A T&D Concrete technician who lives just outside The Villages found himself behind bars Sunday night after a nasty scuffle with a lady friend over a set of speakers inside her truck.
The victim told Marion County sheriff’s deputies that she and 21-year-old Noah Herrera went to Daytona Beach in her vehicle for the weekend as friends. She said when they returned to her residence, Herrera wanted to take the Alpine speakers out of her vehicle, a sheriff’s office reports.
The victim told deputies she received the speakers from a deceased relative and they belong to her. She said she locked her truck doors so Herrera couldn’t take the speakers and then opened a back door and stepped inside the vehicle to hand him his clothing and other personal items.
The victim said Herrera then started reaching around her toward the speakers and she blocked him. She said he grabbed a wrench that was on the floorboard of the vehicle and struck her in the face, on both arms and on her left leg. Herrera then damaged the speakers and told her, “If I can’t have them, you can’t have them,” the reports says.
The victim said she punched Herrera in an attempt to get him out of the vehicle. She said he then left her residence.
Deputies noted that the victim had a scratch on the back of her arm that was about three inches long, a roughly two-inch scratch on the back of her left arm and a light purple bruise on the side of her left knee. Deputies also saw a wrench that was about a foot long sitting on the back floorboard and several shirt buttons on the floor. The victim said they came from Herrera’s shirt, which came off during the altercation.
A deputy spoke with Herrera by phone and they met at the Wal-Mart in Summerfield. He said he had the speakers, which the victim valued at $300. He also claimed the argument “never got physical” and when asked who owned the speakers, he said, “Technically her, because they came from her family. But I had them before this weekend,” the report says.
Herrera was placed under arrest and then told the deputy, “That was me being nice about the real story.” The deputy then read him his rights and he agreed to speak with him.
Herrera claimed the victim got into the back seat and he attempted to get in behind her. He said she tried to push him out of the vehicle several times and he attempted to reach around her to get his belongings and the speakers. He said he got mad and “busted” them and the victim grabbed him and bit him on his arm before he left the residence, the report says.
Herrera, who lives at 8596 N.E. 105th Ln. in Lady Lake, was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with domestic battery and criminal mischief. He was being held on $1,000 bond and is due in court Nov. 17 at 8:30 a.m. to answer to the charges, jail records show.
