Detainee at juvenile detention center charged with aggravated assault for threatening another detainee with an improvised stabbing weapon

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jacob David Steinkoetter, who turned 18 yesterday, has been charged as an adult with aggravated assault after allegedly threatening another detainee at the Juvenile Detention Center with an improvised stabbing weapon.

Steinkoetter and the other detainee were having lunch at the dining hall yesterday when Steinkoetter allegedly tried to take the victim’s lunch tray. When the victim refused to give Steinkoetter the lunch tray, Steinkoetter allegedly said, “I’m going to poke you. I’m going to cut your throat and kill you” while showing the victim a silver sharp cutting object in his waistband.

The victim told a staff member about the threat, and the staff member told his supervisor, who searched Steinkoetter and reportedly found an eight-inch silver stabbing weapon wrapped with a shoelace in Steinkoetter’s waistband. The staff member reported that the stabbing weapon, which was sharpened at one end, had imprinted measurement numbers, indicating that the object was most likely assembled inside the detention center.

Post Miranda, Steinkoetter reportedly said that he never threatened anybody, then asked for a lawyer.

Steinkoetter has a juvenile criminal history. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $100,000.

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.