BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A Starke man awaiting trial for murder was sentenced to a year in jail on an unrelated theft charge.
Gary Alvin Weeks, Jr., 40, pleaded to felony petit theft on March 12.
According to a December 19, 2023, arrest report, witnesses told deputies that Weeks had been hauling a red trailer behind his Dodge Durango that he later painted white. The witnesses said the defendant’s possession of the trailer seemed suspicious, and officers later matched the trailer to a stolen property report.
“My investigation revealed that the description of the trailer matched in all details except the winch was missing off the front and the trailer had been painted white,” wrote Deputy Robert Malley in the report. “The winch was in the garage of the property that the suspect’s residence opens into from his back door.”
In April 2024, Weeks, along with 41-year-old Thomas Borland, was arrested for the stabbing death of Emery Crews Jr., 41.
According to an arrest report, Crews was found in the HCA Florida’s Starke Emergency around 4:51 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23, with a stab wound to the torso from which he later died.
Deputies said that according to text messages discovered on Borland’s phone, Weeks told Borland he planned to kill both Crews and 41-year-old Stephanie Brunson because Brunson and Weeks were romantically involved, and Weeks found out Crews was also in a sexual relationship with Brunson.
Weeks pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge. His next court date is April 30.
