BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE— A 30-year-old St. Augustine man was sentenced to 180 days in jail for possessing a Molotov cocktail while walking along a Starke street.
Christopher Patrick Bushey, 30, pleaded no contest for the Aug. 5 offense of possessing an explosive device.
According to a Starke Police report, Officer Taylor C. Sanders made contact with the defendant at 3:19 a.m. after spotting him walking in the middle of U.S. 301.
“The suspect was informed that the reason for making contact with him was that he was seen pacing back and forth in the middle of North Temple Avenue between Washington and Pratt Streets,” Sanders wrote. “The suspect advised that he was just looking for his glasses that he dropped when crossing the road.”
Bushey claimed that at around 11 p.m., Baker County deputies had driven him to Starke and left him because he had been trespassed everywhere in Baker County.
Sanders wrote that he asked the defendant if he possessed any drugs and asked for permission to search his belongings. In response, Bushey began emptying his bags. Sanders added that among the man’s possessions was a white grocery bag.
“When I observed the bag, it was partially open at the top,” wrote Sanders, “where I observed a top of a bottle that appeared to have a rag tucked inside the bottle that he advised was gear oil.”
“At that time, I had reason to believe that the bottle was a possible incendiary device, also known as a Molotov cocktail, due to what I could observe and from his statement of the bottle containing oil,” added the officer.
Sanders then explained to Bushey that the bottle appeared to be an explosive. Bushey responded that he had hoped to find a bicycle laying around somewhere in the city and intended to use the oil in the bottle to lubricate the chain on the bike.
Sanders transported the defendant to Meridian of Gainesville for a mental health evaluation and forwarded his report to the State Attorney’s Office for review.
On Aug. 12, the State Attorney’s Office filed an information charging Bushey with making a destructive device.
