Clay Today staff
ORANGE PARK – An Illinois man who answered a late-night knock at his motel room door was beaten and robbed March 13.
Five people are charged with home invasion in connection with the incident that occurred shortly before midnight at the Surburban Lodge in the 1600 block of Wells Road, according to Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrest reports.
The victim told deputies he was struck in the face when he opened the door after someone knocked, and then they held him on the bed while the others ransacked his room and took $270 in cash, the report says.
Shortly after deputies put out an alert for the suspects' vehicle, an Orange Park police officer spotted it on Park Avenue where the suspects were taken into custody without incident, the report says.
Charged were: Ryan Joseph Henderson, 19, Samuel Bible, 21, and Keflyn Dale Rice Jr., 19, all of Orange Park, and Jason Duane Vargo, 20, and Johnny Celestin, 17, both of Jacksonville, arrest reports say.
Bible is accused of strikingThomas Groeper, 24, of Eureka, Ill., in the face several times. Groeper did not require medical treatment, the report says. Vargo remained in the vehicle while the others went into the room, the report says.
March 18th 2010 - 2:36PM