Alachua woman on pre-trial release charged with deliberately ramming man’s car

Staff report

ALACHUA, Fla. – Alexei Francis Bellow, 35, was arrested yesterday and charged with aggravated battery after allegedly ramming a man’s car after a road rage incident.

The victim called 911 yesterday morning and reported that while he was driving southbound on U.S. Hwy 441 in Alachua, a woman had repeatedly swerved into his path and accelerated erratically to keep pace with him. After calling 911, the victim followed the woman’s car while updating the call-taker on her location. The victim reported that the woman went to the Starbucks on NW 43rd Street and purchased two drinks before driving to a house in the Millhopper Station subdivision.

When the woman arrived at the house, she got out of her vehicle and confronted the victim while he was still on the phone with the police, and then she allegedly got back into her car and intentionally backed her car into the victim’s car, which was parked in the road at the end of the driveway. The victim said that after hitting his car, the woman got out of her car, walked around the front yard, then got back into her car and drove through the lawns of neighboring houses before driving away.

The victim reportedly followed the woman’s car to U.S. Hwy 441, where a Gainesville Police Department officer conducted a traffic stop on her vehicle near the Staghorn subdivision.

Post Miranda, Bellow reportedly produced a license that had been suspended in April, but she said it was not suspended and she had just gotten a new license in January. She reportedly said she was swerving at the victim and accelerating to keep pace with him because she was a bad driver. When the officer asked why she didn’t call 911 during the incident or take shelter at the Starbucks, she reportedly said she was afraid to do that.

The officer reported that the victim was driving a Tesla, so there were video recordings of the incident. The arrest report did not state whether the victim knew Bellow before the incident.

Bellow was previously arrested in May and charged with breaking into her ex-boyfriend’s house, taking items from the house, and causing about $4,000 in property damage. The State Attorney’s office filed a motion to hold her without bail but later withdrew the motion, and Judge David Kreider set bail at $50,000 with a requirement for a GPS monitor; Bellow posted bail a few days later and was released. Charges of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, grand theft, and felony property damage were filed on August 1. She had been compliant with the terms of her pre-trial release until yesterday’s arrest.

Bellow has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and knowingly driving with a suspended license. She has four misdemeanor convictions (none violent) and a pending felony case. Judge Kristine Van Vorst ordered her held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold her without bail until trial.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.