Homeless man arrested on warrant for battery on senior citizen

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tevin Octavius Campbell, 33, was arrested last night after allegedly running from a traffic stop because he had an active warrant for battery on a person over 65 years old.

At about 9 p.m. on December 24, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop at The Hammocks on 34th Street (3316 SW 41st Place), and Campbell, a passenger in the vehicle, was detained. The deputy reported that Campbell was making “unusual and furtive movements” and provided “an obviously false name and date of birth,” so he told him to get out of the car, but Campbell allegedly ran through a parking lot into a lightly wooded area; the deputy apprehended him after deploying his taser.

A small baggie of a substance Campbell called “molly” reportedly fell from his pocket, and a second baggie reportedly tested positive for MDMA and fentanyl; empty baggies were reportedly found in the vehicle.

Post Miranda, Campbell reportedly said he ran because he believed he was facing “thirty years [in prison]” if arrested on the warrant.

Campbell has been charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and resisting an officer without violence.

The warrant was issued after an August 9 incident in which two men approached a car that had stopped in the Phoenix area, pulled the driver out of the vehicle, and started punching him and kicking him while he was on the ground. Residents in the area who heard the victim scream looked out the window and told the responding Gainesville Police Department officer that they recognized one of the men as Campbell. The victim, who was over 65 years of age, reportedly suffered significant injuries to his face.

Campbell, who is described as homeless in court documents, has eight felony convictions (three violent) and six misdemeanor convictions (one violent). He was sentenced to two years in state prison in 2022 on a battery charge and was released in June; that was his fifth state prison sentence.

Campbell is being held without bail on the battery charge, and Judge Luis Bustamante set bail at $12,000 on the new charges.

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.