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2 Sebring Women Charged With Stalking

Maria Nelson, 22, and Melissa Lenton, 19, of Sebring, charged with aggravated stalking.

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By Joe  Seelig | Highlands Today

Published: September 4, 2008

SEBRING - Two Sebring women remained in Highlands County Jail on Thursday after they were arrested and charged with stalking a 26-year-old woman from Avon Park to Highlands Homes, entering a car in which she was a passenger and harming her.

Maria Denise Nelson, 22, of 4608 Perch Road, and Melissa Lenton, 19, of 3633 Bethune Road, were each charged with aggravated stalking by following or harassing causing death or injury and burglary with assault or battery.

Nelson was also charged with petty theft of the victim's purse with an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) food card inside.

According to a Sebring police arrest report, at about 12:59 p.m. Sept. 2 police were dispatched to the 1500 block of Roseland Avenue, in reference to two subjects beating up someone in a brown car.

Police learned that the victim had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear at partial payment program date for petty retail theft, the report stated. After making her statement, she was placed under arrest.

Nelson and Lenton flagged down the police to tell Sebring police officer Ryan Magnuson of the outstanding warrant. The victim was seated inside of a Ford Taurus, crying.

She had small scratches on both wrists and was holding a handful of hair, Magnuson reported. He detained the victim and put her in the back of his squad car.

The victim said she was in Avon Park when Nelson and Lenton began following the car she was riding in with three other women. The women followed them to the south Sebring McDonald's restaurant, she told police.

When they parked, the victim said Lenton and Nelson came over to the car. The door was locked and Nelson reportedly took off her shoe, reached inside the car and tried to hit the victim in the face, the report stated.

It was then that Nelson took the victim purse, the victim told Magnuson. The purse was valued at $10 and the EBT card was worth $1, the report stated. The driver of the car the victim was riding in was able to pull out.

The women began to follow them again, the report stated.

They stopped at the 1500 block of Roseland Avenue in Highland Homes subdivision, where the victim dialed 911 on a cell phone. Nelson and Lenton reportedly were able to open the driver's side rear door.

The victim reported the women began hitting her, pulled her hair and arms, causing the scratches to the wrists. Nelson punched and kicked the victim, the victim reported.

Lenton reportedly told police she wanted to confront the victim because the victim allegedly was spreading gossip about her.

Nelson told police she never touched the victim or reached inside of the vehicle. She told police she only yelled at the victim, according to the report.

Statements by the three women who were in the car with the victim corroborated the victim's statement, the report stated.

Reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

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