Two men were arrested by Sumter County sheriff’s deputies Thursday evening with guns believed to have been stolen out of Lake County.
Raymond Leroy Leonard, 55, of Lake Panasoffkee and Jessie L. Pereida, 27, of Webster, were traveling in a vehicle in the vicinity of Catfish Johnny’s restaurant in Lake Panasoffkee when a deputy noticed the vehicle had an expired registration tag.
During the traffic stop, a deputy confirmed that Leonard is a convicted felon. The deputy also saw firearms in the back of the vehicle in plain sight, the arrest report said. A check confirmed that some of the guns had been reported stolen in Lake County. The check revealed that other firearms had also been stolen in addition to jewelry, though those items were not found in the vehicle.
Pereida, who was out on bond from a June 28 Sumter County arrest, told the deputy that he had driven Leonard to Lake County recently to “collect some stuff from a guy who owned Raymond money,” the arrest report noted. Deputies went to a home where Pereida said some of the items were located and there weapons, believed to have been stolen, were recovered.
The deputies also recovered drugs from the vehicle in which the pair had been traveling.
Leonard was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on charges of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, grand theft of a firearm and dealing in stolen property. At the jail, a further check into Leonard’s criminal history revealed 13 felony convictions.
Pereida was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on charges of dealing in stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and possession of drugs without a prescription.
Both were being held without bond.
