BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A 21-year-old Keystone Heights man was arrested for breaking into a car parked at Keystone Heights Junior-Senior High School.
Samuel Eugene Hartley was arrested at his Firetower Road home on January 8 for burglary.
According to court papers, on September 30, 2024, a student reported the break-in to the school’s resource officer. Surveillance video showed an offender driving onto the campus parking lot and taking several items from the victim’s vehicle.
“(The victim) discovered that his radio, amp, and subwoofer box were missing from the vehicle,” wrote a Clay County Sheriff’s deputy in a warrant affidavit. “The total value of the items is $650.”
The officer added that when questioned about the burglary, Hartley denied involvement in the misdemeanor, saying he left his car unlocked and that another person could have committed the crime.
According to the deputy, after viewing the burglary video, Hartley identified another person whom he said resembles the offender in the video. He suggested the other individual likely stole his car and committed the break-in.
“The Suspect did not report his vehicle stolen and did not provide an explanation of why (the other person) would steal his vehicle,” wrote the deputy. “When The Suspect was asked about suddenly saying that (the other person) took his vehicle, the Suspect said, “Because y’all are looking at me some type of way, and I kind of have a feeling that I know somebody that may have done something like that, and I don’t want to get accused for it.”
In 2018, the defendant was issued two citations for possession of tobacco by a minor. He pleaded no contest to cyberstalking in 2024.
In the 2024 case, Hartley was sentenced to nine months’ probation after admitting to recording a video of himself and a woman engaged in sexual activity and sending the video to the woman’s father.
