A homeless man holding a cardboard sign was arrested at a Publix grocery store in The Villages.
The Villages Commercial Property Management contacted law enforcement on Wednesday afternoon after 67-year-old Michael Anthony Newgent was spotted sitting with a cardboard sign stating that he was homeless outside the Publix at La Plaza Grande, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department.
An officer arrived on the scene and found that Latham had been issued a trespass notice on May 8, ordering him to stay off all property at La Plaza Grande.
During a pat down, the Kansas native was found to be in possession of four smoking devices used to ingest drugs. Newgent identified them as “weed pipes.” He was also in possession of a plastic container that held “a sticky brownish substance” that tested positive for amphetamines.
Newgent has a violent criminal history. Florida Department of Corrections records show Newgent was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 1993 for attempted first-degree premeditated murder and robbery with a gun or other deadly weapon in Miami-Dade County. He was armed with a knife in 2019 when he confronted a woman who said unflattering things about him.
After he was arrested at Publix, Newgent was booked at the Lake County Jail on charges of trespassing, possession of drug paraphernalia and drug possession. Bond was set at $4,500.