Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A Texas attorney was arrested in Gainesville after police say she broke into an occupied apartment while the residents were asleep, later telling officers she was looking for a “spiritual stick” she believed had been taken from her during a recent “Ancestral Spirits” convention.
Gainesville Police Department officers responded at about 5:12 a.m. on June 22 to St. Croix Apartments, located at 829 SW 5th Avenue. The residents told police they were sleeping when they heard someone striking their back door with a stick.
According to the victims, the woman then moved to the front of the apartment and began hitting the windows with another stick she had picked up from the ground. One of the windows shattered, and the suspect entered the home.
Doorbell camera footage reportedly showed the woman leaving through the front door before returning inside through the same entrance. Officers arrived shortly afterward and detained 35-year-old Candice Shantell Patrick inside the apartment. Police reported that the victim’s doorbell camera captured the sequence of events.
The residents told officers they did not know Patrick and had no idea why she was inside their apartment. They said they stayed in their bedroom while she was in the residence and monitored what was happening through the doorbell camera.
After being advised of her Miranda rights, Patrick reportedly said she only wanted to retrieve her “spiritual stick” from the apartment. She claimed she knew one of the residents and said he had taken the item from her at a recent “Ancestral Spirits” conference. Police said she would not explain how she knew the stick was inside the victims’ apartment.
Patrick, of Collin, Texas, has been charged with burglary of an occupied residence. She has no criminal history, and she told Court Services she is an attorney in Texas who had been in Alachua County for about five days. Judge Meshon Rawls ordered her released on her own recognizance.
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.
