The following individuals were recently arrested by local law enforcement officers in Bradford, Union, or Clay (Keystone Heights area) counties. All defendants are considered innocent until convicted in a court or until pleading guilty or no contest. Information in this report is from law enforcement agencies and court documents, which are public records.
Bradford
Report: Switched shirts in Walmart restroom
Jebadiah Daniel Appleby, 40, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 10 for larceny.
According to an arrest report, Deputy B. Frampton responded to the Walmart at 2451 Commercial Drive at about 3:29 p.m. on a report of a shoplifting in progress. A store employee met the deputy and led him to the restrooms at the rear of the building, telling him the suspect was inside. The employee said the man had exited and reentered the store multiple times after putting items underneath his shirt.
The deputy detained Appleby when he came out of the restroom and escorted him toward the front of the store.
The defendant repeatedly denied taking anything, even after an employee told him he had been seen doing so.
While reviewing the store’s security footage, deputies noticed that the shirt Appleby was wearing in the office did not match the one he had worn in the video, but it did match a shirt the employee had watched him take off a rack, according to the report.
Frampton then went to the restroom Appleby had used and found the shirt Appleby had worn into the store stuffed in a trash can.
The remaining stolen items were not recovered. The store told deputies it would contact the sheriff’s office if additional missing merchandise was identified, and an employee completed a sworn written statement. The stolen shirt was placed into evidence.
Mom breaks up fight with baseball bat
Matthew Howard Bension, 36, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 13 for battery.
According to an arrest report, Bradford deputies were called to a home on South Westmoreland Street at about 1:10 p.m. Upon arrival, Deputy Zachary Jones made contact with Bension, his 32-year-old brother and their mother outside the residence. All three were interviewed, and the report notes that every account of what happened was consistent with the others.
According to the report, the mother had called her other son to come to her home because of a verbal altercation between her and Bension. When he arrived, a second argument broke out between the two brothers outside the house.
That argument escalated when Bension pushed his brother, and the two began what the report describes as “tussling.” During the struggle, Bension placed his brother in a rear naked chokehold that restricted his breathing, deputies wrote.
Seeing this, their mother intervened by striking Bension in the leg with a baseball bat to make him let go.
Dustin Dwayne Bowen, 33, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 13 for withholding support.
Arrested for stalking after being found behind woman’s workplace
Micheal Siegfried Lee Channell, 46, of Keystone Heights, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 9 for cocaine possession, stalking, fraudulent impersonation, loitering and an out-of-county warrant.
According to court documents, Deputy Ashley Cisco responded shortly after midnight to a report of threats and harassment at Windsor Manor.
The woman who called told deputies she had been separated from Channell for seven years and that he was parked in a white Chevrolet pickup behind her place of employment, in an area where members of the public are not permitted. She said he had been sending her harassing text messages and that he had an outstanding warrant in Putnam County.
Cisco and Sgt. Whitehead made contact with the driver. He was unable to produce identification, and when asked his name, he answered “Jason Channell,” his brother’s name, the report says. Deputies determined his actual identity by comparing photographs through the state’s DAVID driver’s license database.
Channell was placed under arrest at about 2:04 a.m. During an inventory search of the truck, Cisco found a small white piece of suspected crack cocaine inside a pair of shoes on the center floorboard beneath the stereo. A field test was positive for cocaine, and the substance weighed 0.1 grams. Deputies also removed $830.34 from Channell’s front right pocket, which was counted and logged.
The woman told deputies that at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 8, Channell had accosted her at work and fled when she said she was calling police. She also reported that the previous Friday morning, while she was at work, he had attempted to break into her home using a ladder and a bucket.
The report notes Channell has a prior conviction for violating an injunction against dating violence.
Arrested for attacking girlfriend over text messages
K’Ardra Shauntel Cook, 38, of Hawthorne, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 12 for battery and robbery.
According to an August 9 arrest warrant affidavit, Cpl. James D. Hall II responded to a home on Northwest 177th Street at about 5:53 p.m. Aug. 9 in reference to a robbery and battery.
The woman there told him the trouble had started the previous day. She and Cook, whom she identified as her girlfriend, were driving from Jacksonville to Starke on Interstate 10 when she began texting a friend, according to the affidavit. Cook became upset and questioned who she was talking to, then tried to take the phone from her.
