Gainesville man arrested for stealing 3 vehicles and selling them to a metal recycling business

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Richard Vine Newton, 66, was arrested yesterday and charged with stealing three vehicles and falsely claiming they were his so he could sell them to a metal recycling business.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Deputy contacted Newton after learning that he had been to a metal recycling business three times in the past week and that at least one of the vehicles had been reported stolen.

The deputy made contact with Newton, who reportedly said he had been walking through his apartment complex after taking his trash to the dumpster when he was approached by an unknown white man driving a pickup truck. Newton said the man asked him to help sell a vehicle for cash, and Newton said he agreed and got into the pickup truck, but then the man said he did not have a valid driver’s license, so Newton drove the truck. Newton said they drove to an unknown location near T.B. McPherson Park, where the man said a vehicle parked there belonged to him and he didn’t know how to transport it to a junkyard.

Newton said he told the man he had experience towing cars with instruments such as tow straps, and, the deputy reported, “coincidentally, the unknown male had a tow strap for the occasion.” Newton said he connected the vehicle and they towed the vehicle to a metal recycling business, where Newton signed the documents because the unknown man did not have a driver’s license; Newton said he was given a check for the value of the vehicle.

The deputy viewed surveillance video that showed Newton driving the truck to the metal recycling business, with a young black male in the passenger seat, not a white male.

Another deputy investigated two other vehicles that had been sold by Newton to the metal recycling business and found that they were registered to a father and son with an address in Orange Park. The father said both vehicles should be parked at an address in Gainesville, and the son went to the address and told the deputy that both vehicles were gone.

Newton has been charged with dealing in stolen property, three counts of grand theft of a motor vehicle, uttering false documents, and theft. He has seven felony convictions (one violent) and 15 misdemeanor convictions (two violent) and has served two state prison sentences, with his most recent release in 2015. Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $82,000.

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.