Charles Larkin Cowart, the 42-year-old West Flagler resident known as Skeeter, spent a decade and a half until 2018 in and out of jail, often resulting from bizarre behavior–drunkenly riding a horse through Bunnell, painting himself blue and allegedly burglarizing a house (the charge was dropped), stealing flags in several cities–until his recovery from substance use began that year. He had no run-ins with the law since.
Last Wednesday (Nov. 12), Cowart was back in jail facing three felony charges, including two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, after allegedly splitting with an axe the door to his apartment where a teenage boy–his wife’s son–was staying, and allegedly nearly striking another man with his car. But the arrest report by Bunnell police may be problematic.
Cowart, who described himself as an unemployed pastor, posted bail on $40,000 bond and was released. On Nov. 14, he filed for divorce from DLC, his wife of six months. He reported in a court filing that he had no “related” cases pending in court, though one of the charges relates to his wife, and a no-contact court order names his wife as one of the two victims. But there may be issues with the police report naming the wife as a victim.
The Nov. 12 incident took place at the Palm Pointe apartment complex off East Moody Boulevard (State Road 100) in Bunnell, where, according to his arrest report, he was living with his wife and her son. That day Cowart and his wife had been arguing about a co-worker and mentor of his. DLC went to work. When she returned, she found that Cowart had cleared his belongings from the apartment. She texted him. He said he’d be returning there.
As DLC was accompanying one of her children’s friends home, she ran into Cowart in the apartment complex’s parking lot and told him she’d be right back.
According to a witness whose name is redacted from the arrest report–presumably the juvenile who was in the apartment–Cowart struck the steel entry door twice with an axe, making two gashes “that penetrated completely through the steel door,” the report states, faintly evoking a scene from a movie three years older than Cowart. Cowart had been calling for DLC. The juvenile let him inside. Once inside, Cowart struck a painting with the axe, went into a bedroom, and struck a wall-mounted television with the axe.
The property controller at the complex told authorities the damage to the door amounted to $800. He also said that he saw Cowart holding an axe as he got in his car, then drive off. As Cowart drove away, he allegedly almost ran into another man, an accusation his wife denies, saying he was driving straight out of the complex. According to the arrest report, DLC “was fearful as a result of the incident,” but she declined to pursue charges against her husband.
Cowart was arrested by Bunnell police officers, who investigated the case. The arrest report makes no mention of surveillance video or corroborating evidence regarding Cowart allegedly nearly hitting the other man with his car, nor does it name the juvenile as a victim. The report charges that damage from criminal mischief amounts to more than $1,000, thus crossing the threshold of mischief from misdemeanor to felony. But the damage to property not belonging to Cowart appears to be limited to $800, based on the property controller’s report, while the damage inside the house may be considered self-inflicted, since Cowart and his wife lived there: restitution would be to himself.
Reports of this sort tend to give pause to the State Attorney’s Office before it files an information ratifying the charges.
Cowart was booked at the Flagler County jail late the evening of Nov. 12. He bonded out the morning of Nov. 13.
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