OCALA, Fla. – The suspect in “a suspicious person call” wasn’t hard to find and wasn’t too hard to catch for a police officer with pepper spray. Also, it wasn’t her first arrest that required force.
Kimberly Kay Miller “was sitting in the right of way, in the roadway, coloring on herself with a highlighter,” her arrest report from Florida said. “Being familiar with Miller from prior calls for service, I attempted to ask why she was sitting in the traffic lane.
“She answered with multiple incomprehensible statements that did not make any sense. After confirming her identity, it was found that Miller had a warrant for her arrest” for trespassing.
That’s when “she began to passively resist arrest,” the officer wrote. “I made numerous attempts to calm her down and de-escalate her verbally. Her resistance then became active, at which time I advised she was going to have to be escorted to the ground for detainment.
“After continuing to resist, preventing me from affecting the warrant arrest, I was able to deploy my agency-issued OC [oleoresin capsicum] spray [and] her resistance quickly ended.
Miller was medically cleared and taken to jail.
That was on Oct. 24. The warrant was for failure to appear on a trespassing charge. Miller has had several arrests for trespassing, with most taking place at a certain Walmart, and two of those times happened the previous month.
On Sept. 5, a police officer “conducting security at Walmart” saw Miller doing something similar.
She was “in the parking lot entrance of the business,” the arrest report said, and “seated in the median of two-way entrance-exit property of Walmart.
The officer, “in an unmarked vehicle and dressed in plain clothing,” then “confirmed Miller was issued a written trespass warning on 5/31/2021” and should not have been there.
“I made contact with Miller, who advised she was aware of being previously trespassed from Walmart,” the officer reported.
Bench Warrant for Kimberly Kay Miller, Oct. 14, 2022 by Lenny Cohen on Scribd
Miller was arrested and she spent a night in jail. Then, on Oct. 15, she failed to appear in court, which is when a judge issued the bench warrant that led to her latest arrest.
On Sept. 8, another officer “assigned to the special deployment unit” was “conducting security” at the same Walmart and reported seeing Miller in the parking lot, walking toward the entrance. The officer arrested her “after confirming she was previously issued a trespass warning on 5/31/2021 [and] noted that Miller was previously arrested for the same offense” three days earlier; “therefore, reassuring that she was aware she was not allowed to be on Walmart property.”
Miller pleaded guilty right away and was sentenced to 14 days in jail, with two days served.
Those September trespassing arrests at Walmart mentioned May 31, 2021, which appears to be Miller’s first criminal case in the area.
“A loss prevention associate” told an officer she saw Miller “take an orange package from a store shelf and place it in her bag,” the officer wrote. “The associate also advised me Miller was eating a Walmart rotisserie chicken.”
Miller reportedly left, “threw a chicken bone on the ground,” and the officer saw “an orange package sticking out of the top of Miller’s bag. The orange package contained an Onn brand CD player.
“The Walmart associate confirmed that the headphones were the package she saw Miller take [and] Miller walked past several points of sale without paying for the chicken or headphones.
“A search incident to arrest of Miller’s bag revealed two unopened CDs and a set of unopened headphones,” the arrest report said. “When I questioned her about the CDs and headphones, Miller admitted she took them from the store without paying. The total value of property taken was $57.58,” but that wasn’t all.
“The search of Miller’s bag also produced a spoon with a white powdery residue and three small pieces of cotton. When questioned, Miller stated she used molly. The white powdery residue and the cotton field-tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine.”
A month later, she pleaded guilty to retail petit theft and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was sentenced to 33 days, which she’d already served, and court costs and fines, which online records show have not been paid.
Miller was free for nine days when she returned and trespassed at the same Walmart. Her arrest report from July 11, 2021, said a “loss prevention employee” gave officers “the original trespass warning and a photo of Miller.” That warning was from May 31, 2021. Miller was found in a dressing room and arrested for trespassing after warning. A few weeks later, she was sentenced to the 25 days she’d served, and court costs and fines, which online records show were sent to collection.
This time, Miller was free for eight days when she was caught trespassing at a location other than that Walmart. The Aug. 12, 2021, case did have similarities.
