A Villager has been jailed after allegedly breaking into a home at the center of a fierce legal battle.
Sooksiri Rittirucksa, 71, was arrested Saturday afternoon after entering the home at 611 Juanita Court in the Village of De La Vista North, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
A deputy went to the home to investigate a trespassing complaint. The deputy found Rittirucksa sitting in her vehicle in the driveway.
She said it was “her house” and she had been “unlawfully evicted,” stating that the Sumter County judge who signed the eviction order was “a crook and a fraud.” She said it was her intention to move back in. She admitted she had contacted a locksmith and had the locks changed. The house was searched and the previous locks could not be found.
The deputy discovered a writ of possession had been executed in 2022 and listed another individual as being in “full possession” of the home.
The home had been purchased by William Bartlam Lowe in 2006. A decade later, Rittirucksa’s name was added to the title. It is not clear what the nature of the relationship was between Rittirucksa, who was born in Thailand, and Lowe, who apparently died in 2017.
His death appears to have set in motion a protracted legal battle between Rittirucksa and the heirs to the Lowe estate. Legal documents infer that she resisted efforts to move out of the home and that she attempted to sabotage its sale, even though she was clearly promised 50 percent of the proceeds of the sale.
The two-bedroom two-bathroom house is apparently under contract, according to a sign posted at the property. It had been listed at $259,900.
Lowe originally bought the home for $221,000.
Rittirucksa is facing charges of burglary and theft. She was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center and released after posting $1,000 bond.