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Man Jailed In Botched Theft

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By LISA A. DAVIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2007

ZEPHYRHILLS - He was busted before he really got started.

Hours after a Winn-Dixie employee last week discovered a tool bag containing a battery-operated saw, drill, bolt cutters, pipe wrench and other tools and about 100 feet of rope atop the building, a man climbed to the roof.

Pasco County deputies were waiting for him.

And at 12:30 a.m. Thursday, they got him .

'Sheriff's office,' they yelled several times when the dark-clothed and gloved figure appeared.

But the man in the shadows didn't respond.

Then deputies noticed him lowering himself first to the Winn-Dixie sign, then to the ground, 40 feet below.

A short time later, they found Christopher Cody Williams in a culvert near the road in a parking lot adjacent to the Winn-Dixie store at 36348 State Road 54.

His feet were fractured, they later learned.

After they read him his rights, according to an arrest affidavit, Williams told deputies he was at the store but tried to pin the botched burglary on a cousin who deputies learned was in jail at the time.

Deputies didn't buy it, and arrested Williams on attempted grand theft and possession of burglary tools, both felonies.

Deputies have been investigating a rash of roof-top air conditioner thefts in the area. Thieves swipe the copper parts and sell them because of the metal's value, they say.

Last week, Williams, 36, of 1609 Maypop St., was arrested on grand theft and burglary charges, accused of breaking into a church and stealing $250,000 in jewelry. Deputies say he pried his way into Victory Baptist Church, 6950 Forbes Road, and then into the business office's safe between Nov. 3 and 5.

Once inside, he cut himself and left a trace of blood in the office and on the building's metal siding, a report states. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement DNA test confirmed the blood was from Williams.

When deputies tried to arrest him this month on the church burglary, they said, he fled when they gave him a chance to change his clothes.

He was charged with escape on Monday.

At the time of the Victory Baptist Church burglary, Williams was free on bail in connection with another church burglary during which blood left behind also was identified as his, the report states.

Williams also is charged with arson in that case.

He was being held at Land O' Lakes Jail with bail set at $170,000.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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