Heavily horned tattooed man tracked down after trying to break into Jensen Beach homes
A man from Alabama with a serious felonious background – and some serious ink – was wandering through Jensen Beach late Tuesday night, April 2, jiggling homeowner’s doorknobs and attempting to break in and enter.
One of his attempts, as he went door-to-door in an apartment complex on N. East Ocean Boulevard, was captured on a resident’s surveillance system. And that person contacted the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.
The video depicted the suspected burglar – a white male with horns tattooed on his face, carrying large bags.
Law enforcement arrived on the scene with road patrol units, aerial patrol, and K9s to track down the suspect, who was later identified as 46-year-old Jonathan Richards – a known felon from Alabama who was a new transient in Martin County.
WPBF 25 News spoke with two victims, Lisa and Chris, who caught the suspect on camera and the interaction that followed.
“I was sleeping, and I heard a noise, and I said to my husband, did you hear that? He said, oh, that was just me snoring. And then I was like, no, I heard something,” Lisa said.
Lisa then walked out of her bedroom to check what was going on.
“I see this scary devil looking in my window, and I screamed like a primal scream,” Lisa told WPBF.
Richards is seen on the home security video standing at their front door and opening it. A picture of him shows two horn tattoos on his head.
“The last time I screamed like that was when I gave birth to my son. That’s how primal it was,” Lisa said.
She ran towards the door, and her husband Chris followed.
“My husband had a shotgun. I screamed at him, and he picked up his stuff and he [Richards] left his boots,” she said.
Lisa and Chris, shotgun in hand, can be seen running out the front door and chasing after Richards.
After arriving on the scene, deputies said they only needed a brief search to track down and arrest their horned suspect. He initially tried to flee on foot but surrendered to officials when he realized there was a K9 involved in the chase.
Following his being taken into custody, Jonathan Richards was charged with:
- attempted occupied burglary, two count,
- possession of burglary tools,
- resisting arrest without violence, and
- a sex offender registration violation.
Although two large bags, which may have contained stolen property, were reported during the incident, they have not yet been recovered. The Sheriff’s Office has asked area residents to keep an eye out for those bags.
After looking into Richard’s background, the Sheriff’s Office shared that the heavily tattooed man has an extensive and violent criminal history and has been arrested multiple times in other states for crimes including, carjacking, burglary, drug possession, battery with seriously bodily harm and more. He is also a registered sex offender.
Detectives are canvassing the area near the apartment complex today, concerned that there may be additional victims who are unaware that their cars or apartments may have been burglarized in the middle of the night.
WPBF quoted the Sheriff as saying: “We do know that he’s a felon. He’s actually a sex offender from the state of Alabama who did not register in the state of Florida when he came into our state, so he’s been charged with that.” “We know he’s been arrested numerous times. I don’t know how many, and I don’t know all the states he’s been arrested in. That’s another thing our detectives are trying to sort through right now,” he said.
You can see the surveillance video of Richards trying to break into that Jensen Beach apartment below.
.
(Source and images: Martin County Sheriff’s Office)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
Follow Richard on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram
