Home Invasion Robbery in Palm Coast’s P-Section Points at Victim’s Nephew and 2 Suspects

Update: The Daytona Beach Police Department located Alexander Devonte Brown and took him into custody, according to a sheriff’s update issued just before 5 p.m. The two other suspects are still being sought.

It was half past noon Wednesday when someone rang the doorbell at Byron Cuthbertson’s home at 111 Pine Grove Drive in Palm Coast. It was Cuthbertson’s nephew, Alexander Brown, 20, of Hampton Road in Daytona Beach. Cuthbertson let him in.

As Cuthbertson, 36, was walking toward his kitchen, Brown allegedly pulled out a short black semi-automatic pistol and pointed it at him, told him to lay down on the floor and threatened to shoot him if he did not reveal where he kept his money. As he did so, two unidentified black men who were outside the house walked in, according to Cuthbertson’s account to Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies.

They wore black hoodies, the hoods closed so as to hide their faces. The men wore what looked like white latex gloves. Burglars often wear latex gloves to avoid leaving prints behind. As Brown held him at gunpoint, the two men went through the bedrooms and took about $1,800 in cash that had been in Cuthbertson’s dresser, plus items valued at $6,300. They took two gold-colored chains–and a pillowcase off his bed that the alleged robbers used to fill with more of his belongings, much of it jewelry.

Brown then told his uncle as he was leaving that he would pay him back once he had the money, as long as Cuthbertson didn’t tell the cops.

The men left. Cuthbertson got up and saw them speed off in a vehicle toward Belle Terre Parkway.

Later, a 36-year-old woman who lives at the same house got to the scene from work, according to a sheriff’s report, and told deputies “she received a video from [Brown’s] step-father which showed all of the items that were taken from the residence.” Cuthbertson meanwhile had contacted several family members, informing them of the robbery, including Brown’s mother. Brown had told his mother of the incident, “apologizing for his actions and stating he told her that he threw a bag with the stolen items inside over his mother’s backyard fence at her home in Daytona Beach,” according to the report.

Brown has a history with law enforcement in Volusia. He was Baker Acted on Aug. 27, and two days charged with assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest: he’d allegedly assaulted the officer during his stay at the hospital. Last April, he was arrested in Volusia on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“This is a dangerous guy who doesn’t think twice about using violence to get what he wants,” Sheriff Rick Staly was quoted as saying in a release issued this morning. “I am thankful that the victim managed to escape this situation unharmed. We need to act fast before someone else is not so lucky. My advice to Alexander Brown and the other suspects is to turn yourselves in. We will find you and if you run, you will just go to jail tired.”

The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information on this case or the whereabouts of Alexander Devonte
Brown to call 386-313-4911 or email [email protected]. Or call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-277-TIPS (8477) where tips leading to an arrest could be eligible for a reward up to $5,000.