BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The State Attorney’s Office has dropped charges against a Graham man accused of making a bomb threat at Starke’s Walmart last year.
On November 27, Starke police arrested 84-year-old Robert Lee Cain.
According to an arrest report, Cain saw a Walmart associate in one of the retailer’s aisles around noon and commented on how crowded the store seemed.
“It always is,” replied the store employee, according to the report. “The male subject then continued, ‘If a bomb went off right now, all the associates would die.’”
The employee then relayed the exchange to the store manager, who called 911.
Police cleared the store after a dog from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit checked the building for explosives.
Officers found Cain at his home later that day and arrested him.
In March, prosecutors filed a case action report indicating they would not pursue charges against the defendant.
Cain’s attorney, Dan Sikes, said his client was misunderstood.
“Robert Cain is an elderly gentleman, and he means well, but he makes statements sometimes that can be easily misunderstood,” Sikes said. “I don’t believe for one minute that Robert Cain was ever a threat to anybody in any way, shape, or form. I don’t believe it.”
