A homeless Summerfield man who once was nabbed while fleeing from the Kohl’s store at Village Crossroads in a stolen pair of sneakers is behind bars in the Marion County Jail.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies spoke with a woman on March 16 who had a cut and bruise above her right eyebrow. She said she had been in a verbal altercation with 49-year-old Jeffrey Allen Hughes in the front yard of a residence when he slammed her face into a tan Toyota that was parked in the driveway. She said she told Hughes she was going to call law enforcement and he “ran off,” a sheriff’s office report states.
A witness told deputies she saw Hughes punch the victim in the head while they were standing by the vehicle. She said Hughes was throwing punches at the victim “like she was a grown man,” the report says.
Another witness said Hughes and the victim were arguing about a cell phone. She said Hughes struck the woman in the side of the head, causing her head to hit the car, the report says.
Deputies conducted a criminal background check and discovered that Hughes was convicted of battery in Marion County on Feb. 9, 2001. A warrant was issued for the Bakersfield, Calif., native and he was taken into custody on Wednesday and booked into the jail on a charge of domestic battery (second or subsequent offense). He was being held on $2,500 bond and is due in court June 8 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charge, jail records show.
Hughes was issued a notice in November 2019 to appear in Lake County Court on a charge of shoplifting at Kohl’s at Villages Crossroads. He entered the store on the afternoon of Veterans Day, selected the sneakers and a long-sleeve shirt and took the items into a fitting room. He then left the store without paying for the items and was detained by a loss prevention officer until a Lady Lake Police officer arrived a short time later, a report says.