ST LUCIE COUNTY

Driver in Port St. Lucie 'road rage' where girl was shot also was in fatal incident 10 years ago

Will Greenlee
Treasure Coast Newspapers
Preslie, 3, was shot in the head

PORT ST. LUCIE — The driver in a “road rage” case last month in which a 3-year-old girl was shot in the head also was behind the wheel in a fatal “road rage” incident 10 years earlier, according to police and records.

Further, 38-year-old Craig Anthony Sule, the driver in both cases, is the son of a man serving life in prison for killing a woman in 2003 in Port St. Lucie.

Sule was driving a blue Dodge pickup about 2 a.m. Oct. 28 with a 3-year-old girl named Preslie and her 7-year-old brother, according to Port St. Lucie police and records. Police reports are unclear whether anyone else was in the truck.

The shooting happened after the pickup and a sedan turned onto Southeast Bywood Avenue. 

Ten years earlier, in August 2008, Sule was the driver of a vehicle in a “road rage” case on Southeast Prima Vista Boulevard in which his passenger — his brother Christopher Sule — died, reports showed.

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They were eastbound and a Lincoln, driven by Stanly Thybulle with passenger Anusha Bissoon, traveled in the same direction.

The drivers stopped in an incident St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputies described as road rage. Thybulle and Christopher Sule, 31, exited their vehicles and began fighting, deputies said. Craig Sule then jumped in to help his brother.

Bissoon, described by deputies as Thybulle's girlfriend, reportedly joined the fight, stabbing Craig Sule in the chin and above an eye. He punched Bissoon in the eye, then helped his brother, who was fighting Thybulle, deputies said.

Deputies reported Christopher Sule was getting off the ground when Bissoon stabbed him in the back with a large knife. Christopher Sule died at St. Lucie Medical Center.

Bissoon was arrested, but state prosecutors declined to charge her in the case. Thybulle was severely beaten; Bissoon told officials she stabbed Sule in self-defense.

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Preslie, left, and her uncle, Chance Voegtli, right

In the recent incident, Preslie’s uncle, Chance Voegtli, identified the driver as the new boyfriend of Preslie’s mother, who addressed reporters last week but declined to identify herself. Police Monday confirmed it was the boyfriend after earlier saying it was the father.

Statements in a heavily redacted police report indicated they had left a Wawa store at Prima Vista Boulevard and Floresta Drive. 

Police Sgt. Joe Norkus said “something very innocuous escalated” and the pickup and a dark-colored sedan turned east onto Southeast Bywood Avenue.

“On that street, we ended up having two vehicles coming in contact with each other,” Norkus said. “We have a gunshot that went into the truck.”

Preslie was shot in the head and injured.

Master Sgt. Frank Sabol, police spokesman, said she is stable, while Voegtli said she is slowly being woken up and is doing well considering what happened. 

 

More: 911 audio: 3-year-old girl shot in Port St. Lucie 'road rage' incident

Sabol said the 2008 incident isn’t relevant in the recent case.

“This case in particular is still under investigation,” Sabol said. “We're not going to make a comment on any past cases he was in."

Family has criminal history

Another Sule family member is in prison after a 2003 deadly incident.

The father of Christopher and Craig Sule has been serving two consecutive life sentences for the 2003 killing of 50-year-old Dorene Domato, who was strangled then set on fire in her Port St. Lucie home.

Coleman Fred Sule, now 66, was found guilty in 2006 of murder, arson and burglary in the August 2003 incident. 

Coleman Fred Sule was described as a former boyfriend of Domato, and also a one-time Port St. Lucie City Council candidate.

While he was at the St. Lucie County Jail, Coleman Fred Sule became an outspoken advocate against jail overcrowding and high prices at the canteen, filing several civil suits against the county, some that ended in small victories.

Coleman Fred Sule now is at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution in Okeechobee County, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Christopher and Craig Sule's brother, Coleman Sule III, later pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation to tamper with evidence and conspiracy to commit burglary, after helping to come up with a plan to frame one of Domato's neighbors, who was a witness in the case.

He received a sentence of three years in jail and two years' probation, according to court records.

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