Homeless man arrested after allegedly attacking woman in Publix parking lot
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Carl Daniel Sproles, 60, was arrested last night and charged with burglary and battery after allegedly attacking a woman in her car in the Publix parking lot at Tower Square. He is also facing a sworn complaint in a separate case for grand theft of a vehicle and driving without a valid license.
At about 7 p.m. on Saturday night, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to the Publix parking lot, where the victim reportedly said Sproles asked her for money and became upset when she said she didn’t have any money to give him. He allegedly followed her to her car and pulled the door open after she got in. She said he reached inside the car, so she pushed and kicked him, and then he punched her in the nose. He then fled and was apprehended nearby.
Post Miranda, Sproles declined to answer any questions.
Sproles’ address is listed as GRACE Marketplace, and he is a registered Career Offender. He has 22 felony convictions (none violent) and 18 misdemeanor convictions (five violent). He has served eight prison sentences, mostly out of Alachua County (one was out of Putnam County), with his most recent release in September 2023.
Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $50,000 on the burglary and battery charges and $15,000 on the grand theft charge.
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.
The minimum wage going up and up is not helping the lowest on the totem pole. We have enough money in this country that everyone should be able to do some kind of work for a day and make 50 bucks. Everyone. Call it a Public Works Program. Show up and do some menial task for a day and you get 2 20s and a 10. I mean we are paying people $75 to donate plama now, but they don’t allow homeless people without a fixed address to donate, thus eliminating the lowest of the lows. Maybe if this man could walk around and pick up trash for 50 bucks he wouldn’t have done this. Maybe he would have still, but we don’t know that.
So your theory is that he attacked this women because he does not have a job?
There are businesses all over town trying to hire so he could make his $50 a day pretty easily but dude wants a woman in a parking lot to hand him money instead.
But, sure, it’s society’s fault for not handing him two 20s and a 10 every day.
Look at this fella. Would you hire him? No, of course you wouldn’t. But unless you want to humanely start putting people like this down (which I’m not advocating), then you have to give them some way to make a little bit of money so they don’t end up in your cars and in your home. Call it charity if you want, but it could be a way to get some of these people to work a little and not commit as many crimes. After all, we’re now paying more than $50 a day to house him in jail for who knows how long.
One better the city shuts down market place send them all packing and down the road
He’s a repeat offender because he was not put away or sent somewhere else that needs the D district census counts.
Or we could consider humanely putting people like this down. We can either have a society that aspires to great and beautiful things, or we can continue to put up with this.
Perhaps, to start, we meet halfway and legalize canning or similar physical punishment.
Well, had this guy tried pulling a stunt like this with someone who carries a concealed weapon, he could have been put down and would have deserved it! The inside of our vehicles falls under the same law that allows deadly force inside our homes!
I have to laugh when I see them on the corners holding signs begging for money. There are businesses that will literally pay you to stand on the corner with a sign.
Well, keep on laughing brother. They make a lot more holding those signs on the corners than a business would pay…
Maybe he will attack a person who is a firm believer in the 2A and this POS will be put out to pasture
I’m pretty a persons 2A right doesn’t give a free pass to commiting any crime of their choosing.
2A say we have a right to own a firearm Florida SYG law allows us to use that firearm to defend ourselves with it without having to retreat
He tried forcing his way inside her vehicle, the interior of one’s vehicle falls under the same law as the inside of our homes! Had she shot him, it would have been justified!
Of course, there are no free passes. However, in this situation it would have been justified.
@ GH No, he won’t attack anyone who even remotely looks like they’ll fight back. He’ll stick to old women most of whom, he rightly figures don’t have a gun on them.
Maybe he’ll pick on me, just an innocent looking old lady, with a gun in her pocket.
He better not try my wife or my mother they are petty good at hitting center mass
I agree. I am over 60 and conceal carry. Things would’ve played out different if he targeted me. People need to quit giving the panhandlers money!! It leads to this. Did you notice the tent at Millhopper Publix? They are taking it to the next level. How far does this have to go before our leaders do something?
I might have agreed with you if this was 39 convictions ago.
Johnny, he is a predator. Looking for the weak to prey on. Go find the victim and explain your feelings to her. She might punch you in the nose. Or go bail him out and have him move in with you.
Min wage is for workers, not drug addicted D voters too lazy or dumb to have priorities — or have personal safety nets (family and friends who actually like those people).
I think it’s time everyone in grace market place should be checked for warrant’s and prior convictins
Absolutely.
A great idea. I have a feeling that the majority of Grace Marketplace would be empty if that happened. I read this news source everyday and can’t understand why the residents of Gainesville tolerate having this poorly run breeding ground for criminality on its doorstep. We all want to eliminate homelessness, but should this come at the peril of our citizens safety? I think not. I worked on a human services campus in another city and can tell you that the way homelessness is handled here is a complete disaster for all concerned.
