A guest at Hotel Eastport got a break in court after an altercation with his wife when they were lodged at the new venue in The Villages.
Tommi Markus Juhani Hakula, 59, of Davenport, pleaded no contest this past month in Sumter County Court to charges of domestic battery and failure to exhibit a driver’s license on demand. The latter charge had been reduced from a criminal charge to a civil charge. He was sentenced to time already served behind bars. He spent one day in jail at the time of his arrest.
A woman was walking in the parking lot of the hotel in February when she witnessed the argument between Hakula and his wife, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department. The woman saw Hakula pull his wife by the hair in a “back and forth” motion. The wife shouted out for help. Hakula, who stands 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds, released his wife when he realized the woman was watching the altercation.
An officer went to Room 336 and interviewed the wife, who said her husband had been “angry.” When they arrived at the hotel in their 2024 black Cadillac Suburban, he removed rings off her fingers and took her necklace. Her husband had fled prior to the arrival of police, but he was later stopped in the Cadillac near The Villages Charter School campus at Middleton…