OKEECHOBEE — An 18-year-old was charged with nine counts of grand theft of a firearm after a residence was burglarized. Chadrick Williams, Northwest 89th Court was arrested by Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Deputy Quinton Speed on March 23. In addition to the grand theft charges, he was also charged with unarmed burglary of a structure and armed burglary of a dwelling. The armed charges were added because after allegedly taking the firearms, he was then armed.

According to Speed’s report, ten firearms were stolen after two men broke into the victim’s home on Northwest 18th Avenue. The crime occurred on March 7 and witnesses describe a silver Kia sedan parked on the street at the time it occurred.

The homeowner told Speed she was only away from her home for about 20 minutes when the men broke in. When she returned, she noticed a wooden American flag case missing from her bedroom wall. Inside the case were two firearms. She checked her gun safe and found all the firearms missing. She said her doors were still locked when she returned. She told him she was going through a divorce and thought her husband might have taken the guns. She said only she and her husband knew where the key to the gun safe was located. There were no signs of forced entry to the home or the gun safe. The surveillance system was turned off at the time of the burglary. A laptop, jewelry and cash were left untouched and in plain sight.

Deputy Francisco Hernandez spoke to the husband, who was working out of state, by phone. The man said he did not pick up the guns and did not send anyone to get the guns.

Hernandez allegedly found several Facebook posts written by the homeowner stating her husband was never going to get those guns in the divorce, because she planned to sell them or hide them and claim they were stolen. When asked about the posts, she denied having anything to do with the missing guns.

On March 9, the same Kia and two males were seen trying to get back into the home but were scared off by the homeowner’s dogs. A neighbor made a video recording of the men as they left. Another neighbor was able to get the tag number and turn it into the sheriff’s office. Chadrick Williams was identified using the vehicle tag.

On March 17, deputies made contact with William’s mother, who reportedly told them her son was not home but she would bring him in for an interview. Williams obtained a lawyer, who told deputies she would arrange a meeting for March 22, but no contact was made by that date. On March 23, Williams finally went into the sheriff’s office but without counsel. He said he did not want to speak without counsel and was arrested. His bond was set at $70,000.

The second suspect has yet to be identified.

On March 24, Williams was arrested again. This time, he was charged with battery, robbery and false imprisonment.

Williams reportedly got into a fight with his girlfriend of three months. Okeechobee City Police Officer Brandon Adkins spoke to the victim at the jail at approximately 11:45 a.m. on March 23.  According to Adkins’ report, she told him she and Williams had an argument and his necklace was accidentally broken. He insisted she pay to have it fixed and forced her into his vehicle to go to a pawn shop so they could fix it. She said he threw her to the ground, grabbed her by the arm and later punched her in the chest. She said he would not let her out of the car and threatened to break her phone if she did not fix his necklace. She said he told her he would have his uncle come and kill her and her family if she ever left him and he would vandalize her vehicle if she told on him.

His bond in this instance was set at $12,500.