Code Enforcement Officer Shot to Death

1987 - Deputies said Scanlon had gone to Peschke's combination home and business to check on zoning violations.

January 28, 1987 (Orlando Sentinel) - A man sentenced to 17 years in prison for shooting a Lake County zoning officer to death says he deserves a lighter sentence because his lawyer didn’t handle his case right.

Arthur Charles Peschke, 50, was returned this week to the Lake County Jail from the Florida Department of Corrections where he has been serving the sentence imposed on Sept. 10, 1985, after he pleaded guilty to second degree murder.

Peschke, who once lived in Dona Vista, shot Lake County Code Enforcement Officer Vincent James Scanlon, 32, to death with a .38-caliber pistol March 5, 1985.

Deputies said Scanlon had gone to Peschke’s combination home and business to check on zoning violations. Peschke asked Scanlon to step inside his bait and tackle shop to discuss a site plan.

Neighbors called deputies when they heard shots. Deputies said later that Scanlon was shot three times while on the floor of the shop.

Peschke originally was charged with first-degree murder, but was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge after Scanlon’s family agreed a 17-year sentence would be fair.

However, Peschke filed a self-prepared motion and memorandum of law last April that claims he has a right to a lesser sentence based on three main points:

— Peschke says he entered the guilty plea without being made aware of the options he faced. “The conviction was obtained by a guilty plea, which was involuntarily entered and not the product of informed choice,” Peschke said. — Mort Aulls, Peschke’s defense attorney, did not provide effective assistance in the case, the motion claims.

— Peschke says his Constitutional right to due process was violated by the way the case was handled.

In the memo, Peschke calls his conviction and sentence a “tragic mistake” and says if the case would have been handled properly, he never would have been sentenced to such a term.

Peschke says a review of the facts of the case reveals that the killing “barely meets the elements of manslaughter” and would not support a second-degree murder conviction.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled at 9 a.m. today before Circuit Judge John W. Booth at the Tavares courthouse.