A grandson was arrested after a Villager told police he was making her feel like a prisoner in her own home.
John David Newell, 27, who resides at 1701 Hilton Head Blvd. on the Historic Side of The Villages, was arrested this week following an alleged attack on his 74-year-old grandmother.
Newell, who had been free on bond after repeatedly damaging a gate on the Historic Side, was involved in an altercation with his girlfriend in a back bedroom at the home when his grandmother attempted to intervene, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department.
Newell began yelling obscenities at his grandmother. He saw her holding a cell phone and demanded to know who she was calling. When she did not immediately answer, Newell advanced toward her in a “hostile manner, grabbed her right arm and began twisting it behind her in an effort to take away her phone,” the report said. He struck her in the back of the head with a closed fist.
Prior to the arrival of law enforcement, Newell and his girlfriend fled the residence.
When police arrived, the grandmother told officers that she is in “constant fear” of the return of her grandson, who has four previous battery arrests. She said she feels like “a prisoner in her own home.” She said her grandson uses “street narcotics” which fuel his “violent and menacing behavior.”
When Newell was found by police, he was in possession of drug paraphernalia.
Newell has a long history of arrests in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
In 2022, Newell was arrested after arguing with his grandmother over the care of his daughter. Newell reportedly grabbed his grandmother by her arms, leaving behind bruises.
Newell was arrested in 2020 after he got into an altercation with his grandmother because he was not allowed to use the golf cart. Newell had been arrested after allegedly threatening the mother of his baby with a butcher knife in 2019 during an altercation on the Historic Side of The Villages. In 2016, Newell was arrested after damaging his uncle’s golf cart, also on the Historic Side of The Villages.