When she grabbed the phone back, the affidavit says, Cook punched her in the lip, splitting it open. Cook then pulled over, and when the woman removed her seatbelt to defend herself, Cook grabbed her by the hair and punched her repeatedly in the head. The woman said she got out of the car and Cook drove away, leaving her stranded on the side of the interstate.
The second incident happened Aug. 9 at the woman’s home, the affidavit says. Cook arrived at the residence, approached her on the front porch and started another argument over the text messages. Cook began punching her and demanding the phone, then took it from her hands during the attack, according to the affidavit. The woman asked for it back; Cook refused, got into her vehicle and left with it.
Hall wrote that he observed knots on the right side of the woman’s head and a bruised, swollen right ear from the Jacksonville-area incident, along with a large bruise to her inner right thigh that appeared fresh. She told the deputy the bruise came from Cook punching her and valued the missing cellphone at $1,200.
Alleged chest bumps over food lands man in jail
Michael Douglas Crawford, 55, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 9 for battery.
An arrest report states that Deputy Michael Gillick was dispatched to a residence on Southeast 122nd Street at 11:54 a.m. on a report of a battery that had just occurred.
The 65-year-old man told the deputy he and Crawford had been arguing after he accused Crawford of taking and eating his food from the residence. During the argument, he said, Crawford got in his face and “chest bumped” him several times, causing him to stumble backwards. Crawford then pushed him with both hands, knocking him to the ground, where he struck his elbow, according to the report.
Crawford’s son, who was also at the home, heard the commotion and came into the room, the report says. Crawford then left the residence and fled the scene.
The son gave a sworn statement confirming that his father had pushed the man down over a disagreement about food, and said his father left once he was told police were on the way.
Gillick located Crawford at a home on Southeast 125th Street. After being read his Miranda rights, Crawford acknowledged that he and the other man had been in a disagreement and that he had “chest bumped” him, causing him to fall to the ground, according to the report.
The victim was 65 at the time of the incident, the deputy noted, a fact that elevates a simple misdemeanor battery to a third-degree felony under Florida law.
Grandin Riggs Davis, 20, of Brooker, was arrested by FHP troopers on August 8 for DUI.
Jonathan David Elder, 36, of Trenton, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 12 for a probation violation.
Landin Rylee Gordon, 19, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 11 for a probation violation and conditional release violation.
Rashard Jarveir Hightower, 40, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 10 for resisting an officer.
Donald Mark Hodges, 58, of Lawtey, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 11 for drug equipment possession, drug possession and a nonmoving traffic violation.
Shaunte Tracy-Shakia Hyman, 38, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 10 for failure to appear.
Schyler Alexander Johnson, 36, of Lake Butler, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 10 for an out-of-county warrant.
Walter Jo Mabrey, 32, of Lake Butler, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 11 for withholding support.
James Lee Martin, 58, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 11 for failure to appear, cocaine possession and drug equipment possession.
James Arnold Newman, 58, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 14 for DUI.
Jayson Lee Nugent, 41, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 12 for DUI and a moving traffic violation.
Nelson Rafael Mucu, 25, was arrested by FHP troopers on August 13 for battery and resisting an officer.
Ricardo Rodriguez, 37, of Hampton, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 11 for DUI.
Timothy Lamar Yarbrough, 72, of Starke, was arrested by Bradford deputies on August 14 for DUI and a moving traffic violation.
Union
Attacked for not giving man loose change
Jerome Addison, 58, of Lake Butler, was arrested by Union deputies on August 12 for burglary with assault or battery and abuse of an elderly or disabled adult without great bodily harm.
An arrest report states that the female victim came into the sheriff’s office at about 4:30 p.m., a deputy wrote in a supplemental report. She had trouble standing, and the left side of her face was covered in blood coming from a cut at the end of her left eyebrow.
She told deputies she had been visiting a friend at an apartment on Southwest 8th Street when a man she knew only as “Tyrone” came by and asked for the loose change in her vehicle. When she said no, she said, he hit her in the face with a closed fist, with what appeared to be all his strength. She said she retreated to her vehicle to get away, but the man followed her outside and punched her through the open window.
Before she could finish her account, the report says, she began to collapse and appeared to pass out. Deputies lowered her to the ground, and Union County EMS evaluated her and transported her for treatment. Photographs of her injuries were taken.
Deputy Austin Kazmierski went to the Southwest 8th Street apartment, where a witness gave a sworn written statement identifying the man as Jerome Addison rather than “Tyrone.” Deputies issued a be-on-the-lookout for him.
