A homeless couple accused of “squatting” and burglarizing a woman’s deceased parents’ house was arrested Tuesday and charged with 25 crimes.
The owner of the Ocala home, located in the 2000 block of SE 169th Avenue, reported the burglary July 9 and told Marion County deputies that she believed 33-year-old Cody Vaiden Hall and 32-year-old Ashley Ann Mitchell were responsible. She said she had hired Hall and Mitchell to do yard work and later discovered they had broken into the unoccupied home and were “squatting” there.
The woman told deputies the home had been unoccupied since her parents died. And she said she didn’t give anyone permission to enter the home or a shed on the property.
The homeowner told deputies she confronted Hall and Mitchell about the missing items valued at $12,700. She said those items included a new battery-powered DeWalt tool set with a circular saw, a reciprocating saw, a drill and a flashlight; a Black & Decker pole saw; an Echo gas weed eater with a blade attached for cutting weeds in water; a Craftsman socket set in a case; a black pool cue with a red band around it in a black zipper case; a dolphin charm and matching earrings; an 18-inch 10-carat gold chain necklace and several other pieces of jewelry.
The woman said Hall and Mitchell told her they would return the items, but when she told them she was going to call law enforcement and their fingerprints would be found inside the home, Hall said “he would just burn her house down,” a sheriff’s office report states.
The homeowner said Mitchell told her she would return the items or give her money if she didn’t contact the sheriff’s office. She said Mitchell also told her that she “gets prescription pain pills, which she can sell for $40 a pill, so she will have her money,” the report says.
The woman also told deputies that Hall and Mitchell called her late at night on July 10 from a restricted phone number. The woman said Hall asked if she had contacted police and was going to press charges. She told him “yes” and then Mitchell said they’d return the items if she didn’t press charges. The woman said Mitchell told her they took the items to pay her “probation payment.”
Deputies took both Hall and Mitchell into custody Tuesday. A search of a pawn shop database showed that Hall had pawned numerous items at Value Pawn & Jewelry on S. Pine Avenue and several pieces of jewelry at Silver City Stamp & Coin Company on E. Silver Springs Boulevard. Some of the items were pawned before the burglary was reported. But when shown photographs of the various pieces of jewelry and tools that were pawned at both locations, the homeowner positively identified them as ones that belonged to her.
In each case, the report says, Hall signed a transaction form and provided a thumb print acknowledging ownership of the items and verifying they weren’t stolen.
Deputies also discovered that a chain saw had been sold to an Ocala couple for $25 and a 42-inch television set to the owner of a mobile home park for $80.
When questioned, Hall admitted to taking and pawning the items but told deputies the homeowner asked him to do so and split the money with her. And he admitted to selling the chain saw and television, the report says.
Mitchell told deputies that both she and Hall took items from the woman’s house, but she said they had permission to stay there. And she said the homeowner asked them to sell items for her.
Hall was charged with burglary of an unoccupied structure (unarmed), larceny/grand theft (between $10,000 and $20,000), grand theft of a motor vehicle, seven counts of dealing in stolen property, five counts of fraud (providing false information to a pawn shop on items worth less than $300), burglary of a dwelling or structure (armed), larceny/grand theft of a controlled substance, larceny/grand theft (between $300 and $5,000), larceny/grand theft of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He is being held on $51,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 21 at 9 a.m.
Mitchell was charged with a probation violation for trafficking in stolen property, a probation violation for giving false information to a pawn broker, grand theft of a motor vehicle, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling (unarmed) and larceny/grand theft (between $10,000 and $20,000). She was being held on no bond on the probation violation charges and $9,000 bond on the other three charges. She is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom Aug. 15 at 9 a.m. on the probation violation charges and again Aug. 21 at 9 a.m. to answer to the other three charges.
