>> good evening, i'm jennifer leigh. >> i'm josh benson. >> it is the end of the line on a con man. the cash flasher is no longer running away from responsibility. an open plea. that opens him up to a long- time behind bars. >> 8 on your side investigator mark douglas started exposing fletcher's dirty deeds what does this mean to his victims?

other, it means they will finally see him pay for making them suffer. fletcher many people say is a pathological liar. his legion of lies caught up to him. after years of investment scams. >> the defendant befriended the victim. >> reporter: shameless lies. >> he fabricated fake wire transfers and took money from new investors. >> reporter: robber fletcher is finally telling the truth. >> you believe it is in your best interest? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: no more get rich quick schemes. >> i have ten grand cash. all set for the deal. no exception, no problems. >> reporter: no more using the jailhouse telephone to defraud elderly women while waiting trial for previous scams. >> thank you. i had lost faith.

for responsibility like the time we cornered him. today, robert fletcher admitted the everything. rejected the prosecutor's offer of 10 years in prison and threw himself at the mercy of the judge. >> you could be sentenced as much as 156 years? >> i do. >> reporter: we were tipped off to his shenanigans more than a year ago. >> he need to be kept behind bars. we cannot do this to the public ever again. >> reporter: 15 victims will have the chance to tell their stories as his sentencing and fletcher will have a chance to tell his. it will be the most important sales pitch of his life. >> he is still trying to wheel and deal with the judge. >> reporter: but at least he is polite right to the end. well, we will see how polite fletcher is when judge andrews puts the gavel down at his sentencing.

hear from as many as 15 victims explain how fletcher fleeced them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> i mean, is it possible that the judge could really sentence him to, what is it, 126 years? >> the judge said that repeatedly today. he warned him time and again, you don't want to take the open plea deal. it is likely he will not serve that long, but if i was betting it will be a lot longer than the ten years he was going to get from the prosecutors. >> you said it. he has the ultimate sales pitch ahead of him. >> he thinks he can convince anybody of anything. this will be his opportunity to prove that once and for all. >> my goodness. thank you mark. well, a man took a backhoe for a dangerous joyride near key west. wait until you see this. the man used the backhoe to dump boulders on the seven-mile bridge. he drove it back and forth on the bridge for an hour-and-a- half. deputies closed the bridge down

he was arrested and faces several charges now. this guy really, really wanted to rob an antique store. look as he throws a rock into the glass three times. he then karate kicks it. then he takes the glass, peels it back and climbs in. we are cleaning up after twisters tore through northwest florida. this tornado touched down in the small town of century. it took down a lot of power lines and trees. the tornadoes were part of large winter storm system that is now hitting the eastern united states. concealed carry permit holders could be allowed no carry guns into airports if some lawmakers get their way. legislation removing a ban on guns in not secure areas of airports cleared a senate

they still have to go through two more committees. people with autism are expected to have seven times more contact with law enforcement agencies during their lifetime. two bills seeked to make those encounters as smooth as possible. mike vasilinda shows us what is happening in tallahassee. >> reporter: 1 in 68 of us show up on the autism spectrum. they are more likely to have interactions with the police than other citizens. the state senator wants to make sure they have someone in the room who understands them when they are interacting with police. >> people are qualified to be in that interview include parents, or a guardian. shall be substantially familiar with the individual. >> there is a whole body of evidence about people confessing to things they didn't do either because they don't understand the question

afraid to stand up to authority. >> reporter: right now, when police roll up on someone acting out, their first thought is that they are likely to be high on drugs. not that they have an autistic disorder. next police need to receive training on someone acting out on autism. florida sheriffs support the legislation. >> the issues could be whether the person is understanding what we are trying to convey to them. whether we have any markers or this is somebody who may have something to do with autism. again, additional training will help us. >> reporter: a third bill would order the department of highway safety to include a diagnosis mike vasilinda, newschannel8. do it yourself projects are popular on the internet. but one couple in florida is check this out.

a new business using small electronics and computer gadgets. every month, they take something different. computer programmers, teenagers, hackers. >> you can code digital signals off of the radio. you can track the international space station. >> we wanted to pick out the things we thought were the coolest that you can put in people's hands. >> pretty cool right? includes shipping. hacker boxes already has customers in ten different countries. good idea. >> great. >> very cool. baseball fans rejoice. spring training starts in less than two weeks. >> can you believe it? we are hard at work transforming tiger town in lakeland. what fans can expect to see there. >> plus, it was a blow to her career, but did visit a bigger impact? the toll this knockout had on rhonda rousey's mental health coming up.

beautiful day after a stormy night across the region. headed into a great stretch of weather. the forecast is coming up. >> we'll have that and more coming up. you're watching newschannel8.

