Homeless man arrested for attempted burglary
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Thomas Charles Smith, 52, was arrested yesterday morning and charged with attempted burglary and giving a false name to an officer.
A Gainesville Police Department officer responded to a call at about 6:50 a.m. on March 7 regarding a man trying to open the back door of the victim’s home. The victim told the officer that Smith, whose reported address is GRACE Marketplace, had been allowed to stay at her home for about four days, but he had since left. She reported that she could see Smith on camera, attempting to forcibly pull open the back door of her home, and she said she was afraid that Smith might become violent if he succeeded in entering her home.
The officer reported that Smith gave several false names, including “Cole Hunter,” an incorrect birth date, and a social security number of 999-99-9999.
Smith has five felony convictions and has served two state prison sentences, with the most recent release in 2020. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $51,000.
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.
If the liberal voters would insist on liberal leadership turning off the “vacancy” sign instead of their electricity the crime may go down.
the judges must be reading the comments section of the AC because the bond amounts
are becoming more appropriate
1. Victim Lady: what on earth were you thinking letting this felon bum stay at your place? And then you get scared that he’s breaking into your place @ 6:50 am.
2. City of Gainesville: what on earth are you thinking letting felon bums
From everywhere to come stay at our city? Then they start committing crimes and making the city unsafe with drugs, crimes, violence, & panhandling.
3. Wells Fargo Bank Downtown: what on earth are you doing letting that vagrant bum live in your parking lot for 2 months now. It’s unsanitary, unsightly, unsafe, & inappropriate.
I’ve complained several times and no
Action. I am going to take my business elsewhere if you do not keep a safe environment for me to bank at. Is this some kind of woke BS
That your let that dirty filthy bum to live under the parking lot thing? Who
Owns the building? —-They should have
The vagrant move to Grace….isn’t that what Grace is for? Downtown needs to be a safe environment for people to do commerce at.
LOL! I hope hope all the bums move downtown. Get them out of Butler Plaza.
I think this charge will be dropped, he previously had access to the house for 4 straight days, there is no indication from her that he did not have permission to access it later, kind of the same argument of I just got locked out of my house. Yeah, really, I agree with one of the other commenters, what the heck is this lady thinking letting this guy stay at her house??
with GNV’s landlord bill of rights ordinance, I’m surprised she didn’t have to evict him after she let him stay there….
I meant “tenants bill of rights” ordinance
I’m certain local lawyers donated to GRACE and the latter has direct booking lines to the Starke prisons, county jail, M e r i d i a n, and downtown probation office. Just so our gullible voters will suffer while making lawyers busy, to pay off their college loans faster and get the hell out to a cushy Corp. law firm ASAP.
I wonder if the good Samaritan lady did a background check on him before letting him stay there???