Man recently released from prison arrested for snatching cash from juvenile raising money outside UF football game

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Leonard Bernard Mack, Jr., 45, was arrested yesterday and charged with snatching $76 from a juvenile who was raising money outside the UF football stadium; Mack was released from prison in June after serving a 10-year sentence for attempted robbery.

At about 5:16 p.m. on September 14, a University of Florida Police Department officer responded to 110 Fletcher Drive, where the 14-year-old victim said he had been robbed on W. University Avenue, just north of Murphree Hall.

The victim said he had been raising money to play football for his middle school and had raised $76 when a man walked up to him and said he knew the victim’s mother and that she said the victim should give him $30 to help him out. The victim said he would need to check with his mother and started to put the money in his pocket, but the man grabbed the money and quickly walked away toward the stadium.

The officer reviewed security video from the north side of the stadium and saw a man quickly walking away from the victim; as the man passed Gate 7, he began running. Mack was later found inside the stadium, positively identified as the man in the video, and placed under arrest.

Post Miranda, Mack reportedly said he did not do anything wrong and was just attending the football game; when the officer said he had been seen on security cameras, he reportedly said he had been selling “weed.” He later reportedly changed his story and said he just collected money from a person on the sidewalk of W. University Avenue and did not know the person he’d collected money from. The officer reported that Mack continued to offer multiple versions of his story.

Mack has 12 local felony convictions and 10 local misdemeanor convictions; he has served three state prison sentences, all out of Alachua County, and was released on June 24, 2024, after serving a ten-year sentence. Judge Jonathan Ramsey ordered him held without bail.

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.