A 30-year-old man living with his grandmother in The Villages has been sentenced after a pair of drug arrests this year.
Matthew Phillip Beaton was arrested this past August after he was found sleeping in a Villages Property Management truck at Lake Sumter Landing. He was found to be in possession of a syringe, cocaine and the drug Quetiapine, for which Beaton did not have prescription.
Beaton was free on $3,500 bond when he was arrested Oct. 19 at the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market at Sarasota Plaza after he was found in a white Ford Edge suffering a seizure. The Michigan native, who was living at 609 San Marino Drive in the Village of De La Vista at the time of his arrest, had fresh track marks on his arm with blood oozing out, an arrest report said. Beaton, who was nervous and sweating profusely, also had old track marks on his hands and arms. There was a syringe in plain sight, as well as 11 syringes in the center console of the vehicle. He was also found to be in possession of cocaine.
Last month in Sumter County Court, Beaton pleaded no contest to charges of possession of cocaine and possession of paraphernalia in connection with his August arrest. A charge of drug possession without a prescription and the charges from the Oct. 19 arrest were dropped.
He has been placed on probation for three years. He also has been ordered to perform 25 hours of community service.