>> the stars were out in full force at the 58th annual grammy awards. taylor swift got things started. she took home three awards including album of the year. kendrick lamar won three grammyis.

went to mark bronson and bruno mars for their dance anthem uptown funk. they honored musicians we lost. maurice white, and lady gaga paid homage to david bowie performing some of his greatest hits like changes, let's dance, and heros. the usually flawless singer sounded flat. at least on tv. adele is taking it all in stride tweeting because of it, because of it, i'm treating myself to an in and out burger so maybe it was worth it. rihanna has been put on vocal rest. she has bronchitis and was at

cords so she posted so sorry i couldn't be there. rhonda rousey says she has had suicidal fights since losing to holly holme. and manny paqiao is apologizing for disparaging remarking for gay people. he stands by his opposition on same sex marriage, but apologized for comparing gay people to animals. happy anniversary to jesse and becky. to celebrate the milestone, aunt becky instagrammed this

happy anniversary to jesse and becky. fuller house will start streaming later this month. actress jennifer lawrence donated $2 million to help build an intensive care unit for heart patients in kentucky. lit help children recovering from open heart surgeries. she grew up in louisville. she and her family visit children at the hospital every christmas. >> good to see. you know. it just makes me really proud and i know it really touches her too. >> she always thought she would be a doctor to come in here and fix them. but, she is doing her part. >> lawrence has also called on the community to step up and match her $2 million donation. >> very cool of her. well, the baseball players are starting to arrive in the tampa bay area for the start of

>> that is why the city of lakeland is doing all it can to keep the detroit tigers happy. josh thomas joins us live where the players are already getting started. >> reporter: they most certainly are getting ready. the project will end up transforming tiger town and the fans and players coming here for years may not even recognize the place when they are done. crews are hard at work inside the stadium in lakeland. the spring training home for the detroit tigers since 1966. but with spring training games starting in less than two weeks it will be a challenge to continue construction when fans start arriving. >> we are working really hard on lodgistics. being able to help the fans. to help them get the autograph they are looking forward to having. >> reporter: from new concessions to batting cages, it will be a new place for the

>> it is neat they are catching up and you don't have to remodel the whole stadium. >> reporter: there will always be an adjustment for players. >> we were told the rooms are in the batting cage. people have this look on their cage. once they see it, they see how the adjustments happen. >> reporter: this multimillion dollars facelift comets comes at a team when teams are ready to move. >> this gets us through. we are at our 80th season, this puts us to 100 years. nobody will ever parallel that. it is a great relationship. >> reporter: while this major renovation project is onlily partially complete, it is on schedule for the first spring training pitch. >> with all they are doing making people more happy down here. have a good time coming down. get away from the cold weather. go tigers. >> reporter: and like many

are asking the fans to pardon their dust during the project, but when fans come here next season, it should all be done and they should have an experience like never before. >> it's the longest relationship between a city and a team for spring training in major league baseball. so it is a huge deal for lakeland, but the question always comes up. who is paying for the renovations? >> reporter: it is a combination of funding coming from the city, from the county, from the state, and the tigers as well. >> takes a village apparently to do a stadium. can't wait to see it when it is finished. thank you josh. kids will soon be able to hit the parks and the sidewalks in their very own tesla model s. check out these snazzy one- seaters created for kids aged three to eight. they have headlights, a spacious interior and trunk in

they can reach speeds of 5 miles an hour. you can get one for $400 each. well, 66 degrees right now at hula bay. clear skies especially central northern areas. a few of these have snuck in from the west. 66 and cool this evening. we will be out a little later, might want to bring a jacket. temps stay in the low to mid 70s . next rain chance moves through on tuesday. a really nice stretch of weather up until that point. in fact, even a warmer weekend. temps rising up into the mid to upper 70s . if you are headed out to the gasparilla distance classic, a few clouds, nice temperatures warming quickly and partly cloudy skies. pleasant weather conditions. our eight-day forecast, here is our average line of 73 degrees. we do go above that. you can see falling off by tuesday and wednesday, computer