Here’s the kicker, Grace is the only low barrier shelter in town, meaning they gladly accept people with violent felonies, sex offender/predator charges, active addictions, severe mental health problems, and the like. They gladly welcome them in in hopes that they will be able to assist in finding them gainful employment and housing. However, most of them don’t want to have to work for their money. And the Grace employees are not equipped to deal with that kind of population. (Granted many people aren’t equipped to handle those types of people.) And as long as Grace is operating, this is what we’ll continue to see in the headlines.
To be fair, if Grace is closed down, we will see MUCH more of these types of headlines
Absolutely disagree, TBF. GRACE Marketplace is the bait that attracts these criminals in the first place. If it was gone, these fugitives and ex-cons would go someplace else.
GRACE Marketplace is like a neighbor who throws buckets of food scraps out on their driveway every night.
That’s my Publix. I would have kicked his ever living kesiter in to tomorrow!
And he would have deserved it.
40 convictions 5 violent and all he gets is 65000 bail. He has served 8 prison sentences. Obviously this idiot doesn’t get it. It too bad the victim didn’t exercise her 2 A right. It may have been settled without having to deal with this POS ever again.
Another person who’s been invited here by the City and County Commissions to terrorize the residents. What’s it going to take for you liberals to figure out that the leadership here has failed you? A family member being raped? Robbed? Killed?
Until you idiots figure it out, I’ll utilize the rights provided me by the State of Florida and the writers of the Constitution. I suggest others do the same.
Perfectly said! And yes that pretty much IS about what it’s gonna take for them to figure it out.
Poe & co are exactly why these people are now here, contaminating my once-beloved hometown
I got one for you before I met my wife she was raped by two pos now she is wrongly convected and scared for life I just wanted to thank this pathetic state for it
This POS needs to be taken out and be introduced to a tree.
Poe, “Only 10 more years and this homeless thing will be over”. GRACE… Gainesville Radical Acceptance of Criminal Element. The sheer arrogance of City and County Commissions.
I think you meant to say “ignorance.”
Rodney Long helped pitch “the 10 year plan to end homelessness”…it didn’t work. Now it’s time for that plan to sunset. The city & county need to have a meeting and fix the “bum violence, squatting , & panhandling crisis”. It may be too late….the vagrants are getting violent and won’t leave…and they’re coming to Florida from everywhere. What liberal jackass said they were going to move up here because of climate change? Arreola?? Close Grace and with all the money, round up all the vagrant bums and send them back to where they came from. Zero tolerance! GNV & Alachua county needs to become bum hell and they need to stay clear of here…
Another gift from GRACE…😫
Don’t approach me in a parking!
$65000 is higher than normal, some judges here would say 10k. Anyway, he will go back up river hopefully and score higher hopefully stay longer hopefully and get back out and yes, probably re-offend so, what is my final comment? Give him 20 yrs to think about it. He picked a woman for a reason. I believe he would seriously hurt someone or worse.
It’s higher because it’s winter, and scummy lawyers want him warm in jail until summer, to get out and repeat. So the court looks “busy” but is really populated by useless scummy parasites paid by gullible taxpayers.
Florida needs a “3 Strikes to Make Lawyers Starve” state referendum and constitutional amendment. But we have so many lawyers it’d probably fail here. It’s surpassing tourism and the citrus industry, lawyers making chaos, mayhem, and inflation worse for their own job security. 🤡👹🍦🍦🍦ACLU, SPLC, GRACE.
Send repeat offenders to Haiti, Puerto Rico and Blue states. They need the census numbers.
Members of the Gainesville City Commission added fuel to the fire when they opened Grace Marketplace without any appropriate rules or plans to run the homeless shelter in a safe and productive manner.
They need to be held accountable.
Shutting down City Hall might be the only answer.
Homelessness is a national problem, not a function of local politics.
Alachua County/Putnam Co – 17.8 homeless per 10,000 population.
Marion County – 16.1
Naples/Collier Co – 17.5
Ft Walton/Okaloosa – 18.2
PS https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/florida/?emailsignup&gclid=CjwKCAiAtt2tBhBDEiwALZuhAOpKuZn1KWa3qH5XS1gcicfKj6WYXNfn3tX244iXVDogS0WSG39cnBoC05YQAvD_BwE
No excuse for career crime or violence. If he had punched your mother/sister/wife in the nose would you have stood by or defended the poor old guy? There are many that would have hurt him badly. Sometimes I wonder if you have any sense at all.
It’s more of a result of liberal politics.
But a permissive attitude toward low level law breaking by the hobo community IS a function of local politics.
I think he just wants to be back in jail where he gets three hots and a cot…
Yet another “gift” from Grace Marketplace.
Umm, somebody needs to tell him about permit less carry. I have my permit. This would have been a different story if it was me. And I carry, on me. Not having to dig in my purse or glovebox to find it. One in the chamber! Sorry for those that don’t agree. Daddy always said don’t start it but you damn well better finish it.
Time to start ‘packin’ and get trained how to use it too. Our judges and elected officials aren’t willing to do a damn thing to protect the public.
Thanks to the demonrat pllicies.