Purse snatcher cooling his heels in jail

A 19-year-old St Augustine resident and his 15-year-old accomplice got an introduction to the consequences of harming other citizens and attempting to steal their belongings last night.

Police officers responded to Riberia Street and Carrera Street shortly after 7:00 p.m. Tuesday night to assist a 25-year-old victim of a forceful purse snatching.

Thinking that their bicycles would be their getaway cars, the two teens, 19-year-old Marlon Jermaine Lewis, whose address was reported as 354 Hefferon Drive in St Augustine, and a juvenile who was not named, approached their victim, knocked her to the ground causing minor injuries, and then fled the area with the victim’s purse and its contents.

Patrolmen found the victim crying and still on the ground when they arrived. Officer Roy Smith and Wayne Ferrell managed to get a detailed description of the assailants and the property that was stolen.

As that information was being broadcast to other officers on duty, Officer Chris Miller spotted two teens matching the description as they crossed Ponce de Leon Boulevard then started running west on the railroad tracks. Smith and Ferrell got ahead of the runners and cut them off. In Lewis’ pants pocket, Officer Ferrell found the victims purse.

The victim and a second witness to the crime were able to positively identify each of the culprits for police.

Lewis was arrested and transported to the St Johns County Detention Facility at the Neil J Perry Criminal Justice Complex, and remains in custody in lieu of $11,500 bond; charged with robbery, battery, trespassing, and resisting an officer without violence.

The juvenile was charged with principle to the robbery by sudden snatching, resisting officers without violence, and violation of probation because he was out past his curfew.