BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE— A man whom Bradford deputies said cut the tires on family members’ vehicles and then set fire to his parents’ house during a family dispute was ruled incompetent to proceed in his criminal trial.
Jeffery Paul Gaudette, 38, faces a competency review in September to determine if he can then be tried for the Sept. 2, 2021, offenses of arson, battery on persons 65 or older, aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony and two counts of criminal mischief.
According to a sworn complaint, the defendant and his wife went next door to his parents’ home shortly after midnight to calm Gaudette down after he became agitated during an argument.
The defendant’s wife told deputies Gaudette demanded that everyone place their phones on the floor because he thought they were using the devices to record him or call law enforcement.
“Jeffery continued to tell his mother and stepfather to hand over their phones to which they did not comply, and Jeffery became more angry,” wrote Detective James Crews of the sheriff’s office. “Jeffery then grabbed a knife from the kitchen and went into the front yard and slashed the tires on multiple cars.”
The defendant then returned inside, grabbed his stepfather’s phone and smashed it on the floor before attacking the 72-year-old. The two men wrestled on the floor.
“(The wife) was terrified Jeffery was going to seriously injure his stepfather,” Crews wrote.
The defendant then went to the front porch, grabbed a can of gasoline and poured the fluid on the floor of the living room. After his wife and mother again refused to give up their phones Gaudette grabbed a lighter and ignited a fire.
After lighting the fire, the defendant panicked and tried to put out the blaze, running to his house and returning with a bucket of water. While he was attempting to extinguish the flames, law enforcement arrived.
Deputies first extinguished the 12-foot diameter fire and then began a search for Gaudette, who had fled.
Officers and tracking dogs searched for four hours but could not locate the defendant. Gaudette was found and arrested later the same day.
Based on a psychological review by a St. Augustine-based neuropsychologist, Circuit Judge James Colaw ruled the defendant incompetent to proceed and involuntarily committed Gaudette to a Florida Department of Children and Families treatment facility. The defendant’s competency will be reviewed in six months.
