William Kitts, Troubled Man With Arrest on Grave Charge, and a Few Lenient Breaks, Arrested Again

The first degree felony charge could have sent Kitts to prison for 30 years. It was reduced to felony child abuse, a third-degree felony, and he was sentenced to a pre-trial intervention agreement, which is less restrictive than probation, sparing him so much as a day in a jail: he’d been booked on the original charge at 6 p.m. and was bonded out two hours later (he had a $50,000 bond). The judge withheld adjudication, which means he was not even to be considered a felon.

Two years ago he violated his agreement by evading requirements to be drug tested or report to the probation office, and in treatment his supervisor reported that he continued “to display a lethargic attitude toward his therapy and often shifts blame for his lack of progress to the system or the therapist.”  His probation supervisor recommended scrapping his agreement and sentencing him to regular probation. He got 90 days in jail.

In April Kitts, now 25, was arrested again on charges of disorderly intoxication at Johnny D’s, the Flagler Beach restaurant, where he caused an altercation with patrons and staff, trespassing after a warning and resisting arrest. He screamed at cops trying to determine his identity, and at one point threw his wallet on the ground and ordered one of the cops to fetch it as he continued to scream. He was given plenty of chances to leave the restaurant property of his own free will, refused, and was arrested, according to a Flagler Beach Police report, though not before he resisted to the point of having to be tased. That case is ongoing.

Kitts was back at the county jail Monday after allegedly stealing a 2002 Chevrolet from the 7-Eleven on State Road 100.




The owner, a 30-year-old Palatka resident, had left the keys in the ignition and gone into the store quickly to grab a drink–about five minutes’ worth. By the time he came out, the car was gone. Kitts was captured on the store’s surveillance video, and the Chevy’s license plate was fed into the sheriff’s office’s license-plate reader system, which triggers a detection when the license plate is picked up by electronic readers around town. But the property manager at Beach Village Apartments near 7-Eleven alerted authorities that a “suspicious person” was in the apartments’ area. He was “erratically running around the complex and appeared to be under the influence of a narcotic,” according to Kitts’s arrest report. He had told the property manager his name was “Will” and he worked at Zaxby’s in Palm Coast (which the restaurant confirmed), and run away from the manager when he claimed she had a gun.

The Chevy was located not much later at Old Kings Road and Town center Boulevard, abandoned. But there was no Kitts. The Sheriff’s Office launched a search by ground and air, including a K-9 unit and Flagler County Fire Flight, the emergency helicopter.

An hour later Kitts’s father contacted authorities. Kitts was there, at a house on Porral Place in Palm Coast. He’d run in there claiming people were after him, then started talking to the television. His father was asking for a “welfare check” on his son by authorities, or that his son to be Baker Acted–that is, committed to a psychiatric unit with or without his will, usually the course of action regarding individuals threatening to harm themselves or others.

When deputies arrived, Kitts said he had no intention to harm himself, but owned up to taking the Chevy because he was in a “predicament,” according to his arrest report. He did not explain, and would not answer additional questions, as is his right.

He was booked at the county jail at 5:10 p.m. on Monday. Just before 3 p.m. today, bail was posted on his $5,000 bon d and he was released. His arraignment is scheduled for early August.