DNA evidence leads to identification of suspect in 2019 home invasion robbery case

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jarrod Jason Benelli, 48, who has been in the Alachua County Jail since November 20, 2024, has been charged with armed home invasion robbery and battery on a person over 65 after DNA evidence identified him as a suspect in a 2019 incident.

At about 2:43 p.m. on January 19, 2019, Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a call about a home invasion robbery in the Willowcroft subdivision and found an 86-year-old victim with a non-life-threatening injury to one eye; the victim was transported to a hospital for treatment.

Deputies learned that the victim had been in a back room of his home when the alarm system indicated that a door or window had been opened and he heard his dogs barking; the victim said he thought maybe his daughter had dropped by the house, walked out into a hallway, and saw a masked man coming toward him.

The victim said the man demanded his money, valuables, and jewels, and he said he told the man that there were no jewels. The man then demanded his wallet, and the victim gave it to him; the victim said the man hit him in the eye during the incident, then dragged him into a closet and told him to stay there.

The victim said the man went into his bedroom and started rummaging through drawers and closets, and he remembered hearing the man say he needed money because he had a sick daughter in Atlanta.

The victim tried to grab a gun from his nightstand at one point, but he said the man took it from him. He said he also remembered lying on the bathroom floor and hearing his wife screaming outside; when he went outside, he found that neighbors had come to help.

The victim said the suspect was a white male wearing “military” style pants and a dark hooded jacket.

The victim’s 71-year-old wife reportedly said she’d been outside doing yard work, heard the dogs barking inside, and saw the man leaving the house. She said the man charged at her and pushed her away, but she was not injured; she said she followed the man and saw him take a bike from some bushes near the house and ride away.

Deputies determined that the robber took the victim’s wallet and gun.

Neighbors told deputies that they heard the victim’s wife’s screams and saw a man running from the house and riding away on a bike; they said the man had dropped something, and they showed the deputies a camouflage-print ski mask on the ground.

The ski mask was submitted to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which notified the Sheriff’s Office on March 30, 2019, that a hair was collected and that a complete DNA profile was generated from the hair, indicating that the hair likely belonged to a male individual. The profile was entered into CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), and the investigation was eventually suspended because the suspect could not be identified.

On March 3, 2025, FDLE sent the Sheriff’s Office a notification that a sample from Jarrod Blum matched the DNA sample from the ski mask. The investigation was reopened and assigned to a detective, who learned that Blum had changed his name to Jarrod Jason Benelli in 2009. It turned out that Benelli had been arrested in November 2024 and was still in the Alachua County Jail.

In a post-Miranda interview on March 5, the detective learned that Benelli had been in Gainesville at the time of the 2019 incident but has been in Texas and other areas of Florida doing construction work at other times. Benelli reportedly said he had never seen the ski mask and had never worn one like that in his life. When the detective asked why his hair would be in the ski mask, Benelli reportedly said he should probably speak to an attorney, and the interview ended.

Benelli has been charged with armed home invasion robbery, two counts of battery on a person 65 years of age or older, and grand theft of a firearm.

On August 9, 2024, a sworn complaint was filed, alleging that Benelli had become upset at work and had messaged a supervisor; over the course of the evening and the next day, the messages became increasingly aggressive, and several messages included threats of violence. Benelli was arrested on November 20, and on November 29 he allegedly punched another detainee at the jail during a verbal argument.

Benelli has two misdemeanor convictions (none violent). He is now in custody on three felony cases, with bail set at $100,000 and $50,000 on the first two; today, Judge Kristine Van Vorst ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him 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.