Ocala man arrested for trying to enter apartments off Tower Road

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tayon Lavon Alexander, 31, of Ocala, was arrested last night and charged with burglary, possession of marijuana, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug equipment, and resisting arrest.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a call about a suspicious person in the 4200 block of SW 71st Terrace, in the Tower Village neighborhood just south of Veterans Memorial Park, and spoke to a witness who said she saw a man pulling on the front door handles of apartments in one building before running across the street to try to open the front doors of apartments in another building.

Another woman told the deputy that a man came up to her front door and tried to open it. She opened the front door and saw Alexander standing there, then shut the door; she said Alexander then rang the doorbell, then walked around to the back and tried to get in through her sliding glass door, but it was locked. She said she saw him jump the fence to her neighbor’s yard and didn’t see him again.

Alexander was reportedly found later in a laundry room that was attached to the rear of the same woman’s apartment. Deputies reportedly gave him “numerous” commands to come out of the laundry room and show his hands, and he allegedly ignored the commands. He later came out of the laundry room and reportedly sprinted toward the fence in the back yard, trying to jump the fence into the neighbor’s yard. Deputies pulled him down from the fence and to the ground, where he reportedly continued to resist commands to put his hands behind his back. He was eventually detained in handcuffs.

In a search incident to arrest, deputies reportedly found a container with 10.34 grams of methamphetamine, and he had a backpack containing a scale with a white powdery residue. In the laundry room where he had been hiding, deputies reportedly found a Clorox Wipes container with a gallon-size bag of marijuana in it; the marijuana weighed 47 grams. The victim told deputies that the container did not belong to her.

Alexander has a juvenile criminal history and four adult felony convictions and served an 8-year state prison sentence for aggravated child abuse; he was released on January 6, 2022. He is currently facing two domestic battery charges in Marion County. Judge Walter Green set his bond at $30,000.

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.