Deputies responded to a McDonald’s restaurant in The Villages after a woman reported her man friend’s threats to kill her.
The woman sought refuge early Friday morning at the McDonald’s at Buffalo Ridge Plaza after 33-year-old Joshua David Lister of Wildwood threatened her during a battle over her cell phone, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. When deputies made contact with the woman at McDonald’s, she was “emotionally in distress, afraid, and was crying,” the report said. She said Lister had “not been himself during the last two weeks and has threatened to kill her.”
Lister had taken away the woman’s cell phone the previous night and spent the next several hours going through her phone. Early the next morning, the woman “begged” for the return of her phone, indicating she needed to go to work. She tried to take back the phone, but Lister grabbed it from her hand, causing some bruising to her hand. She got into her truck and tried to drive away, but Lister jumped onto the truck, holding onto the passenger side mirror. He attempted to break the truck’s window, but fell off the vehicle. The truck’s tire “rolled over his arm.” The woman’s friend, who had her seven-month-old baby girl with her, witnessed the incident and shared her account with deputies.
Deputies later located Lister at UF Health-Leesburg Hospital and took him into custody. He is facing a charge of battery. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center and released after posting $2,000 bond.