A litany of charges have officially been filed against a longtime restaurant server in The Villages following an armed robbery, 11-hour standoff and high-speed chase Tuesday.
Brian Christopher Davis, 33, is accused of robbing a Belle Glade Country Club manager early Tuesday morning and then barricading himself in his girlfriend’s nearby home at 373 Alteza Lane in the Village of LaBelle North.
During the course of the standoff in the normally quiet Villages neighborhood, Davis was seen several times on the home’s lanai brandishing a handgun, sheriff’s officials said. And before breaking off communication completely, he told them he “wasn’t going back to jail.”
Shortly before noon, as the sheriff’s SWAT team was breaking a window in the home, Davis crashed through the garage door driving an SUV and led deputies on a chase into Lake County that went past the country club where the ordeal started. He was taken into custody a short time later after deputies used their patrol vehicles to stop him in a cow pasture off Micro Racetrack Road.
Davis is being held in the Sumter County Detention Center on $113,000 bond, which was raised from the original bond set Tuesday at $75,500. He has been charged with:
- Robbery with a firearm;
- Larceny/grand theft less than $5,000;
- Aggravated battery using a deadly weapon;
- Possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon;
- Obstructing justice (depriving the use of 911 communication);
- Kidnapping/false imprisonment;
- Two counts of hit and run with property damage;
- Three counts of fleeing and eluding police;
- Two moving traffic violations (driving while license is suspended, third or subsequent offense);
- Assault on an officer;
- Damage to property/criminal mischief ($1,000 or more); and
- Possession of drug equipment.
Davis, who has worked at several Villages restaurants and was recognized by the Belle Glade manager, starting have serious problems with the law in 2011 when he was living at 7887 SE 167th Burleigh Place in the Village of Calumet Grove. He was charged with burglary and stealing a vehicle and ended up serving a year in state prison.
Things seemed to improve for Davis during a relationship with Holly Kelmar, who was employed at Evans Prairie Country Club in The Villages. But she died in a tragic car crash in 2016, leaving behind two small children she had with Davis. And he landed back in the Sumter County Detention Center later that same year after violating his probation.
This past Christmas, Davis was back behind bars again after an attack on his mother at the Village of Parkwood. And he was free on bond and due appear in this week in Sumter County Court, but he apparently missed the appearance and was being sought by a bail bondsman.
