti-anxiety medication Paxil. Along with physical ailments Schminky had recently been diagnosed with, doctors had also diagnosed him with depression in the months prior to his attacks and prescribed him Paxil and alprazolam, sold as Xanax.

About three days before his rampage, he stopped taking Paxil after “someone told him to taper off,” Schuhmacher said.

“Something happened,” Schuhmacher said. “He does not recall the sequence of events. He wasn’t in his mind”

“She had never seen him that way, seen that look in his eyes,” Schuhmacher said. “He lost his mind.”

Schminky pleaded not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Schuhmacher also contends Schminky never specifically targeted any of the law enforcement officers he shot at during the wild chase.

But prosecutors, led by Assistant State Attorney Gail Connolly, say he is every bit guilty as charged of three counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of battery on law enforcement officers and a misdemeanor of discharging a gun in public.

“This defendant knew exactly what he was doing that night,” Connolly told jurors. “This defendant is guilty of each and every charge.”

During Day 1 of the trial, Connolly brought to the stand FHP Cpl. Christine Gracey and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Sydney Whitehouse, two of the officers who chased and exchanged gunfire with Schminky.

Jurors also heard from Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nestor Argote and Sgt. Barney Sajdak, the officers who finally subdued and cuffed Schminky, but only after Sajdak butt-stroked him in the back of the head with his department-issued rifle as Schminky struggled with Argote in an open field behind St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church in Key Largo.

“It worked,” Connolly said of Sajdak’s swift strike. “It’s finally over. He’s in custody.”

Honour Schminky was a cooperating witness for the prosecution, but she changed her mind sometime in early 2017.

“In the words of Tammy Wynette, she has chosen to stand by her man,” Connolly told jurors.

Jurors also heard two 911 calls that introduced the chaos. According to Connolly, Robert Schminky was drinking heavily Jan. 20, 2015, and his wife asked him repeatedly about the VA appointment, at one point demanding his Social Security number so she could call the doctor herself. She also called his brother out of concern.

Schminky, according to Connolly, became enraged and threatened her with violence and said he wanted a divorce. Honour called 911, first from a land line, but her husband pulled the cord out of the wall jack right after she got through to the operator. She called back using her cell phone, saying Robert was loading up the Lexus, which was parked across the street from their home on 52 Buttonwood Drive, with several guns.

On the 911 call, Honour is heard screaming and yelling “help” as she stood in the couple’s front yard because Robert had just come back, “holding the shotgun like a golf club” hitting her with it. When two deputies arrived, they found Honour Schminky in a “battered, beaten, crumpled heap,” Connolly said. Jurors heard the chilling audio where each thump of the shotgun on Honour Schminky’s body could be clearly heard as she begged for the attack to stop.

One of the responding deputies, Angelina Lumin, who now works for Miami-Dade Police, stood in the dark street and did not notice at first Robert Schminky walk past her, armed with the shotgun. When she finally saw him, and that he was holding the gun, she demanded several times that he drop the weapon. But instead, Schminky fired it twice into the ground, got into his Lexus and drove off.

The chase is on

He left the neighborhood, which is on the bayside of U.S. 1 around mile marker 100, and drove north. Whitehouse saw the Lexus go up U.S. 1 as he was heading to the domestic violence call and gave chase. He was followed close behind by Gracey. While it’s not clear exactly how fast Schminky was driving, Whitehouse’s cruiser was behind him and Gracey was trailing Whitehouse by about half a mile. At one point, her speedometer clocked her going 115 mph.

The chase ended up on County Road 905, which leads to Card Sound Road. It is the only other major artery other than the 18-Mile Stretch of U.S. 1 that connects the Keys to the mainland. Around mile marker 107, Schminky stopped his car.

“At this point, he pulled over,” Whitehouse said Wednesday. “I thought the chase was over. This nightmare.”

It wasn’t. Schminky pulled out again on the highway. Whitehouse went after him, but Schminky was driving in circles, and before the two headed south again down CR 905, Schminky’s car was briefly behind Whitehouse’s cruiser. The deputy was in Schminky’s crosshairs and he heard a bullet whiz by.

“I made a really bad mistake letting him get behind me,” Whitehouse told jurors.

The two cars kept going round and round until Schminky headed back south. Whitehouse and Schminky were now driving right toward each other. Schminky began shooting at the front of Whitehouse’s vehicle, one bullet going through the left side-view mirror, coming to a rest in the molding of the driver’s side door. Whitehouse responded with three shots through the glass of his side window as the the two cars passed each other.

But he missed Schminky’s vehicle, and before Whitehouse could turn around, Schminky was speeding toward Gracey’s FHP cruiser. He side-swiped the car barreling back down the highway toward Key Largo.

Joining the pursuit at this time were Sajdak, a detective, in a crime-scene van, and a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Schminky made it to the Circle K gas station in the median between CR 905 and the Stretch at mile marker 106. He stopped his Lexus at the south end of the Circle K, briefly enough to where Whitehouse got out of his car, only to have Schminky drive off again, this time on U.S. 1 toward the mainland. But he only went a few feet before pulling into the northern entrance of the Circle Key, stopping again.

Gracey arrived and decided to try using the push bar on the front of her cruiser to T-bone Schminky’s SUV into the woods next to the gas station to end the chase. But as she approached, she saw Schminky behind the wheel holding a pistol ready to fire. She threw her car into reverse, but before she got far, Schminky rammed his SUV into her and the two vehicles became locked together.

Schminky then began firing multiple shots into Gracey’s car. One bullet missed her head by inches. It went through the rear view mirror, hitting the bar of the metal prisoner cage boxing the back seat so hard it left a dent, before rolling underneath the gas pedal. Deputies were on either side of Schminky’s vehicle, so she did not want to risk hitting them by immediately returning fire.

She was pinned underneath her steering wheel as she rolled the car back and forth, shifting gears with her right hand trying to free the two vehicles, as Schminky kept firing. Once the cars unlocked, Gracey got off one round at Schminky. Whitehouse was also firing at Schminky — and he at the deputy. A bullet from the volleys ricocheted off something and struck Whitehouse in the leg.

Schminky, once again, drove off, heading south down U.S. 1. But this time Gracey and Whitehouse, with her seriously damaged car and his wounded leg, were out of the fight.

Sajdak took off after Schminky in his van. Agoste, who is stationed in Islamorada, was now in Key Largo responding to calls for backup. Traveling north, he saw a white Lexus SUV with a damaged front end driving south with no headlights. The vehicle turned right into the parking lot of St. Justin at mile marker 105.5.

Agoste made a U-turn and drove to the church. He saw Schminky get out of his car and jog toward U.S. 1 through some bushes. But before he got to the right of way, Sajdak arrived in his van, overhead flashing lights on, prompting Schminky to run the other way. He did, only this time with his pistol held out in the direction of Agoste. The deputy, who said he was standing about 50 feet away, fired about 10 rounds, but missed Schminky.

Agoste saw Schminky toss his pistol, which was later found to be loaded, in the bushes. He and Sajdak found Schminky in a field behind the church. They said he was just looking at the sky. Seeing he was unarmed, Agoste tackled him. But as the deputy grabbed Schminky’s right arm, he got into a “tripod” position, “digging in his waist” with his left hand, Sajdak said.

With one blow to the back of Schminky’s head with the butt of Sajdak’s long gun, the officers “gained compliance,” the sergeant said. Police found a Leatherman’s multi-tool in Schminky’s belt.

Lasting scars

The Keys, like anywhere else, have crime, though violent crime is relatively rare throughout the island chain. But police-involved shootings, and especially moving shootouts, are anything but typical here. And while the nature of police work is inherently dangerous anywhere, the malaise born of the raw madness of this particular instance is something difficult to shake for the officers involved, particularly for Gracey and Whitehouse.

Gracey, who earned the FHP’s Medal of Valor in May 2015 for her courage under fire that day, suffered permanent hearing damage caused from the ringing of gunfire — both received and returned — inside the confined space of her squad car. She wears special ear plugs that remove background noise that she now finds distracting. Fluid also drains daily from her right ear.

“The doctors say there’s nothing I can do about it,” Gracey said. “I basically have to sleep on my back.”

The emotional scars are even harder to ignore.

“My main concern was the citizens of Monroe County and Miami-Dade County and that no one else got hurt,” Gracey told jurors as she struggled not to cry. “You know when you take this job there are risks. There are always going to be risks. But it’s not every day you get shot at. I have nightmares of my car getting rammed.”

Whitehouse, who also suffered hearing damage, including loss and constant ringing, said he’s mostly moved on from the experience, but there are some mental wounds that are taking longer to heal.

“Every time I look through my rear view mirror, I see that Lexus,” said Whitehouse, who like Gracey was awarded his department’s Medal of Valor. “It still affects me to this day.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Keys cops still impacted by 2015 rolling shootout."