Less than three weeks ago–on June 29–32-year-old Edmon Welch was one of three suspects tied to a home invasion in Bunnell that left an elderly man wounded after he was robbed.
Welch, who has a long arrest record in Flagler County, was booked at the county jail on charges of home invasion, battery on a person older than 65, petit theft and possession of a controlled substance. He is at the Flagler County jail on $27,000 bond (reduced to $14,000, according to the sheriff’s office). After a few days in jail–on July 10–he bonded out.
Welch is back at the jail this afternoon after a morning-long manhunt by ground and air, triggered by reports that Welch had committed an armed robbery the day before in the Mondex, or Daytona North.
His charges this time: Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, tampering with a witness and resisting arrest without violence, though his arrest report states that he fled when a deputy showed up at a house to arrest him, then, two hours later, “physically resisted the police canine’s efforts to apprehend him” and “ignored repeated lawful commands to ‘stop resisting’ and physically resisted efforts to take him into custody.” J=He eventually had to be subdued by two deputies before being taken into custody.
His bond this time: $11,500.
The hourly cost of flying Fire Flight: $681.64. Though the county is reimbursed when Fire Flight is used to transport patients to hospitals, it is not reimbursed when called in to assist law enforcement.
The racially-tinged incidents that led to Welch’s latest arrest began Wednesday evening around 6 p.m. when deputies received a report of a home invasion at 1605 Laurel Avenue in Daytona North. The resident, Robert Elkins, 52, told deputies that Welch had entered the rear of his home, through an unlocked door, pointed a handgun at him and demanded $200. Ekins told Welch he had no money and a visitor, Johnny McCaskell, 54, gave Welch $10 and two beers to get him to leave the residence.
McCaskell is black. Elkins and Welch are white.
Two hours later, McCaskell, 32, and Elkins’s wife, Sandra Elkins, 50, drove up to the Country Store on County Road 305 so Elkins could buy some groceries. There, McCaskell saw his friend Julian “Rooster” Durrance, and struck up a conversation with him outside the store.
A short time later, according to a police report, Welch arrived in a late-model White GMC SUV driven by a white woman the report does not identify. Welch, according to the report, approached McCaskell and Durrance and began a erbal altercation with them. According to the report, Welch demanded $20 from McCaskell, then turned to Durrance “and verbally attacked him by stating, ‘you’re a nigger-loving motherfucker’ and ‘I’m going to beat your fucking brains out.'”
You’re going to do no such thing, Durrance told Welch, who then aggressively walked toward Durrance, “in a fighting posture,” the report states. But no physical altercation took place between the two.
Meanwhile, McCaskell had walked back toward the car, where Elkins was sitting in the passenger seat. Welch approached the car on McCaskell’s side and “revealed a black and silver semi-automatic pistol, which was described as being the same weapon used” in the home invasion earlier that day.
After showing the gun, the report states, Welch told McCaskell: “I’m going to kill you, you fucking nigger.”
Welch then walked back to the SUV and left in the direction of Mahogany Boulevard. McCaskell told authorities that he feared for his life. Police are linking Welch’s alleged threat directly to the statement McCaskell gave police regarding the earlier home invasion–hence the witness tampering charge.
Surveillance footage at the Country Store showed the verbal altercation between all parties and Welch approaching the passenger side of Elkins’s vehicle, but police were not able to determine from the footage whether Welch displayed a weapon: the quality of the footage and the distance from the action made that determination difficult, and deputies were not immediately able to obtain a copy of the footage to conduct further analysis. They were to do so.
Both McCaskell and Robert Elkins declined to provide statements to the sheriff’s deputies. Police interviewed Durrance at his home. Durrance corroborated McCaskell’s statements and the video footage and was cooperative. But he, too, declined to either provide a written statement or to file charges against Welch–or be further involved in the investigation.
Around 8:30 Thursday morning, deputies went to Welch’s parents’ home on Elder Street in an attempt to locate him and arrest him for aggravated assault on McCaskell, according to a sheriff’s release. When a deputy ordered Welch to place his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, Welch fled into the woods, and the two-hour chase began. He was located covered in dense underbrush in the woods near the intersection of Willow Street and Lancewood Street. K-9 Marko was credited with apprehending Welch there, along with deputies Welker and Fiveash.
As part of the search, deputies had stopped passing motorists vehicles to determine if Welch was attempting to leave the area.
