Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A 43-year-old man, identified as Jerome Jamal Jones, was arrested after police say he burglarized a vehicle parked in the carport of a Golfview neighborhood home.
According to the Gainesville Police Department, the incident happened at about 4:30 a.m. on June 22. A resident reportedly spotted a man going through a vehicle in her attached carport and confronted him. Police said the man yelled back at her before running away. The resident later gave officers a description of the suspect and the clothing he was wearing.
As one officer spoke with the victim, another officer stopped Jones on Village Drive for allegedly riding a bicycle without lights. Jones reportedly told the officer he typically travels along Newberry Road from his home in Northridge, near NW 83rd Street, to his job on Main Street. When asked why he was on a campus road, police said he did not give a clear explanation. Officers reported that his clothing matched the victim’s description and that he was carrying a face mask and gloves.
The victim later positively identified Jones by both his appearance and his voice as the man she had seen in her carport, according to the report.
Jones has been charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling and burglary of an unoccupied vehicle. Court records list seven felony convictions, all classified as violent, and two misdemeanor convictions, one of them violent. He has served two state prison sentences and was most recently released in 2011; he is also designated as a Career Offender. Judge Meshon Rawls ordered Jones held without bail while the court considers a State Attorney’s Office motion to keep him detained without bail until trial. If that motion is denied, bail will be determined at the hearing.
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.
