- April 18, 2024
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Deputies arrested a 15-year-old Palm Coast boy June 26 after his grandfather found guns and ammunition in the teen's bedroom and called the Sheriff's Office.
The call came in at 7:52 p.m.: A 61-year-old resident of Seven Wonders Trail said he'd found a 9-mm pistol and a .223 rifle in his grandson's room while the teen was out of the house, according to the teen's arrest affidavit. The teen had previously been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent and had in April been charged with stealing a car and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage.
When deputies arrived at the house, the man said that earlier that day, he'd heard the sound of a wall being bumped and a crackling sound coming from the teen's bedroom. Soon after, the teen left the house with a friend, saying he was going out to meet a girl and would be home later.
The teen had "put holes in the wall" in the past, the grandfather told deputies, so the grandfather entered his room after he left to check for damage.
When the grandfather opened the teen's closet, he saw a rifle case on the top shelf. On top of it was an "extremely heavy" bag, which the grandfather pulled down, according to the arrest affidavit. It contained a Intratect 9-mm semiautomatic pistol, plus a magazine containing 20 rounds and a box of 193 rounds of ammunition. The rifle case held a .223 Radical Arms semiautomatic rifle and four magazines — two empty thirty-round magazines, a magazine containing five rounds, and a 45-round magazine containing 40 rounds.
The grandfather had placed the guns on a dining room table and called the Sheriff's Office as soon as he realized they were real. He told deputies that he checks the teen's room every two days to look for damage and drugs, and had found cigars, pipes and small amounts of weed in the past, and had thrown them out.
The grandfather gave deputies permission to search the teen's room. Soon after, the teen's mother arrived at the house.
Deputies searching the bedroom found a Ruger 9-mm under the mattress, a water bong with marijuana residue under the box spring, a piece of wax paper with hash oil and a box of "Dank Vapes: Strawberry Cough" THC oil in the dresser, a digital scale in a nightstand drawer and a magazine extension clip on top of the nightstand.
Deputies determined that the teen left the house in a Nissan Altima that his mother had rented. He did not have a driver's license. They got his mother to call him and ask him to come home.
Deputies performed a high-risk traffic stop on the car on Underwood Trail, and ordered the teen and a young woman who was in the passenger seat to get out of the car. Then, with the teen's mother's assent, they searched it.
They found two scales, a Ruger LCP 9-mm pistol with a magazine containing 10 rounds, and four full Dank Vapes THC oil cartridges.
The Ruger LCP had been reported stolen in Deland.
The teen spoke to deputies, but most of his statements are redacted in his arrest affidavit. (The Sheriff's Office redacts potentially self-incriminating statements by suspects.)
They arrested the teen and charged him with two counts of possession of a firearm by a delinquent, one count of possession of ammunition by a delinquent, grand theft of a firearm, possession of hashish, possession of drug paraphernalia, and no valid driver’s license.
“This young man is on a fast track to serious trouble,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in an FCSO news release about the case. “I’m thankful that his grandfather called us and alerted us to the firearms inside his bedroom. On top of that, there was another firearm with him inside the vehicle. It is very concerning that a 15-year-old had access to such an arsenal of weapons including some that were stolen. It makes you wonder what he was planning. I hope the juvenile court system deals swiftly and takes these offenses seriously before he ends up a career criminal and in prison, or hurts or kills someone.”
