Crime this week

Crime this week

Baker County

Businesses burglarized

Two Baker County businesses were burglarized on August 18 according to reports from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office. Entry was gained into both the EZ Stop on Highway 125 in Glen Saint Mary and the Fastway Food Store located on Woodlawn Road in Macclenny after the front glass in either a window or door was broken.

EZ Stop owner Sejal A. Patel advised the cash register from inside the store was missing. She stated the register cost approximately $500 and it contained about $350 in cash and coins.

Fastway owner Amir Ali reported only two cases of beer missing from his store.

Domestic Battery

A 30-year-old Macclenny man is under arrest on charges of domestic battery after allegedly attacking a juvenile relative throwing him to the ground and choking him during an argument.

Jamie B. McKowen was booked into the Baker County Detention Center on August 14.

Battery

Tiffany Bryn Strait, 19, was arrested on August 17 on charges of battery and disorderly intoxication after police were called to Claude Harvey Road in Glen St. Mary.

The victim reported he picked Strait up from a party and as he was driving her down the road she tried to put the vehicle into park while he was driving. When he stopped she grabbed the keys and exited the vehicle. He got out of the truck to call her mother when she struck him in the face with a shoe and ripped his shirt. When he walked away, she began throwing items out of his vehicle and threw a cup of beer that she brought from the party on him.

Strait became very hostile when questioned and was arrested.

Grand theft

A 17-year-old is in custody after he apparently took a riding lawnmower from a Macclenny residence. The owner discovered the mower missing on August 17 after just using it the evening before. Just hours later, officers located the mower at a residence on North Lowder Street.

The owner of the residence stated that the suspect, who was asleep inside the home, brought the lawn mower up this morning along with a mongoose bicycle. When he asked where is came from, the suspect said he got the lawn mower from his father who bought it at a Jacksonville yard sale.

The suspect was awaked and appeared to be under the influence of some type of narcotic. He said he got the mower from a friend approximately four days before. He was arrested and taken to the detention center after being medically cleared.

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Nassau County

Bank robbers held

The two Yulee residents David Sanders, 42, and Brendan Karl Leighton, 20, arrested last week for several Nassau County bank robberies, remain in jail.

Leighton is being held for armed robbery with a firearm and his bond is set at $350,002. Sanders is being held for three charges of armed robbery, one charge of aggravated assault and one charge of false imprisonment. His bond was set at $250,002.

Sanders was on federal probation for convictions of armed robbery at the time of his arrest and has been linked to over 40 robberies. Local authorities believe he was involved in all of the local robberies in Fernandina and Yulee. Leighton is currently charged only with involvement in the robbery of the first Federal Savings Bank on Sadler Road in Fernandina.