A Wildwood man was arrested after allegedly snatching a woman’s phone from her hand and flushing it down a toilet while she recorded an argument.
A deputy responded to a domestic disturbance at an undisclosed Wildwood residence around 8:40 a.m. Tuesday, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. Upon arrival, he met with the complainant, who was later identified as 32-year-old Brandon Charles Gregory Lewis.
He told deputies that he woke up that morning unable to find his phone. It had gone missing recently in the mornings, and he believed the female victim had taken it. He confronted her, and this started an altercation between the two, the report said.
The victim started to scream that her phone was also missing, which Lewis did not want others to hear. So, he took her out of the residence and walked off. He later said she tackled him to the ground while looking for her phone but recanted this statement. He was unsure if she was just running by and accidentally bumped into him, the report said.
Lewis then recanted the new statement, going back to saying she tackled him. He complained about pain and injury to his left wrist, left shoulder and lower back. However, the deputy did not see any injuries, the report said.
The victim advised that Lewis had woken her up that morning, yelling that she had taken his phone. She did not have it, and they started to argue. He threatened to call the police while she recorded audio of the altercation, the report said.
While she recorded, he aggressively and forcefully grabbed ahold of her hand and took her phone. He started to run away from her but tripped and fell over. He then went to the bathroom where her flushed her phone in the toilet, the report said.
The victim had to turn off the water to get her phone from the toilet, which was recorded on her iPad. She did not have any apparent injuries. She also gave the deputy the audio and video recordings, the report said.
In the audio recording, the deputy heard Lewis at a distance arguing with the victim about his phone being missing. While they went back and forth, he heard Lewis get closer to the victim as she told him to get out of her face. Lewis then tried to get her daughter to leave the residence, the report said.
The phone made a lot of sound like it was being tossed around, where the deputy heard the victim screaming at Lewis to give her phone back and that he snatched it out of her hand. Lewis screamed that she was hitting him. As the victim continued to yell for her phone back, Lewis said he did not have it and told her to “call the police.” The sound of the phone being dropped onto a metallic surface was heard next, the report said.
The video recording showed the victim reaching into the toilet to get her phone, the report said.
Lewis did not want to speak with law enforcement. They instead pulled up his criminal history and learned he had a previous conviction for negligent assault from a sheriff’s office in Ohio on Aug. 9, 2015, the report said.
The Ohio native was arrested on charge of battery (second or subsequent offense). He was transported to the Sumter County Detention Center where bond was set at $5,000. Holds were also placed on him by Ohio and Orange County.