A Summerfield man was arrested Thursday afternoon after a Marion County sheriff’s detective thought he was wanted on an outstanding Sumter County warrant.
The detective saw the man, later identified as 36-year-old Dwight Scott Southerland, turn onto S.E. Hwy. 464 from Hwy. 25 while driving a black 2011 four-door BMW sedan. The vehicle eventually stopped at a residence in the 12700 block of S.E. 122nd Place and the detective noted that the driver, 36-year-old Dwight Scott Southerland, matched the description of the man wanted in the outstanding warrant, a sheriff’s office report states.
After verifying that Southerland wasn’t the subject of the warrant, it was discovered that his driver’s license had been suspended and he was a habitual traffic offender, the report says.
A records check showed that the BMW wasn’t currently registered and didn’t belong to Southerland. It also showed that the Ohio license tag wasn’t registered to a vehicle, the report says.
The records check also showed that Southerland, who lives at 13625 S.E. 25th Ave. in Summerfield, had been classified as a habitual offender on May 12, 2015 and had failed to meet the requirements to obtain a valid license. His license had been revoked in connection to issues with controlled substances, the report says.
Southerland was taken into custody and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with driving while license suspended (habitual offender) and failing to register a motor vehicle. He was being held on $2,500 bond and is due in court Sept. 8 at 9 a.m.
Southerland is no stranger to the legal system, having been arrested multiple times in the past. In June 2018, he was taken into custody in connection with the theft of a phone at Target at Rolling Acres Plaza. In February 2019, he found himself back behind bars after just being released from a five-month stint in the Marion County Jail. And in October 2019, he was arrested with drugs at Wal-Mart at Buffalo Ridge Plaza in The Villages, a report states.
