A Summerfield man with an extensive arrest record is behind bars after being accused of taking a cartoon of cigarettes from a minimart.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies were called to the Kangaroo Express at 10143 SE Sunset Harbor Road in Summerfield early Sunday morning after being told that a man later identified as 36-year-old Jason Patrick Knowles had taken the cigarettes from a clerk’s hands and left the minimart without paying for them.
Deputies were told that Knowles had been seen walking south on SE 149th Lane and minutes later he was detained at the intersection with 100th Court. Deputies also spoke with the clerk, who said she was standing behind the counter when Knowles walked up and asked her how much money was inside the cash register. She said he asked for a carton of Newport Menthol Shorts cigarettes and she was placing the item on the counter with her hand still on it when Knowles grabbed the carton and started to walk out of the store without paying for it.
The clerk said she told Knowles he needed to pay for the cigarettes and he continued to walk about of the store and toward SE 149th Lane. She said she then called 911 and also reported that the value of the cartoon of cigarettes was $75.22.
A short time later deputies brought Knowles back to the store, where the clerk positively identified him as the man who had stolen the cigarettes. Knowles initially denied taking anything from the minimart. But he then said he took the carton of cigarettes and while walking out of the store he told the clerk he would “be right back in a little bit” to pay for them, a sheriff’s office report states.
Knowles also claimed that the clerk told him he could return later to pay for the cigarettes, which he said he left on the side of the roadway where the deputy had stopped him. He then said, “If I go back and pay for it, then it won’t be a crime,” the report says.
After viewing video surveillance footage of the incident, deputies placed Knowles under arrest. He was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with robbery with no firearm or weapon.
Knowles, who lives at 14375 SE 98th Ave. in Summerfield and has been held in the jail 15 times since September 2009 on a litany of charges, was being held on $10,000 bond and is due in court Feb. 11 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charge.