Man who was in violation of mental health release conditions arrested for aggravated assault, attempted arson, and drug possession
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
EARLETON, Fla. – Timothy James Winsker, 32, was arrested yesterday afternoon after allegedly stealing a gasoline can, pouring gasoline around a residence, and threatening to set it on fire.
An Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a home in Earleton at 3:55 p.m. yesterday to a call about a suspicious person, but before he arrived, an additional report was received about an assault involving gasoline. A victim told the 911 call-taker that Winsker had stolen a can of gasoline and tried to pour the gas on her husband. The victim also said that Winsker poured gas around their property.
The deputy reported that when he arrived, he saw Winsker sitting in his truck at the end of the victims’ driveway. Winsker reportedly got out of the truck when the deputy asked him to and was detained. The deputy reported that there was a strong odor of gas coming from Winsker, and he appeared to have spilled gas on himself.
The deputy reported that his investigation found that Winsker had entered the victims’ garage, stolen a can of gas, poured it on the victims’ porch, and lunged at the male victim, slinging gas out of the can at him. Winsker then allegedly threatened to set fire to “everything.”
Winsker was reportedly also seen walking around nearby residences and placing objects from his pocket onto various surfaces, and a number of these objects, which field-tested positive for methamphetamine, were recovered from lids of trashcans and the hoods and tops of vehicles in the area.
A search of Winsker’s truck reportedly found several lighters, indicating that Winsker had the means to light the gasoline on fire. 21.8 grams of methamphetamine were also reportedly found in the truck and in the area.
Winsker has been charged with burglary with assault or battery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, arson, and possession of trafficking amounts of methamphetamine. He has seven felony convictions and is currently on pre-trial release on a felony charge in Alachua County and a misdemeanor charge in Marion County. Judge Thomas Jaworski set bail at $550,000.
Winsker is on pre-trial release with mental health conditions in Alachua County after having been found incompetent to proceed in a case in which he allegedly threatened a man with a screwdriver. However, the Forensic Specialist assigned to his case reported on October 20 that Winsker had violated the conditions of his release by being “highly intoxicated” at a Hawthorne High School football game on October 4; he allegedly became verbally combative and made threats to various people, including security. The Forensic Specialist also reported that Winsker had missed his required sessions at Meridian on September 30 and October 14.
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.
Unfortunately until Republicans in Florida (Because they run the state) put real money into mental health facilities.. we are gonna continue to see this more and more..
This shouldn’t be a left or right issue this Is a problem we have to all get behind 💯💯👏🏾..
We all have family who aren’t mentally well.. nobody wants to see them hurt other people or hurt themselves..
It was the bleeding-heart leftists who closed the mental hospitals in the US in the first place. Then the first “WILL WORK FOR FOOD” sign appeared, and here we are today drowning in leftist policies. Being ignorant of basic historical facts is almost a prerequisite to be a Dem. KKK = DEM since you probably don’t know that, either.
Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act of 1963. Reagan signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967 as governor of California. Both Acts were signed in hopes that community-based mental health care would do better than the institutionalization of mentally ill patients in asylums where said patients were regularly abused. Even the Supreme Court decided against forced institutionalization in 1975 in O’Connor v. Donaldson. Democrats believed it would result in better patient care. Republicans believed it would result in lower costs. Institutionalization largely went the way of the dodo bird; but the community facilities, by and large, were never built. Work is still being done to tweak Kennedy’s vision into something workable even today.
And while the Democrat party was originally the party of the KKK, much of that changed when northern Democrats began courting Black votes in the 1940s and 50s. Republicans then tried to out-court the Democrats but got bored with the idea in the late 1960s, mostly because southern Democrats and Republicans alike remained racist, and they wanted those votes. Read up on Jackie Robinson’s friendship and then falling out with Nixon, his disdain for Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, and his ultimate pairing up with Democrats. Since then, Blacks have largely voted Democrat, as you well know.
Your incomplete recounting of history is cute, but it’s completely out of context with regard to what’s been happening for the last 50+ years. There is a real problem with mental health funding, and the KKK has nothing to do with it.
Caveat: I dislike both political parties, because they’re both filled with selfish, power-hungry bigots; but I like nincompoop armchair historians even less. Nothing is so one-sided as you make it out to be.
The KKK made sure that they voted Democrat. Are you having fun pretending to be different people… Zeke, GeeZus ? Brevity is the soul of wit, as they say, and you sure lack that. Those on the left nowadays lack G (cognitive ability) and decision-making skills. They feel and scream and scream some more. Many belong in institutions themselves. I wouldn’t count on their so-called leaders to commit a sizable portion of their constituency to mental hospitals, funding or no funding.
By the way, >99 percent of all Klansmen were prior to about 1950 or so. You can look it up yourself, but I believe there were several million members in the 1920s, and then it slowly died off as an organization. Now there is Antifa – still Democrats, still covering their sorry faces. They don’t exactly fess up to membership, either. What do you expect from a party of dishonesty? Hiding their faces, lying, can’t even be straight about where they live.
My name is the same as it has always been. And with all due respect to what you believe aside, the KKK still has nothing to do with the history of mental health services. I wish such services were more readily available for you to seek a remedy to your confusion about the matter.
I agree that we need to help people struggling with long term mental issues. What do you want the mental health system to do that it isn’t doing now? He’s the guy who bailed out on appointments.
Some people do need to be held against their will. But the laws that allowed forced institutional abuse were met with a knee-jerk reaction to stigmatize institutionalization and prioritize a community-based mental health model that never fully materialized. It’s become a bit of a 14th Amendment problem still being sorted out today.
I’d like them to build another Coliseum and have this garbage fight to the death for our entertainment
Unfortunately until the Democrats keep the mentally ill in facilities, we’ll continue to see these types of offenses.
Gainesville would be a nice start. Stop giving away all the taxes they collect to pet projects and not-for-profits.
Unfortunately Alachua Co is mostly ran by Democrats and if you were really honest about it you would realize that the left was more into early releases or shorter jail sentences, more plea bargains
So sad
Stop making excuses for these criminals. This mf’er knew exactly what he was doing because If you can buy dope and ask for change then you know what the phuck is going on!