Armed Burglar Wrecks Sharps Liquors in Flagler Plaza After Being Denied Drinks, and Faces Life Felonies

A 38-year-old man whose recorded behavior at the time of his arrest suggests questionable mental competence is at the Flagler County jail on 12 felony charges, two of them punishable by life in prison, following an alleged armed burglary and a trashing rampage through Sharps Discount Liquors in Palm Coast. He is being held on $236,000 bond.

The trashing left the area behind the counter entirely covered in broken bottles shoved off the shelves, along with a whole other segment of the store where the man had systematically upended, broken or wrecked everything in his way, according to images released by the Sheriff’s Office. 

Damage amounted to an estimated $20,000, according to the store manager, not including the two days of lost business Sharps will accrue by closing to repair the damage. 

Jeffery Kimmel, of Wappinger Falls in New York’s Hudson Valley, was a customer at Sharps at Flagler Plaza off State Road 100 the afternoon of Sept. 3. He’d bought four shots, left, and returned to “make a deal” to buy more, a store clerk told Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies. The nature of the deal and the liquor he was buying were not specified. 

FB, the 58-year-old clerk, declined to sell him more, as is the store’s right. Kimmel started screaming. “Shut up and listen,” he told FB. The clerk told him to leave the store and that she’d be calling cops.

Kimmel walked around the counter, jumped on it, said he’d wait for the cops, then kicked items off the counter, yelling profanities.  FB retreated to the back room with another customer to seek safety. Kimmel, she said, “moved behind the counter and began knocking small bottles of liquor off the counter and throwing items throughout the store. 

WD, Sharps’ 66-year-old store manager, was in a different part of the store when she heard the clerk tell Kimmel was no longer being served, and saw him trashing the place, including knocking a computer off the counter and throwing bottles at other people in the store. 

Kimmel was still on the counter when deputies arrived. They took him outside, where excerpts of body cam video released by the Sheriff’s Office show him refusing to cooperate with deputies from the first, cussing at them, spitting at them, acting aggressively toward them (his arrest report states he kicked a deputy) and as if encouraging them to rough him up, saying he’d “been there, done that.” Deputies placed a spit mask on him and eventually walked him to a patrol car. 

A criminal history showed him to have had multiple charges in New York for burglary, driving under the influence, and possession of stolen property.

The incident at Sharps mirrors a December 27 incident in New York, which the Hudson Valley Post reported as follows: “Police say that on December 26th they responded to a complaint of a man that was creating a disturbance and threatening employees at a Hopewell Junction business.  Upon arrival officers encountered the man outside of the business and began their investigation.  Police say they discovered both a knife and an unregistered loaded handgun worn on his belt under his outerwear.  After disarming the man identified as Kimmel, he became combative and resisted arrest.  Police also allege that Kimmel was in possession of more than one ounce of marijuana.”

Kimmel, who had a knife strapped to his waist during the incident, was charged with eight counts of battery on a law enforcement officer, each a third-degree felony, a count of armed burglary and a count of burglary with assault, each punishable by life, and other charges. If he is competent to go through court proceedings and is convicted, he is very unlikely to face anywhere near life in prison.