A Summerfield man was jailed Wednesday after a nasty scuffle with his ex-roommate.
The victim told Marion County sheriff’s deputies that 35-year-old Benjamin Kurtis Ard approached his vehicle and asked where his belongings were. He claimed Ard then unlawfully entered his vehicle by opening the driver’s side door and punching him in the face before leaving in another vehicle, a sheriff’s office report states, adding that the victim’s girlfriend confirmed his story.
The victim had cuts above his right eye and nose that were bleeding. Deputies also discovered that the victim’s driver’s side seat and door had blood on them, the report says.
Deputies responded to Ard’s residence at 15231 S.E. 103rd Ave. in Summerfield. After being read his rights, Ard said he had been at the victim’s residence collecting his belongings. He admitted that he and the victim had an argument and claimed the victim grabbed an ax that was inside his vehicle and started threatening him, the report says.
Ard also told deputies that the victim was outside the vehicle when they started to fight. He claimed a witness also was fighting with both of them and he didn’t know how the victim got the cuts above his eye and nose, according to the report.
Two of Ard’s new roommates said they heard arguing but didn’t see anything. One of the roommates said he “heard something” about an ax but didn’t see anything.
Ard was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with unarmed burglary of an occupied conveyance and battery on a person 65 years of age or older. He was being held on $17,000 bond and his next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.
Ard also was arrested in July 2019 on a warrant out of Maine for violating his bond on charges of domestic violence assault, criminal threatening and domestic violence terrorizing. At the time he was living in Silver Springs and was taken into custody in his backyard and held as an out-of-state fugitive. The Waldo County Sheriff’s Office said it planned to extradite him back to Maine, according to a report.
