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Police Briefs 6/7/18

Clay County Sheriff's Office
Posted 6/6/18

Shooting threat ends in student arrestGREEN COVE SPRINGS – An officer with the Clay County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Green Cove Springs man on May 30 at 2:19 p.m., for making a …

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Police Briefs 6/7/18


Posted

Shooting threat ends in student arrest
GREEN COVE SPRINGS – An officer with the Clay County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Green Cove Springs man on May 30 at 2:19 p.m., for making a false report concerning a firearm, an explosive, or a weapon of mass destruction, or concerning the use of firearms in a violent manner.
The officer arrested 18-year-old Ricky Williams after Williams reportedly threatened to show up to Clay High School’s June 1 graduation and commit a shooting.
Clay High Assistant Principal Joshua Freeman contacted the Clay County Sheriff’s Department on May 30 after another teacher gave him a note, according to the police report. The note contained a list of names of students who, according to the police report, heard Williams make statements about “shooting up students” at graduation.
The officer spoke to the students who had reportedly heard Williams make the statements before heading to Williams’ home to speak to him. Williams agreed to answer questions both at his home and then again at the Sheriff’s Office. The officer arrested Williams and transported him to the Clay County Jail, where at press time, he remained held with bond set at $25,003.

Investigation ends in animal cruelty arrest
GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Clay County Sheriff’s officers arrested a Jacksonville man on May 31 at 11:15 a.m., on the charge of animal cruelty.
Officers charged David Austin III, 38, in Green Cove Springs after he turned himself in to authorities who investigated an animal cruelty case lodged against him in November. On November 14, 2017, Orange Park Police Department officers responded to a report of a dog kennel submerged under water in a creek bed at the 500 block of Shaw Street.
The officers retrieved the kennel and discovered a dead female pitbull as well as a concrete block used to weigh down the kennel, according to the arrest warrant. Officers also found a student class schedule with a student ID number from Jefferson Davis Middle School.
A necropsy on the dog determined the cause of death as probable drowning, mechanism of death as asphyxia and anoxia leading to a cardiorespiratory arrest and the manner of death as non-accidental.
The officers went to the Jacksonville middle school and obtained the address and contact information for the parents of the student whose ID number they had found. Contact was finally made with Katrina Williams, the mother of the student, on May 22. Williams confirmed that the family used to own a pitbull but they had gotten rid of it in 2017 due to it biting their young daughter.
Further investigation resulted in a warrant being issued for David Austin III who was arrested on May 31 and taken to Clay County Detention Facility. He is currently out on bond.

Auto theft charge for Jax woman
GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County Sheriff’s Office Jail extradited a Duval County inmate to Green Cove Springs to face charges of grand theft auto.
Officials transported Tonya Shabree Glover, 31, of Jacksonville to the Clay County Jail on May 30 at 12:25 p.m.
According to the police report, a Tanglewood-area resident told CCSO officers that Glover may have stolen his vehicle on May 19, 2017 from his home on Ticonderoga Trail.
The victim told officers that his roommate had come home with a girl he knew as Tonya Glover.
The victim’s roommate reportedly told the victim that he had left for work at 7 a.m. on May 19, 2017 and that Glover was asleep on the couch at the time. The roommate also said that the vehicle in question was parked in front of the apartment building when Walters left.
The victim told police that when he woke up on May 19 at 1 p.m., his keys, Glover and his vehicle were gone.
At press time, Glover remained in the Clay County Jail with bond set at $25,003.

OP Police needs the public’s help
ORANGE PARK – Detectives from the Orange Park Police Department are asking the community for any information that may lead to the capture of man suspected of robbing a gas station on Park Avenue.
Police said, that on June 5 at 3:58 a.m., an armed gunman entered the BP Station at 201 Park Ave. and held up the store. Police said the clerk used the electronic panic alarm to alert authorities who arrived and conformed she had just been robbed.
The man is described as a black male and was last seen wearing sunglasses, a white hoodie, jeans and a jacket. The suspect fled the area before officers arrived.
Detectives ask that anyone who might have information regarding the robbery to contact the Orange Park Police Department at (904) 264-5555.

Clay woman charged in fatal hit-and-run
JACKSONVILLE – A Middleburg woman is scheduled to appear in court in Jacksonville June 19 after turning herself in to authorities for a fatal January 2017 hit and run crash.
Court documents show Sherri Mary Ward, 35, of a Brickyard Road address, faces one count each of leaving the scene of a crash involving death and leaving the scene of an accident involving attended property.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Ward struck a Kia Forte driven by Jazmin Mariah Rodriguez, 25, with her 2009 Honda Pilot SUV at 2:25 a.m. on January 14, 2017 on Interstate 295 just north of Old St. Augustine Road. Further investigation found Ward also struck Rodriguez who had stopped her Kia in the emergency lane.
FHP said Rodriguez was able to get a description of Ward’s vehicle before she fled the scene. Emergency rescue transported Rodriguez to Orange Park Medical Center where she died the following day.
Two days after the crash, Ward took her SUV to D.J.’s Auto Body Repair on McDuff Avenue in Jacksonville where owner Stephen “Red” Harris told authorities he had watched media accounts of the hit and run and said he believed the involved vehicle was in his shop for repairs. He also told police that he knew the vehicle’s owner who had told him that she struck a construction barrel the evening before she went to his shop.
After a more intense review of the damage, Harris said the damage “was too extensive” to have been caused by a construction barrel.
“During the inspection black painted plastic shards, scrape marks with magic transfer paint, and what appeared to be biologic transfer was observed on the front right and front right side of the suspect vehicle,” states the arrest warrant.
Police also retrieved Ward’s cell phone records, which verified she was near the scene of the accident at the time of the crash.
“Just following the time of the crash, the Suspect’s cell phone shows her at the exit just south of where the crash occurred,” states the warrant.
On the day of her April 23, 2018 arrest, Ward posted a $10,003 bond and was released from the Duval County Pre-Trial Detention Center.
The State Attorney’s Office filed an information – which functions the same as an indictment – on May 3, ten days after Ward’s surrender.

Keystone Heights man arrested in Volusia County for Gainesville drive-by shooting
DAYTONA BEACH – A Keystone Heights man faces charges of attempted second-degree murder in Alachua County after being connected to a drive-by shooting at Progress Mobile Home Park on U.S. Highway 441.
Police said Macajaih Valenzuela, 26, fled the Gainesville area to Volusia County where authorities arrested him in a traffic stop after a license plate reader triggered law enforcement. Valenzuela is charged with shooting a 34-year-old unidentified man while the man was inside a trailer and shooting into a second trailer. The victim, who received non-life-threatening injuries, and another witness gave police a description of Valenzuela.
Valenzuela was taken into custody in Volusia County and will be extradited to Alachua County. His bond was set at $1.1 million.

Orange Park man facing sex charges in Nassau County
YULEE – The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office has charged a Clay County man with DUI, exposing his sexual organs and resisting an officer.
Police arrested Michael David Schletter of Orange Park on May 12 in an apartment complex parking lot on Christian Way in Yulee. Schletter is a teacher at Southside Middle School in Duval County.
Police found Schletter in the driver’s seat of a sedan at 2:30 a.m., with the headlights on and engine running, according to the police report. According to the arresting officer, Schletter appeared to have passed out in the car with his pants and wet clothing below his waist. Police said the deputy banged on the car window several times until Schletter woke up. The officer also had to repeatedly tell him to cover up.
Meanwhile, immediately after his arrest the Duval County Public Schools’ Professional Standards Office removed Schletter from contact with students and launched an investigation.