Colorado man arrested in 2007 theft of a motor home from Hawthorne

Staff report

HAWTHORNE, Fla. – James Eldridge Brown, 77, of Denver, Colorado, was booked into the Alachua County Jail yesterday on a 2007 charge of stealing a motor home from Hawthorne.

According to a sworn complaint filed on May 24, 2007, the owner of the motor home lived in Pennsylvania, and his father-in-law, who lived in Hawthorne, was helping him sell the motor home. The owner spoke to Brown on the telephone and agreed to let him drive the motor home from Hawthorne to Pennsylvania and pay the owner $150,000 when he reached Pennsylvania, but Brown allegedly never contacted the owner again, and the motor home was later found abandoned in Bossier City, Louisiana. A warrant for Brown’s arrest was issued on May 30, 2007.

Brown spent time in prison in Colorado and extradition limits had been exceeded by the time he was released, but a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper arrested Brown on I-75 on the warrant.

Brown has a local felony conviction for grand theft of a motor vehicle in 1990 and served a five-year sentence in the Florida Department of Corrections. He also served a separate 15-year sentence and was released in 2005.

Although the 2007 warrant specified bail of $100,000, Judge Thomas Jaworski set bail at $25,000.

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.