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The Villages
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Summerfield man nabbed after woman claims he bit her during tiff outside minimart

Vincent Ray Simmons

A Summerfield man with a long history of battery arrests was jailed Tuesday night after a woman claimed he battered her inside her vehicle while it was parked at a minimart.

The victim told Marion County sheriff’s deputies on June 25 that she was with 57-year-old Vincent Ray Simmons at the RaceTrac at 1525 County Road 484 when the incident took place. She claimed Simmons was intoxicated and wanted to drive her vehicle, a sheriff’s office report states.

The victim said Simmons bit her on the left hand between her thumb and index finger. Deputies noted a “faint marking of what appeared to be teeth impressions on the victim’s left hand,” the report says.

The victim said Simmons was sitting in the driver’s seat while they continued to argue. She said she tried to take the keys out of the ignition and he grabbed her by the forearm, causing her to have “visible bruises.” She said Simmons then pushed her in the upper arm area to get her out of the vehicle, which left “visible bruising,” the report says.

A witness told deputies he didn’t see Simmons allegedly bite the victim. But he did show them a video of the of the couple arguing and the victim attempting to take the vehicle’s keys out of the ignition. The video showed Simmons grab the woman’s forearm and twist it, then push her “in the location she had the bruises,” the report says.

Deputies made contact with Simmons on Tuesday and he claimed he was in a verbal confrontation with the victim “but never bit her.” He said he “only grabbed her wrist to stop her from taking the keys and “nothing else happened,” the report says.

Simmons, who was convicted of battery on Sept. 3, 2002 in Lake County Court, was arrested and transported to the Marion County Jail. He was charged with domestic battery (second or subsequent offense) and released Wednesday night on $2,000 bond. He is due in court Aug. 4 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charge, jail records show.

Simmons is no stranger to Marion County legal system, having been arrested four times between January 2010 and December 2019 on battery charges. One of those arrests stemmed from a battle he allegedly had with a woman who didn’t want him to take scrap metal from her yard.

This past April, Simmons again found himself behind bars after a nasty scuffle with a lady friend over bricks. During the argument, the victim said, Simmons got into the driver’s seat of his vehicle and the tiff continued while she was standing nearby on the passenger side. She said she accidentally dropped her cigarette lighter into the passenger seat and as she was attempting to retrieve it, Simmons pulled her into the vehicle by her wrists, the report states.

Deputies reported seeing Simmons accelerate forward as the woman fell into the vehicle. She hit the left side of her face on the center console and suffered a slight redness under her left eye and a scrape on her left forearm, a sheriff’s office report states.

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