Sheriff’s deputies went to a motel where the security officer said Miller “had returned to the property and entered into Room 122. He advised he recognized this suspect as being formally trespassed” the prior month. Miller was not arrested on July 10, 2021, but she would be this time. The deputies went to her room, knocked on the door, and Miller answered. That’s when she was arrested. On Oct. 1, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two days with time served, plus court costs and fines that were sent to collection.
Miller apparently avoided arrest throughout 2022, but she was busted twice in 10 days in March 2023.
She returned to Walmart on March 20, and a police officer was told the shoplifting suspect “with no shoes … had left the parking lot and was last seen running through the Steak and Shake parking lot.”
Miller was returned to the store where an employee said “Miller had shoplifted a total of $506.22,” according to her arrest report. “Miller was seen attempting to exit the store with $465.58 of merchandise concealed in bags she accumulated throughout the store before a Walmart employee stopped her and the cart she was pushing out of the store. Miller then left the cart and the items in the cart, and ran outside the store while Walmart Loss and Prevention Services began following her and asking her to return their merchandise.
“Miller was wearing an additional $40.64 of merchandise before she left the store. The merchandise Miller was wearing includes a pair of gloves, a pair of women’s pants, a women’s athletic shirt, and a women’s jacket. All of the merchandise Miller was wearing was removed when Loss and Prevention Services attempted to stop her before she ran away.”
The arrest report noted she was charged with retail theft-second offense, with her first offense being on May 31, 2021.
Once again, a month later, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 27 days served, though sheriff’s office records say she only spent six days behind bars. The court costs and fines she was ordered to pay were sent to collection.
Ten days later, on March 30, and at an “RV community” six blocks away, a resident told deputies he saw Miller go into someone’s camper, even though “no one is allowed” on the victim’s “property while he is gone.” The arrest report said he told Miller to leave, but she “refused and became irate, and started yelling and screaming.” Then, again, that neighbor told Miller “she needed to leave the property and while I was on scene,” a deputy wrote, “the defendant screamed she was not leaving.”
The deputy called the owner who was “working out of a state” and said, “He has known the defendant for approximately one month and assisted her earlier in the month by helping her get out of jail by signing the defendant’s bond sheet.
“The victim advised he has allowed the defendant to stay at the location a few nights, but he was always there. The victim advised the defendant has not stayed with him in over 10 days since being arrested on 3/20/2023.”
Then, “The victim advised he told the defendant to leave on 03/29/223 before he left town. The victim advised he did not want the defendant at the location while he was not there, and that if the defendant refused to leave that he would like to press charges for trespassing.”
That’s exactly what happened but first, “While on the phone with the victim, he advised the defendant to leave, which she still refused to leave. The victim gave me permission to enter his camper to remove the defendant if needed.
“While on scene, the defendant started to become irate with deputies, and started to scream and yell that she was not leaving. The defendant shut the front door and refused to exit the camper. After multiple commands to exit the camper and still refusing, I entered the camper and advised the defendant she was under arrest, which at that time the defendant pulled away. I gave the defendant multiple commands to stop resisting and to place her hands behind her back, which the defendant refused to do. I assisted the defendant to the ground and placed her in handcuffs.”
A deputy arrested Miller for trespassing and resisting without violence, without getting her side of the story. “The defendant would not stop screaming and yelling for me to ask her any questions about the incident,” the arrest report said.
A few days later, she pleaded no contest to both charges and was sentenced to the 20 days she’d served, and costs that went to collection.
Finally, Miller’s first arrest of 2024 happened at the same Walmart, but she was not charged with trespassing or shoplifting.
Instead, on Jan. 11, an officer conducting security “in the wood line of the west side of Walmart on foot … came across a tent and observed, through an opening in the tent, Kimberly Miller, sitting on a bed, holding a clear glass pipe. Miller had a lighter and was lighting a bulb on the bottom of the pipe. I readily recognized this pipe as drug paraphernalia common with the use of methamphetamine.
“I called Miller out of the tent and advised her I saw her with the pipe. I recovered the pipe and Miller started crying. I swabbed the pipe, which tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine.“ Miller was placed under arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia and taken to jail.
As usual, she waited a month, changed her plea to guilty, and was sentenced to the eight days she’d served before her release, plus costs.
Miller, 32, is still behind bars for the siting-in-the-street incident that ended in pepper spray, since she was arrested on a warrant. She pleaded not guilty to resisting and the next court date she has scheduled is for Nov. 25.
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