A Sarasota man is charged with stealing a cellphone off a table at the beach where a woman and two children were sitting.
Assistant State Attorney Dickey Hough filed the charge Dec. 7 against Jarvis D. Freeman, 21, after Holmes Beach Police Department arrested a man who matched the suspect’s description in the 4500 block of Gulf Drive.
A witness to the Nov. 29 theft observed the man walk by a table at the Anna Maria Island Beach Cafe, take something from the table, and then heard a woman yell about her cellphone, according to the witness statement and police reports.
HBPD later found the suspect and the victim’s cellphone near some brush in the 4500 block of Gulf Drive.
Officers also learned Freeman had an outstanding Manatee County warrant for a felony battery.
According to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report, Freeman punched a woman in the face and left her unconscious in October after she attempted to photograph him loitering at her workplace.
Freeman was convicted Oct. 13 of misdemeanor theft for stealing a boogie board in March from a Bradenton Beach gift shop.
His arraignment on the cellphone theft charge is set for Dec. 30 at the Manatee County Judicial Center, 1051 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.