A man deemed to be mentally unstable man has threatened to go “out in a blaze of glory.”
Jonathan Ryan Cuppels, 37, of Fruitland Park, was being held this weekend on $250,000 bond at the Lake County Jail. He was arrested on a charge of possession of methamphetamine.
Last month, Cuppels was being pursued by Marion County sheriff’s deputies and and was involved in a crash in which another driver was killed, according to an affidavit of probable cause from the Fruitland Park Police Department. He has not been charged yet in that case.
The detective who wrote that affidavit indicated that Cuppels has told family members he intends to acquire a firearm and go “out in a blaze of glory.”
In 2022, Cuppels was arrested after ramming a pickup into Fruitland Park City Hall while his mother was at church.
Also last year, Cuppels was arrested on charges of grand theft and criminal mischief after allegedly attempting to use a power drill to try to break into a safe at the home of his mother.
In 2018, Cuppels was arrested in the theft of a golf cart from the Comfort Inn Suites in The Villages that had been rented by a visitor from Wisconsin. He pleaded no contest in the case and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.
