A 59-year-old Ocala man with a prior aggravated assault conviction was arrested early Tuesday for allegedly threatening a man with a box-cutter.
Franklin Wiggins was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after the incident, which happened shortly after midnight. A criminal history check revealed that Wiggins was convicted of aggravated assault in January 2009 in Levy County.
The victim told a Marion County sheriff’s deputy that Wiggins recently used methamphetamine and saying he was going to kill members of the family while exposing his genitals to him. The victim said he told Wiggins to go lay down and sleep it off, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The victim said Wiggins went to his room, came out with a black-handled box-cutter and pinned him against the wall before a female eyewitness got between them to separate them. The victim had a small, fresh laceration on his right pinky knuckle, the report said.
The female eyewitness said Wiggins was in an altered mental state and irate for the entire day. She said the victim tried to get Wiggins to go lay down to sleep whatever he had taken. The witness said Wiggins went to his room and came back out with a black-handled box cutter and pinned the victim to the wall until she broke them apart, according to the report.
Another eyewitness, who is deaf, communicated in writing that he saw Wiggins push the victim, the report said.
Wiggins was still irate when the deputy spoke to him. Before being asked any questions, Wiggins said he never made any statements about harming anyone, never put his hands on anyone, and that everybody in the residence is conspiring against him. He also rambled about different topics, stating that the deputy is an undercover ATF agent and was disrespectful in a previous encounter, which the deputy was not present for, according to the report.
Wiggins was taken to the Marion County Jail, where he was being held Thursday on $5,000 bond.