An unemployed, machete-wielding woman was arrested early Tuesday morning – the day after her 34th birthday – after a violent episode inside a recreational vehicle left two people fearing for their lives, extensive damage and burned curtains.
The incident started after Dana A. Garrett, of Dunnellon, came to the RV, which was parked on SW 158th Lane, to retrieve some of her belongings. The victims told deputies that she picked up a machete and started making threats and waving it close to them, broke multiple windows, lit the kitchen curtains on fire and tried to start a blaze in rolled-up carpet under the vehicle, a sheriff’s office report states.
The report notes that “both victims showed a well-rounded fear” and that one rushed to douse the kitchen fire because he was afraid the RV would be destroyed and he’d have no place to stay.
A short time later, deputies met with Garrett at a house located at 7400 SW 153rd Ln., where she told them “nothing happened.” But the homeowner, who also witnessed the incident, told deputies she saw Garrett wave the machete, point it at both victims, light the curtains on fire and attempt to set the carpet roll ablaze, the report says.
Garrett was taken into custody and transported to the Marion County Jail. When interviewed by a detective with the Bureau of Fire & Arson Investigations from Gainesville, she said she wasn’t at the RV and had no knowledge of the charges against her, his report states, adding that Garrett said, “I’m sitting in jail and I’ve never been in trouble in my life.”
But the detective noted in his report that both fires were intentionally set and that Garrett had “texted a threat to burn the structure prior to the act.”
Garrett was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and two counts of arson in the first degree. She was being held without bond on the first charge and $20,000 bond on the arson charges.