An 81-year-old Villager was arrested at a Cracker Barrel after an alleged payoff to beat up his ex-girlfriend.
Derek Britton, of the Village of El Santiago, was taken into custody at 1:42 p.m. Wednesday at the Cracker Barrel in Leesburg on a charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated stalking.
He had been arrested earlier this month when he showed up in a black ski mask at the home of his girlfriend.
While being held at the Lake County Jail, Britton met another inmate and agreed to pay that inmate’s $600 bond if he would agree to take action against the ex-girlfriend, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. The deal called for the inmate, upon release, to vandalize the woman’s home with paint, burglarize her home and plant narcotics and injure the woman to the point she would need stitches. Britton provided the fellow inmate with information about where the woman worked, where she lived and information about the car she owns.
Britton, who was born in Ireland, appeared Aug. 23 in Lake County Court and pleaded no contest in the attack on the woman. He was sentenced to time already served in jail, placed on five years probation, ordered into anger management counseling and ordered to make $4,390 in restitution to the ex-girlfriend.
Upon his release from jail, Britton repeatedly contacted a female friend of the inmate he had met in jail. She contacted law enforcement and provided a sworn affidavit that Britton had promised to give the woman $600 to bond out the inmate.
Britton and the woman agreed to meet at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Cracker Barrel, where Britton was taken into custody.
He is back behind bars and being held without bond.