“Mr. Welch had become a problem in the Daytona North area,” Sheriff Jim Manfre was quoted as saying in a release. “I am glad we have serious charges against him. Hopefully, he will be confined for a lengthy of time so the residents there can have some peace.”
Should he post bond again, however, authorities may not detain him further until his court dates.
fruitcake says
THROW AWAY THE KEY!
Truth of the matter says
Put him before Judge Moore-Sterns, she will take him off the streets !
Flagler Citizen says
Please tell me your $11,500 bond figure is a mis-print!
Charles Gardner says
Assault with a deadly weapon. Let him out again, next time someone may die.
Binkey says
$11500 bond?
What a joke our system has become.
A.S.F. says
Keep letting this guy out. He’s going to kill somebody for sure.
gator says
he’s going to kill some one, his parents will bail him out again,what is wrong in this picture.put his bond so high he can’t get out, you fools.
Magnolia says
A home invasion committed with an armed gun should not be a $10K bond and release. What is the matter with our judges?
This man will continue to be a repeat offender until he is stopped, permanently.
Spuds says
Its like living in a deliverance movie down here. Wait,…did I just hear dueling banjo’s ?
Allen Stevens says
This piece of trash should not be allowed bail. This is apparently a habitual CRIMINAL. He should be jailed for a long time. The judge who allowed him bail this time, should be taken off the bench. It,s time that judges be held accountable for letting habitual criminals walk after posting bail. I hope he gets the MAXIMUM sentence!
Nancy N. says
Under 903.0471 of Florida statutes, they should be able to keep him locked up until trial by revoking his bond on his first set of charges. “a court may, on its own motion, revoke pretrial release and order pretrial detention if the court finds probable cause to believe that the defendant committed a new crime while on pretrial release.”
Why says
Why is the bond set so low. In comparison to other bonds to less aggressive crimes, this man is given a bond that is possible for him to get out of jail to continue to terrorize people. Is the Judge and law enforcement waiting until he kills someone before they take this serious? I bet if this was going on in Palm Coast he wouldn’t have been able to bond out the first time. Come on FCSO and Judges, protect us!
Jackie Mulligan says
Who was the judge on this one?
Do not understand how or why anyone who is out on a high bail and
commits another serious crime would even be given bail!
This is a crime against the whole community, lets not have judges endanger our whole
community.
Lets find out WHAT IT TAKES TO CHANGE THE REVOLVING DOOR of Flagler County’s court system,
It isn’t fair to the police who work hard and place their lives on the line, to have judges send them out as fast as they go in.
Change needs to come to this very small community, before we are overtaken by hoodlums,
Rich says
All that needs to be done is for his bond from the last arrest to be revoked and he will stay in jail until his trial date. That will keep him off the streets.
one who knows says
I agree he should be denied bond. Sometimes, I really feel alot safer in NY.
Raul Troche says
That man should definately not have been released!!! Isaiah 59:14 “And judgement is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”
boomer says
one day he will invade the wrong home, and I think that will be his last invasion.
Ben Dover says
Hey here`s a novel idea , stop letting this career criminals out of jail , I cannot believe the people this counties judicial system keeps letting out on such low bonds considering their crimes, these judges need to get tough on these malignant cancers of society , lock em up and throw away the key , this used to be a nice place to live
Anon says
Isn’t bond amount (to a certain extent) determined by the point system ?
Linda says
What is the heck is going on?! Can’t anyone over at the courthouse connect the dots. Do they read the news? These are not first offenders.
Over and over they release people with long criminal histories, only to have them reoffend before the previous allegations have been adjudicated.
Public safety is one of the grounds for not giving them bail.
Just Another Opinion says
Just turn Zimmerman loose on him,, Problen solved!
Ben Dover says
Today now, a kid who stole a credit card and used it to get a movie for $ 1.92 gets no bail , but this gun toting , violent repeat offender gets a lousy $11.500 , so he gets out by giving a bondsmen like 200 bucks , what re these judges thinking???????
Trailer Bob says
The judicial system should read these comments and they SHOULD be shamed. I have never lived in a single place were the regard for the law abiding citizens were so disrespected as here. Violent, abusive, thieves and scumbags get a get out of jail card way to easily. I moved here partially because I thought it was a conservative area. I know from experience that up north the sentences are much more appropriate, so what is it with the county?
Let’s keep that in mind when it is time to vote and vote out all those who are not working for us, but apparently for the scumbags. And lets vote out of office all our other elected officials who should be the ones with concern, and not have to make the citizens explain it too them. The judicial system here should be embarrassed for not doing their jobs.