OFFICE OF THE STATE ATTORNEY sentenced Williams to 56.4 months

KEY WEST, March 11, 2019 – A Key West man has been sentenced to nearly five years in Florida State Prison after pleading no contest to burglary of a dwelling and admitting to violating probation in a previous grand-theft case.

Hunter Williams, 32 also pleaded no contest to possession of cocaine. On March 7, Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones sentenced Williams to 56.4 months in prison to satisfy all the charges. Assistant State Attorney Christine Poist represented the state.

In the burglary case, Key West police officers arrested Williams on May 31, 2018, after police had been called to a Fleming Street home in response to a burglary alarm and report the day before. On May 30, 2018, the property manager told police it appeared someone was in the house. They searched it but didn’t find anyone. However, video shot by a security camera showed someone in the house and a photo of the suspect was distributed to officers to be on the lookout.

On May 31, the burglar alarm at the house went off again and police were alerted. As some officers responded, others were viewing a live feed from the security system and saw in it someone tampering with the front door’s lock and alarm system. The man in the video then left the camera’s view and went toward the back yard.

Meanwhile, officers found an unlocked door to the house and went in to search. They found Williams, who was the same person in the house in the May 30 video, in a second-story crawl space and detained him. He reportedly told police he used to do lawn maintenance for the homeowner, that he was homeless and needed a place to sleep. He was arrested for burglary and, incidental to that, police found he possessed a small plastic bag containing cocaine, so he was charged with that, too.

The violation-of-probation charge grew out of a June 2016 theft of more than $300 from a Papa John’s pizza restaurant. For that, he received 24 months of probation after pleading no contest. He violated probation by getting arrested on the 2018 burglary and cocaine charges, plus failing to remain in a substance-abuse treatment program until successfully completing it.

Contact: Public Information Officer Larry Kahn, (305) 289-2899.

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