A Villages’ couple’s son will escape prosecution in a burglary at a dead neighbor’s home.
The 82-year-old Villager died Sept. 19, and spent the last months of his life in the care of his daughter at her home in Georgia. The Ohio native and his wife, who preceded him in death, purchased the home on Margarita Drive in the Village of Santo Domingo in 1998.
Their daughter contacted the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office after she discovered some items missing from the home. She told deputies that a neighbor had been entrusted with a key to her father’s house and she suspected that their son, 51-year-old Mark Christopher Davis, knew about the key and had used it to gain access to the residence, according to an arrest report.
Items valued at nearly $3,000 were missing, including a Garmin GPS, silverware, a set of golf clubs and a TV sound bar. Also missing were 20 Oxycodone pills and a Knights of Columbus sword. The deceased Villager had been a member of Knights of Columbus, as well as St. Timothy Catholic Church.
The daughter noted that Davis’ parents had come to visit her dying father in Georgia.
A detective found that the Garmin GPS has been pawned at Value Pawn in Ocala. The GPS recovered at the pawn shop included the daughter’s address in Georgia and the address of the dead man’s cardiologist.
“There are still many items missing at this time and (Davis) has refused to cooperate,” the detective wrote in the report.
Davis was arrested Oct. 20 on felony charges of grand theft and burglary. He previously has been convicted of misuse of a credit card in 2009 in Ohio and aggravated theft.
However, last month in Sumter County Court, the prosecutor’s office announced no information would be filed in the case. State Attorney Brad King indicated that he determined, “Evidence legally insufficient to prove guilt.”
