An Ocala man was arrested Wednesday after a woman reported a violent altercation and a barrage of text messages and calls following the incident.
When Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the home, the woman told them 32-year-old Frankie Elias Leyva had stopped by her house to get his driver’s license and debit card from a vehicle. She said the two got into an argument and he took her cell phone away from her.
The woman told deputies she continued to try to get her cell phone back but Leyva allegedly pushed her with both of his hands in her chest and at one point grabbed her around the neck with one hand and held the cell phone up with the other hand, a sheriff’s office report states, adding that the woman said it was hard to breathe while Leyva allegedly had his hand around her neck.
The woman said Leyva eventually released her and started walking toward his car with her cell phone. The woman’s mother, who observed the entire incident and called law enforcement, then walked towards Leyva’s vehicle and was able to get the phone back, the report says.
The report notes that from the time Leyva left the residence at 6:15 a.m. until deputies arrived, he had called the woman 12 times on WhatsApp and 16 times on her cell phone. He also had texted more than 95 times on WhatsApp and nine times on the phone. He kept asking the woman not to call law enforcement, saying, “Don’t do this again, and now I have to go to court.”
A short time later when deputies made contact with Leyva at his residence at 39 SW 156th Ct., he admitted that he and the woman were arguing but said he never touched her. He also claimed the cell phone was his but admitted the woman paid for it with her credit card. And Leyva showed deputies a video of the incident that was taken when it was dark outside but the woman can be heard telling him to stop hurting her, the report says.
Leyva was taken into custody and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with domestic battery by strangulation, larceny/grand theft, battery and making harassing communications by phone. He was held on $17,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 28 at 9 a.m.
A check of Leyva’s criminal background showed that he was previously arrested and charged with domestic battery, tampering with a victim/witness and grand theft against the same woman. He was found guilty of battery and grand theft on April 28, 2015 and violated his probation July 20, 2017 for a battery charge involving the same woman. He had been out of jail for a little more than a month on the violation of probation charge.
