BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— A Keystone Heights man released from prison last December and arrested for passing counterfeit bills soon after his release was arrested on July 15 after he attempted to buy ice cream sandwiches from a Green Cove Springs Dollar General with a counterfeit five-dollar bill.
Christopher Carl Fuller, 31, was arrested by Clay deputies for uttering a forged or counterfeit instrument, resisting an officer with violence, battery on a law enforcement officer, and giving a false name or identification.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the manager of the Dollar General told a Green Cove Springs police officer that after laying the merchandise on the sales counter, the defendant handed him a five-dollar bill.
“(The manager) said he immediately noticed the 5-dollar bill was fake as it had ‘replica’ typed on the bottom right-hand corner,” Officer Cora Milliken wrote in the affidavit. “(The manager) told the man he couldn’t take the bill because it was fake. The man denied the bill being fake as he had ‘just got paid.’”
When the manager called police, Fuller grabbed a backpack and ran out the door.
Police searched the wooded area around the store and found the defendant’s backpack.
“On the inside of the backpack in the second compartment by the zipper, the name ‘Christopher Fuller’ was written,” the officer reported.
Fuller was released from Department of Corrections custody in December 2022 after serving a year for larceny and escape offenses in Bradford County.
Soon after his release, Fuller attempted to purchase a trimmer and a gas can from a Keystone Heights merchant on Dec. 7, 2022, using two counterfeit $100 bills.
In an arrest warrant affidavit, Clay Sheriff’s Detective David Schloffman wrote that the cashier noted that the words: “This is a Replica” were printed in tiny print on the front and back of the two Benjamins. She kept the money and merchandise and called 911. The defendant fled the scene.
Schlofman added that he later interviewed the defendant, who told him he obtained the fake money off an internet website to prank a friend.
“After pranking his friend, the defendant realized it was easy to use,” wrote the detective. “The defendant admitted to knowingly passing the fake money at several businesses in Clay County.”
Fuller was sentenced to 365 days in jail with credit for 303 days already served for the December 2022 offenses.
Milliken wrote that the bills Fuller used in the Dec. 7 incident were similar to the counterfeit five with which the defendant attempted to pay for the ice cream sandwiches.
After a judge issued an arrest warrant for the Green Cove Springs counterfeit incident, Clay deputies spotted Fuller near Colgate Road and Yale Street east of Keystone Heights.
After giving a false name, Fuller tried to walk away from the two deputies and fought the two lawmen.
According to an arrest report, one deputy “delivered a closed fist distraction strike to the right side of the defendant’s head with his right hand.” The same deputy was later treated for small lacerations on both hands.
