Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A 22-year-old named Dionte Dewayne Small was taken into custody early Wednesday on charges of sexual battery. He is accused of trailing his former girlfriend to a friend’s residence and assaulting her.
The woman informed an officer from the Gainesville Police Department that she had ended her relationship with Small on Tuesday due to ongoing domestic violence. She then went to her friend’s place at Grove at Sweetwater Preserve to distance herself from him.
According to the victim, Small arrived at the apartment, woke her up, and began quarreling over a phone that he had paid for. She reported that during the disagreement, Small grabbed, pushed, and hit her. To calm the situation, she handed the phone to him.
The victim said she went to several different rooms in an attempt to separate herself from Small, but he kept pulling her back to the living room. At one point, he started touching her in an intimate way, and she told him to stop touching her and to go away.
The victim said Small picked her up and put her on a couch, held her down, and sexually battered her while she tried to defend herself by hitting and biting him. She said she told him “constantly” to stop, but he ignored her and continued to sexually batter her until he stopped because she was crying hysterically. The victim’s friend came out of her bedroom because of the commotion and saw the victim crying, but Small reportedly told her to go back in her room because he and the victim were naked. He then allegedly grabbed the phone and victim’s purse, containing $92 in cash, and left.
While the officer was speaking with the victim, Small reportedly sent her father a text, asking to speak to her. The officer monitored a phone call between the victim and Small in which the victim asked why Small continued to sexually batter her after she asked him to stop, and Small reportedly said he didn’t know; he said he heard her telling him to stop once. When the victim asked why he had choked and hit her, Small reportedly said he was mad because she was leaving him out.
Post Miranda, Small reportedly said he and the victim had gotten into an argument that escalated to the point where the victim ended their relationship. After the victim went to her friend’s house, he said, he called the friend and said to leave the apartment door unlocked. He said he went uninvited to the apartment and argued with the victim because he wanted his phone back, and then the victim’s friend came out because they had awakened the children. He said he touched the victim intimately because he believed they had solved their problems, but she got upset with him because he was supposed to bring marijuana with him. He reportedly admitted pushing and choking the victim and sexually battering her, but he said he stopped after she asked him to stop twice and he noticed she was crying. He said he took her purse and money because he believed she would buy another phone to talk to another man.
According to the arresting officer, Small is a registered gang member with an extensive criminal history.
Small has been charged with sexual battery, false imprisonment, domestic battery by strangulation, and theft. He has unspecified juvenile convictions and one adult misdemeanor conviction (non-violent). He was arrested in April for resisting an officer without violence and released on his own recognizance, and he is facing a sworn complaint for kidnapping, robbery by sudden snatching, and battery. Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that 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.
