Tuesday morning, Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers arrested Ashley Jovan Torres-Rodriguez, 34, and charged him with destroying or damaging a computer system or network.
According to the arrest report, the victim, Adam Michael Nick, a convicted sex offender, was sleeping on a bench at Grace Marketplace when Torres-Rodriguez approached him.
Nick told GPD officers that Torres-Rodriguez shouted at him, “You’re the police,” and said he would have him “sent away.” Torres-Rodriguez reportedly picked what the arrest report described as a “monitoring device” and walked away.
Nick told police he begged for Torres-Rodriguez to return the device because he did not want to get in trouble. Torres-Rodriguez then slammed the device on the ground multiple times, leaving visible damage.
Grace Marketplace staff provided police with surveillance footage that corroborated Nick’s account.
Officer Khary Alexander reported, “When I asked [Torres-Rodriguez] why he attempted to destroy the device, [he] stated, ‘He did it to me.’ When I asked him what he meant, [Torres-Rodriguez] stated that he and the victim were involved in a physical altercation previously when they were both incarcerated in the same facility. [Torres-Rodriguez] then stated that the victim ‘lied on him.’ When I asked how the victim ‘lied,’ [Torres-Rodriguez] stated that the victim told the judge that [he] was attempting to ‘kill’ him during the physical altercation, attempting to have [him] sentenced to 10 additional years. [Torres-Rodriguez] provided that he knew that he would be ‘in trouble’ for destroying the device, however, he had to ‘get’ the victim for what he did.”…