Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Demetris Demond Johnson, 32, was apprehended yesterday for allegedly stealing a bag from a City of Gainesville vehicle, pawning municipal property, and taking items belonging to a City employee.

Around 8:45 a.m. on September 8, a City employee parked a City pickup truck at Lynch Park (410 S. Main Street) to handle trash collection. She left her bag on the front floorboard, but upon returning to the truck around 10 a.m., she found the bag missing.

The missing bag contained a City-owned iPad and flip phone, along with a wallet, charging cords, and headphones that belonged to the employee. Her wallet held identification, debit, and credit cards.

The stolen phone was used subsequently to make two phone calls. The first was to a woman, and the second to the owner of a security firm. A Gainesville Police Department officer contacted the security firm owner, who reported having been at the Clarence Kelly Center (1700 NE 8th Avenue) when a man approached him, attempting to sell a phone for $20.

The security firm owner stated that the man called him on the cell phone to show it was operational and recognized the man from his security duties in the vicinity. He noted that the man, “homeless and a known drug addict,” is often chased away.

The officer investigated the woman, discovering she has a 32-year-old son, Demetris Johnson, who fits the description given by the security firm owner.

The owner of the security company offered to collect the phone, and he called the officer about an hour later, saying he had the phone and wanted to return it. He said he asked people near the Kelly Center about the phone and found an unknown person who said they bought the phone for $20.

On September 10, the City of Gainesville noticed that the iPad was active and was in the shipping area of the Orlando Airport. The officer searched pawn records and found that Johnson had presented his driver’s license while selling the iPad at the ecoATM inside the northeast Walmart. Johnson provided his thumbprint and attested that he was the sole and rightful owner of the iPad; he received $4 for the iPad, which the City valued at $400. The officer noted that Johnson is “easily identifiable” in the pictures taken at the ecoATM.

The owner of the security company reportedly identified the man in the ecoATM pictures as the one who had offered to sell him the cell phone.

The officer reported that the cell phone was the only property that was recovered after the theft.

Johnson, whose listed address is GRACE Marketplace, has been charged with organized dealing in stolen property, fraudulently pawning an item worth under $300, burglary of an unoccupied vehicle, and two counts of theft. He has six felony convictions (one violent) and four misdemeanor convictions (one violent) and has served three state prison sentences, with his most recent release in 2021. He was arrested in 2023 for stabbing another man during an argument over a lighter, but the charge was later dropped. He was charged with possession of “molly” at the time of that arrest and was sentenced in May 2023 to six months in jail with credit for 64 days served.

Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $55,000 on the new charges.

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.