Homeless man arrested for trying to break into occupied apartment

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Moise Beltschatsar Delva, 30, was arrested last night for allegedly trying to break in to an occupied apartment.

At about 9:24 p.m., a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to 39th Avenue Apartments (1101 NW 39th Avenue), where the victim said someone tried to open her front door and then walked around and entered the enclosed patio on the side of the apartment. The man tried multiple times to yank the sliding glass door open, and when he was unable to get it open, he tried to pry open the victim’s bedroom window.

The victim, who retreated to a bathroom out of fear, said she heard the man trying to open her front door again and then heard him enter the enclosed patio again, but the officer arrived at that point and arrested Delva.

Post Miranda, Delva reportedly said he “drank a bottle and walked behind someone’s house” and was “just homeless and trying to get inside of a house.” He reportedly said he was just smoking and walking around and thought the victim’s apartment was a “trap house” (street slang for a drug house), and that’s why he decided to break in. He denied entering the enclosed patio area and said the sliding glass door was already open, but the officer noted that the sliding glass door is inside the enclosed patio and could only be seen from inside the enclosed patio. When Delva was told he would be charged with burglary, he reportedly said he was “just trespassing.”

The victim said she had never met Delva and never gave him permission to enter her apartment.

Delva, whose address is listed as Homestead and is described as homeless on the arrest report, has been charged with attempted burglary of an occupied dwelling. He has arrests in Miami-Dade County for battery, indecent exposure, selling drugs, child abuse, trespassing, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and strongarm robbery and at least one arrest in Georgia; he has served one state prison sentence and was released in 2019. 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.