Three arrested for “jumping” man on SE Hawthorne Road

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ronald Lee Harris, 59; Walter Conaway Irvin, 53; and Antionette Tuwana Williams, 47, were arrested yesterday after allegedly “jumping” a man on SE Hawthorne Road. Sharnette Lasheta Rivers, 43, is listed as a co-defendant on the arrest report but has not been charged.

According to the responding Gainesville Police Department officer, the four co-defendants were riding in Rivers’s car at about 1:05 p.m. on July 26 when they saw the victim walking westbound in the 2100 block of SE Hawthorne Road. The victim said the car pulled into the mobile home park at that location, made a U-turn to come back out, and stopped at the entrance of the neighborhood; four people got out of the vehicle and walked toward him.

The victim said Harris walked toward him with his hand in his pants, and he was afraid Harris was carrying a weapon, but Harris took his hand out of his waistband without brandishing a weapon.

The victim said Harris is dating his ex-wife, Antionette Williams, and Harris told him to stop calling and texting Williams before punching him in the face. The victim said he fought back, and then the other three people “jumped” him; he said Williams kicked him while he was getting beaten up by Harris and Irwin. The officer reported that the victim sustained several contusions.

Irwin was reportedly riding in the back seat of Rivers’s vehicle with Harris and got out of the car with Harris to fight the victim.

A witness who lives nearby reportedly told the officer that she heard the fight and saw all four of the co-defendants fighting with the victim and an unknown man who was with the victim; the unknown man is not mentioned anywhere else in the arrest reports.

Post Miranda, Harris, who was reportedly intoxicated, said he was going to the liquor store with his friends and saw the victim walking down the road. He said he was mad at the victim for past domestic violence incidents with Williams and for recent “harassment.” Harris reportedly said he didn’t remember how the fight started, but the victim “got a lucky punch in,” and he got a black eye. Harris reportedly said he didn’t have any weapons, but the victim had a knife. He was asked how his ear was cut, and he said he didn’t even notice it until a nurse told him about it.

Harris has been charged with battery for being the primary aggressor in the fight. He has 18 felony convictions (seven violent) and 28 misdemeanor convictions (five violent); he has served nine state prison sentences, with his most recent release in 2010. Judge Donna Keim set bail at $5,000.

Post Miranda, Irwin reportedly said he did not know the victim. He said Rivers was driving the co-defendants to the fish market when Harris said to pull the car over. He said Harris got out of the vehicle to confront the victim about his texts to Williams and the victim swung at Harris first, then Harris and the victim started fighting. Irwin said the victim tried to cut Harris with a knife but was unsuccessful; he said he was never involved in the fight.

Irwin has been charged with battery. He has an unspecified criminal history in Georgia; four battery cases in Alachua County have been dropped since 2020, and he has one misdemeanor conviction for resisting an officer without violence. Judge Keim ordered him released on his own recognizance.

Post Miranda, Williams reportedly said she never got out of the vehicle, and Harris and Irwin were the only ones who fought with the victim. She said she didn’t know what Harris and Irwin had planned to do and thought that Rivers was just driving them all to Harris’s house after shopping at the liquor store. She said Harris was upset that the victim kept calling her, even though she has a no-contact order against him. She reportedly showed the officer a call log with several calls from a private number, starting on July 8.

Williams has been charged with battery. She has three misdemeanor convictions (none violent); she was arrested in 2023 for attacking the victim in this case with a knife, but the charge was later dropped. Judge Keim ordered her released on her own recognizance.

The victim was recently convicted of domestic battery against Williams, was sentenced to a year of probation, and completed 20 days of mandatory work crew earlier this week.

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.