Gainesville man arrested for texting violent threats to woman he met at a coffee shop

Staff report

Updated on June 8 with bail information.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Blanton Neil Martin, 45, was arrested early this morning for allegedly sending written threats to kill a woman he met at a coffee shop, along with any man she might date.

On May 31, the victim went to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters and reported that she was in immediate fear for her safety and her friends’ safety because of text messages she had received from a man she had met at a coffee shop the previous day.

The victim said she’d had a friendly conversation with Martin at the coffee shop, and she gave him her phone number so they could stay in touch. However, about an hour later, she started receiving text messages that made her extremely uncomfortable and responded, “This is inappropriate. Do not contact me.”

Even after she sent that, she continued receiving “persistent and bizarre messages” that “quickly escalated to direct threats of death and severe bodily harm.” A deputy reported that one message said, “I am going to break your mind open and feed it to my wolves,” and another said, “If I catch you with another man, I will put him in the fish fryer.” The victim received 14 text messages after she asked the sender to stop contacting her.

The victim said the man had shown her a picture of a house that he claimed to have purchased about three months ago, and he told her he had a gray Mazda Miata and a Ferrari, which he said was in the shop.

The deputy matched the phone number to Martin and also linked Martin to a home in the 800 block of NW 22nd Street; the Google Maps picture of the house shows a silver Miata and a U-Haul truck in the driveway and is dated February 2026. The victim reportedly said that was the same as the home in the picture the man showed her.

Martin has been charged with making written terroristic threats and stalking. He has no criminal history, and Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to hold him without bail until trial; however, on June 5, the State Attorney withdrew the motion, and Judge James Colaw set bail at $150,000. Judge Miller-Jones also ordered a GPS monitor and required him to surrender all firearms within 24 hours of release from jail.

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.