Cpl. Murphy located Addison at about 5:23 p.m. near the intersection of Southwest 8th Place and Southwest 1st Way, wearing brown pants and a blue striped button-up shirt matching the description the woman had given, the report says. Addison had a liquor bottle in his hand, which he finished as the deputy approached. He then dropped the bottle, said, “I’m ready,” and walked to the back of the patrol vehicle.
Investigator Charles Townsend arrived on scene and advised he had reviewed security camera footage showing a man in brown pants and a blue striped button-up shirt reaching into the woman’s vehicle, according to the report.
Caleb Harris, 21, of Lake Butler, was arrested by Union deputies on August 11 for a probation violation.
Steven Craycraft, 35, of Starke, was arrested by Union deputies on August 11 for a probation violation.
Inmate arrested after investigator links smuggled cellphone to defendant’s father
Matthew Hart, 43, of Reddick, and Gregory Tyre, 46, of Lake Butler, were arrested by Union deputies on August 11 for smuggling contraband, a cell phone or portable communication device, into a county detention facility.
The investigation began Aug. 11, when Lt. Tim Thornton, who oversees Union County Sheriff’s Office jail operations, reported to Sgt. Charles Townsend that a cellphone had been found inside the facility, according to the arrest report.
Correctional officers searching inmate cells saw inmate Gregory Patrick Tyre step out of his assigned cell and immediately go back in while holding a cellphone, the report says. Sgt. Gene McDaniel then found a phone under the bedding in Tyre’s assigned bunk. Because inmates at the jail are assigned individual bunks, the discovery pointed first to Tyre, but Thornton told Townsend he believed other inmates had also been using the device.
Townsend reviewed recent call activity on the phone, a Samsung smartphone that was not password protected. Among the numbers he found was one belonging to Perry Hart, Matthew Hart’s father, according to the report.
The report also notes that Matthew Hart had lost his jail telephone privileges on Aug. 4 after violating two court orders while using the jail phone system.
Townsend called Perry Hart, who confirmed he had recently spoken with his son, the report says. Call history on the seized phone showed his number was dialed from the device at about 12:50 p.m. Aug. 11, for a call lasting roughly two minutes and 10 seconds.
Townsend interviewed both inmates at the jail, with the interviews audio recorded and Miranda warnings given first. Tyre told the investigator the phone was his and that he had carried it into the jail. He said he had not given other inmates permission to use it, but acknowledged leaving it in his bunk where others in his cell block had access to it.
Hart said he wanted an attorney present before answering questions and declined to be interviewed. The probable cause finding against him, Townsend wrote, rests on independent evidence: the seized phone, its call history, the call to his father, and the timing relative to his loss of phone privileges.
Gregory Tyre, 46, of Lake Butler, was arrested by Union deputies on August 12 for a conditional release violation.
Clay
Raul Asher Casas, 20, of Keystone Heights, was arrested by Clay deputies on August 13 for criminal mischief causing $200 to $1,000 in property damage.
Monique Renee Lussier, 44, of Keystone Heights, was arrested by Clay deputies on August 14 for simple battery.
Arrested for child abuse after causing traffic crash
Keifer Allen Perez, 34, of Keystone Heights, was arrested by Clay deputies on August 9 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and four counts of child abuse without great bodily harm.
Clay deputies said in an arrest report that the defendant grabbed the steering wheel of a moving vehicle carrying children and sent it off the road into a tree.
The crash happened at about 3:42 p.m. on County Road 352 near Keystone Heights. The driver reported the crash on a 911 call, and deputies found the vehicle roughly 10 feet off the roadway in an area of thick brush and trees.
One officer wrote that he could not view the front-end damage because of where the vehicle came to rest, but he did observe a large crack in the passenger portion of the windshield from Perez striking his head on it.
Perez was read his Miranda rights, said he understood them and agreed to speak with investigators.
The defendant’s statement, as well as witness accounts, were redacted from the arrest report.
“Due to the defendant placing all of the occupants of the vehicle in danger by attempting to turn off the vehicle and grabbing the steering wheel, causing the vehicle to go off the roadway, he was charged with child abuse and domestic aggravated assault,” an investigator wrote.
Perez was arrested at 5:50 p.m. and taken to HCA Middleburg for a medical evaluation. He was medically cleared for incarceration and transported to the Clay County Jail.
