Gainesville man arrested for using hidden key to enter apartment while occupant slept

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jeffrey White, 41, was arrested early on December 18 after allegedly entering an apartment while an occupant was sleeping; he was initially charged with loitering/prowling, but he has now been charged with burglary and stalking.

At about 2:46 a.m. on December 18, a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officer responded to Oakbrook Walk Apartments (1331 A SW 13th Street), where a woman said White had entered her apartment while her roommate was sleeping.

The roommate said she had been asleep when she woke up to find a man in her bedroom, and she said she heard the man calling the first woman’s dogs by name. She said the man left, but then he waited outside the apartment and said, “The firefighters and paramedics are here, do you know what that’s about?” She said the man left after saying that.

The first woman said she had encountered the man at the dog park over the past six months, but she was not in any sort of relationship with him.

An officer found White on the third floor of the victims’ apartment building, wearing clothes that matched the description provided by the victims, and arrested him. White reportedly told the officer that he lives at Frederick Gardens (1130 SW 16th Avenue).

Post Miranda, White reportedly declined to answer any questions. The officer reported that he did not seem to be inebriated.

After further investigation, a GPD officer reported that White had taken a key hidden outside the apartment and entered the apartment with the key, uninvited and unannounced, before walking through the apartment to the roommate’s bedroom. The roommate reported that after calling for the first woman’s dogs by their names, he left, and she followed him to the door, and the first woman arrived as he was leaving. The first woman told the officer that she had no idea why White would have entered the apartment, but she speculated that he must have followed her at some point to find out where she lived.

White has been charged with loitering/prowling, burglary of an occupied dwelling, and stalking. He has no local criminal history but has an unspecified criminal history in Illinois and Texas, including two non-extraditable warrants out of Texas. Judge Jonathan Ramsey ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.

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.