An Ocala man with a long history of legal woes celebrated his 35th birthday on Christmas morning with a trip to the Marion County Jail after crashing his vehicle in a vacant house while fleeing from sheriff’s deputies.
His girlfriend, who has been arrested three times this year, also was taken into custody and before the morning was over was charged with attempting to smuggle heroin into the jail inside a body cavity.
The incident started in the early morning hours when a sheriff’s deputy spotted a Toyota Corolla traveling westbound on Juniper Road, straddling the right lane and swerving into eastbound traffic at varying speeds. The deputy quickly stopped the car but when he exited his patrol vehicle, the driver, later identified as 35-year-old Rico Dwayne Richardson, drove away at a high rate of speed, a sheriff’s office report states.
The deputy activated his emergency lights and siren for about 25 yards before terminating the pursuit due to poor weather conditions. A short time later, he saw Richardson’s vehicle crash into a vacant house at the intersection of Chestnut Road and Chestnut Court and watched him “take off running northbound,” followed by a woman later identified as his girlfriend, 26-year-old Kayla Galina Spicer. The deputy ordered both to stop running and get on the ground but Richardson continued northbound on foot, the report says.
The deputy was able to detain Spicer, who told him that Richardson was driving the vehicle and was running to a residence at 100 Juniper Pass. Spicer also told the deputy that they ran because Richardson’s license is suspended and she has an outstanding warrant.
Another deputy responded to the apartment on Juniper Pass and made contact with the resident, who said he knows Richardson but hadn’t seen him lately. But the man told the deputy that his Toyota Corolla was missing and he had left the keys inside the vehicle, the report says.
The man gave the deputy permission to search the apartment and he quickly located Richardson sleeping in one of the children’s beds. He was wearing the same clothes as described as the crash scene and had “obvious injuries to his face,” the report says.
The deputy took Richardson into custody and he refused to speak to him, other than to say that he wasn’t driving the vehicle and Spicer was with another “crackhead.” The deputy conducted a computer check, which showed that Richardson had never obtained a Florida driver’s license and was out on bond on a Nov. 28 arrest for resisting without violence, giving false identification to a law enforcement officer and lewd and lascivious battery on a child between the ages of 12 and 16.
Richardson, who lives at 5350 SE 28th Ln., A, in Ocala, was charged with aggravated fleeing/eluding police with injury or damage, resisting arrest without violence, two counts of driving with a suspended or revoked license (subsequent offense), violating a previous conditional release, failing to stop at a crash involving injury and leaving the scene of a crash involving damage to property. He was held on $9,000 bond on some of the charges and no bond on the others and is due in Marion County Court on Jan. 29 at 9 a.m. to answer to the seven charges.
Spicer, who lives at 6515 NE 22nd Ct. in Ocala, was arrested and transported to the Marion County Jail, where she was charged with failure to appear in court on a petit theft charge. Later than morning, a body scan revealed “something suspicious” in Spicer’s abdomen area, which she initially denied. But after two strip searches and four body scans, Spicer admitted to having something in her body.
She was searched again and pulled a clear plastic bag from a body cavity that contained a substance she admitted was heroin, the report says.
Spicer was then arrested a second time and charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription (heroin) and smuggling contraband into a detention facility. She was held on $2,000 bond on the failure to appear charge and no bond on the other charges.
Richardson is no stranger to the Marion County legal system, having been in the jail 13 times since January 2002. Marion County Court records show that he has been found guilty of:
- Giving a false name to law enforcement officers (October 2016);
- Robbery with a firearm (October 2009);
- Driving with a suspended or revoked license (August 2007);
- Possession of cocaine and resisting arrest without violence (December 2003);
- Possession of marijuana and resisting arrest without violence (September 2003);
- Loitering and prowling and resisting arrest without violence (May 2003); and
- Felony fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, resisting arrest without violence and driving without a valid license (December 2003).
Florida Department of Corrections records also show that Richardson has spent time in state prisons. Those stints include:
- Dec. 7, 2005-Oct. 15, 2006;
- Nov. 10, 2009-Nov. 1, 2011;
- Feb. 13, 2012-Sept. 15, 2015; and
- Nov. 10, 2016-May 31, 2017.
Spicer was originally arrested on Oct. 6 and charged with larceny/grand theft and retail larceny/grand theft. Court records show that she pleaded not guilty on Oct. 18 and seven days later, the grand theft charges were dropped/abandoned. Court records also show that on the same day the Public Defender’s office filed a motion to withdraw as Spicer’s counsel because they were representing another client in a case where she was a state’s witness, court records show.
Spicer was arrested again on Nov. 7 on an outstanding warrant in a petit theft case and released the following day on $1,000 bond, jail records show.