temperatures headed our way. 63 degrees for the evening. enjoy this one. 54 degrees very close to the average. also enough leftover moisture before a second push of dry air heads our way to develop fog for the region. watch for some thick fog. 70 degrees in the afternoon. sunshine, a few clouds overall. at the high levels of the atmosphere, dry air snuck in behind this cold front. and the deeper atmospheric moisture pushes off to the east. upper level moisture is pretty hard to find around this region. but at the surface, still enough low level moisture producing the dog we were talking about. high pressure back to the west of us. the cold front, some tornadoes in the early morning hours this morning and we had a tornado watch in place about 8:00 a.m. this morning. didn't need it that long. there was enough sheer in the atmosphere to produce tornadoes. down in the fort myers area. a tornado warning. and in south florida.

wind sheer and possible funnel clouds. low temps, 48 degrees land o' lakes. a little bit on the cool side for some. 46 in brooksville. 55 saint petersburg. low 50s in lakeland. highs tomorrow, low to mid 70s potentially as we head to a warmer end of the week. really a nice range of temperatures overall. in fact, very close to what we expect this time in february. 54 degrees to start the day. foggy commute. light jacket weather. by the afternoon, 70 degrees. nothing by sunshine here with the northwesterly breeze at 50 miles an hour. next three days, 70, 72, 74 degrees. we remove the rain chance throughout this period. we will see a few clouds overall. generally very nice weather conditions through this period. weekend looks fantastic as we talked about. mid, possibly upper 70s inland areas. partly cloudy skies. rain chances return monday and tuesday. then the temperatures cool down once again.

yet. not quite out of wintertime. in this el nio year, we have also gotten a lot of cool weather along with the severe weather. >> i'm loving this stream. we will take it. >> enjoy it. conflicting action in flint, michigan. >> what one group is threatening to do.

>> two south carolina police officers who shot and killed a man will not be charged with a crime. you can see in this edited dash cam video, the man fights with the officers and pulls out a gun and shoots one of them. that is when they returned fire and killed the man. the officer shot in the exchange continues to recover from his injuries. high levels of lead are still detected in tap water in some flint area homes. the top doctor is in the city today. the u.s. surgeon general is meeting with the doctor who first reported elevated levels of lead in the blood of flint's children. they are threatening action if governor snyder doesn't take action.

proposed a new rule today, if approved, the guidelines would require retailers to stock a wider variety of healthy foods but it would not require the food stamp recipients to purchase them. a secretary wants to get rid of the $100 bill. it claims scrapping that bill would make life more difficult for people who are breaking the law. the report also calls for an end to the u.k. 50-pound note. 1,000 swiss franc note. newschannel8 at 6:00 is coming up next. >> a good samaritan hit by a car and left to die. >> the woman accused of leaving the scene faced the judge and the victim's family spoke publicly for the first time. >> plus, we showed you this wild video of a car doing donuts in an intersection. who police believe was behind

>> sarasota schools start implementing transgender bathrooms? >> plus, we will be taking you inside the home of a woman who is making clothes and making a business out of it in havana. that's next. >> those story plus your storm

know you can keep your financial big picture under control. know you can see how much you have to spend and whether you should transfer funds. know you can easily keep track of what you're putting away. and know you're budgeted for the great escape.

>> right now on newschannel8 at 6:00. >> hit while doing a good deed. left to die. a tow truck driver taken from his family. the woman behind the wheel faces his loved ones in court. >> a sensitive subject front and center. our rules on which bathroom

>> and what a new deal between the u.s. and cuba means for you. good evening i'm keith cate. >> i'm stacie schaible. thank you very much for joining us. heartbroken and looking for justice. family members of a tow truck driver killed in a hit and run speak publicly for the first time. this, as the driver faced a judge today. 8 on your side has uncovered new details about the arrest of allison huffman. we have now learned she admitted to investigators that she was driving and she knew she struck somebody. candace mccowan joins us live in hillsborough county right now. and candace, i understand it was a friend who actually turned huffman in. >> reporter: good evening. i spoke with florida highway patrol. they called alison, invited her over and alerted the police. now the victim's family couldn't be more thankful. >> you always see the news and you see it happen to other people, but you would never