Inside Scoop

TAVARES, Fla.—A joyride in a stolen SUV did not last long for a Tavares man early Wednesday morning when Tavares Police Department apprehended the man less than 15 minutes after he stole it, according to a report.

Just before 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, a woman reported that while she was feeding cats at Circle K, 439 South Duncan Drive, an unknown black male jumped out of a tan SUV and hopped into her red 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe and drove off. TPD responded to the scene and officers began canvassing the area, along with officers from Astatula Police Department and Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies.

Less than15 minutes later, a TPD corporal spotted the Tahoe parked in a field off Lona Street and saw a man, later identified as Trevon Marques Williams, 27, walking toward him. He ordered Williams to stop, and he fled on foot. The TPD corporal deployed his taser and struck Williams in the back, causing him to fall on a plastic chair and then on his back, the report states.

A group of people then showed up on the scene and they were detained while officers completed their investigation. The woman driving the tan SUV Williams jumped out of at Circle K was among those detained; she told officers she picked Williams up from Rosewood Apartments and took him to the store to buy blunts. She said he got out of her vehicle and jumped in the Tahoe and left. Inside Lake is not naming her because she was not charged with a crime.

Williams denied stealing the Tahoe and when the victim arrived on scene to retrieve her vehicle, she told police her phone and $135 was missing from the console. When Williams was searched, he was found with the money in the same denominations the victim described to police, according to the report. Her phone was found lying in the middle of Lona Street.

Williams was arrested for grand theft of a motor vehicle, resisting arrest and petit theft. He was transported to the Lake County Jail, where he is being held on $4,500 bond.