The son of a 96-year-old Villager was arrested after guns and drugs were found stashed in her Village of Palo Alto home.
A month-long investigation by the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Squad culminated in the arrest Wednesday afternoon of 64-year-old William John Verticelli and 42-year-old Amy Louise Sizemore.
A search warrant was executed at 3:17 p.m. at the home of Verticelli’s mother at 1949 Palo Alto Ave.
The sheriff’s office had received numerous complaints of suspicious persons, suspicious activity and suspected drug activity.
Methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia were found in the home along with a sawed off/short-barreled Ithaca 37 Featherlight 12-gauge shotgun and a Remington Model 1100 12-gauge shotgun and numerous articles of ammunition. Two more guns, another Ithaca 37 Featherweight 12-gauge shotgun and a lever-action Sears and Roebuck 30-30 rifle were found in a safe along with numerous rounds of ammunition.
Also recovered was a Gatorade bottle containing a hardened white substance around the bottom. It appeared it had been used for the manufacturing of methamphetamine, consistent with clandestine laboratory operations. Discovered in a lunchbox were lye, coffee filters, empty baggies, a breathing tube, and a baggie containing a crystal-like substance suspected to be ammonia nitrate. Within the cabinet along the south wall of the garage, a bottle of Rooto (Sulphuric Acid) and a bottle of liquid lightning drain opener were found.
Verticelli was arrested on multiple drug and weapons charges. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $64,000 bond.
Sizemore, a Summerfield resident, had arrived with Verticelli at the home in a maroon Chevrolet truck. She was found to be wanted on a felony warrant out of Marion County. She was also driving on a suspended license.
Deputies were at the home for more than three hours, witnesses said. Someone was removed from the home on a gurney and neighbors believed it may have been Verticelli’s elderly mother.
Verticelli’s parents bought the home in 1996. His father died in 2001.
Verticelli was arrested this past August after a K-9 alerted on a golf cart in which he had been traveling. He was found to be in possession of methamphetamine.Â
In 2015, deputies were forced to taser Verticelli at the Palo Alto postal station. He was found to be in possession of methamphetamine.
In 2017, another Village of Palo Alto drug house was raided resulting in several arrests. Law enforcement moved in after an uproar among the neighbors.
