Leesburg pair arrested for stealing firearm and other items from car of Shands employee

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – John Kevin Miller, 39, and Savanna Renee Wilburth, 35, both of Leesburg, have been arrested and charged with stealing a firearm and other items from the car of a Shands employee.

The victim told Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers that she parked her car in the UF Health Shands parking lot at 1242 SW 13th Street at 7 a.m. on October 15 and returned to her car 14 hours later to find that it had been burglarized. She said her purse, a wristlet with credit cards, Apple earbuds, and a pistol were missing.

The victim told officers that she immediately checked her credit card accounts and found that three of her cards had been used at McDonald’s, Best Buy, and TJ Maxx in Ocala.

The information provided by the victim enabled officers to find surveillance video at Best Buy and TJ Maxx showing clear images of the suspects. The suspects were seen arriving and leaving in a blue Nissan Rogue that has a large, noticeable dent in the roof, and the rear left wheel has a blue chrome dip. The same Nissan Rogue was seen on traffic cameras at the intersection of SW 13th Street and SW 16th Avenue at 12:52 p.m. on the day of the burglary.

Surveillance video at Shands was then reviewed; the same two suspects were seen getting on a Shands elevator at 12:36 p.m. on the day of the burglary. They are also seen getting off the elevator on the ground floor and entering the parking garage at 12:38 p.m. That put the suspects in the immediate vicinity of the victim’s car. The Rogue was seen leaving the parking garage at 12:51 p.m.

A medical warrant revealed that Wilburth’s mother was a patient at Shands on the date of the burglary, and the suspects were seen on surveillance video entering an elevator on the same floor as her room.

The Rogue is registered to a woman who does not match the description of either suspect; she is a Lake County resident who is currently homeless in Tavares. The surveillance video from TJ Maxx shows the Rogue heading south on U.S. Hwy 441 toward Tavares.

Photos of the suspects were sent to law enforcement agencies in Lake County and Tavares, and an officer in Tavares recognized the female suspect as Savanna Wilburth, whose boyfriend is “Kevin Miller.” Facebook profiles for those two people matched the surveillance camera images of the suspects.

On November 13, Lake County deputies working a stolen vehicle report notified GPD that they had found the Rogue and the suspects; the owner of the Rogue had reported it stolen, named Wilburth and Miller as the suspects, and told a deputy where to find them. However, the deputy did not detain them at that time because the Rogue’s owner decided not to file charges.

Miller and Wilburth were each charged with armed burglary, grand theft of a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Miller was arrested on December 8, and Judge Kristine Van Vorst set bail at $325,000. Miller has 16 felony convictions and has served three state prison terms for possession of methamphetamine, with the most recent release in 2018. Miller remains in the Alachua County Jail.

Wilburth was arrested early this morning, and Judge Walter Green set bail at $200,000. She has seven felony convictions and active warrants from both Virginia and New Mexico; she is also on probation in Virginia.

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.