Woman also charged with drug counts
A 45-year-old unemployed Sarasota woman has been charged with Grand Theft for allegedly removing packages from the front porch of a home on Cosmopolitan Court in Sarasota about an hour after they were delivered, the Sarasota Police Department has announced.
Angelique Erica Poquette, of 2750 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, was being held in the Sarasota County Jail under total bond of $4,000, as she is facing other charges, as well, the Sheriff’s Office Corrections Division records note: possessing a controlled substance without a prescription, possessing drug equipment, and a second offense of driving while her license was revoked. Her arraignment is set for Jan. 19, 2024.
The alleged theft occurred about 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, the Probable Cause Affidavit said.
The items stolen were valued at approximately $1,830, a Sarasota Police Department news release noted. Two other residences in the immediate area reported stolen packages during the same period, the release added.
Cosmopolitan Court is located south of Ringling Boulevard and west of Osprey Avenue in downtown Sarasota.
Surveillance video released by the Police Department showed a woman drive up to the Cosmopolitan Court residence in a white four-door Infiniti. The woman exited the vehicle, removed the packages from the front porch and placed them in the car.
About 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, the affidavit said, the victim, Nancy Petit, telephoned the Police Department to report the theft. She explained that she had been tracking the delivery of a package on the UPS website. She received an alert indicating that it had arrived at her front door about 5:30 p.m., the affidavit added. She was not home, Petit reported; when she returned home, she found no packages.
Petit then reviewed the surveillance video and observed the woman with the white vehicle, describing her to officers as Hispanic and wearing a black, long-sleeve shirt, blue pants and white shoes.
The items reported stolen were four pairs of Converse sneakers, valued at $230; and 12-lumen exterior LED lights, valued at $1,600, the affidavit noted.
“At the time of the arrest,” the news release pointed out, “Poquette was wearing a pair of shoes that were reported stolen from Cosmopolitan Court the day before.”
The surveillance camera at the home captured two characters on the license plate, the news release said. Through their investigation, the release continued, detectives were able to identify the vehicle.
A second affidavit reported that, at 1:18 p.m. on Dec. 8, officers pulled over Poquette on a felony warrant. That took place at the intersection of Winton Avenue and 32nd Street in Sarasota, the affidavit said.
After the officers asked Poquette to step out of the vehicle, the affidavit continued, she was arrested “without incident.”
Because Poquette used the vehicle in allegedly committing the theft, the affidavit said, the Infiniti was seized and transported to the Police Department headquarters on Adams Lane in downtown Sarasota. There, officers “observed a white rock substance in plain view sitting inside the cup holder that was on Poquette’s side of the center console,” the affidavit noted. The rock substance would have been in her “immediate reach,” it added.
Testing of the rock determined that it was cocaine; it weighed 0.2 grams, the affidavit noted.
Additionally, after she was arrested, the affidavit said, Poquette was found to have a glass pipe in the left pocket of her jacket; such a pipe “is also consistent with narcotic use,” the affidavit pointed out.
Prior criminal record
A Sarasota News Leader review of 12th Judicial Circuit Court records found that Poquette has been issued a number of traffic citations since November 2001, and she faced charges of possession or use of narcotic equipment in June 2006, as well as in June and August 2007. The June 2007 case also involved a charge of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.
Among traffic infractions were careless driving, speeding, failure to wear a seat belt, running a stop, and failure to have proof of insurance, the court records showed.
Further, in September 2020, Poquette was charged with Grand Theft of a Motor Vehicle. The affidavit in that case explained that the victim had told the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office that she had lent her 2008 Honda to Poquette, so Poquette could drive to dinner at Poquette’s parents’ residence.
Poquette returned with the vehicle about 9 p.m. the same day, the affidavit added, and the victim went on to sleep. However, the next day, the affidavit continued, the victim “found her vehicle keys, vehicle, and Poquette missing.” The affidavit pointed out, “Poquette was the last person in possession of the keys and does not have regular access to the vehicle.”
No sign of forced entry to the residence was observed, the affidavit added, and no signs indicated that someone else had stolen the vehicle.
The affidavit further explained, “Poquette is a recovering drug addict” and she had “received her COVID stimulus package of $1,200” the same day that she borrowed the victim’s vehicle. “She does not have access to a vehicle and she purchases her narcotics from dealers in Bradenton, which is not in walking distance from [her] residence,” the affidavit explained.
Then Poquette’s father contacted her, the affidavit said, and he indicated to officers that “she had begun using narcotics again.”
Both her father and the victim requested that Poquette return with the vehicle, the affidavit continued, but she “stopped responding to them …”
The vehicle finally was recovered “following a … pursuit initiated by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office in a known drug area of Bradenton,” the affidavit noted. “The vehicle was involved in a traffic collision and damaged beyond repair,” the affidavit added. The occupants refused to tell officers how they came to be in the vehicle, the affidavit pointed out, “but they have a history of selling narcotics.”
In December 2020, Poquette pleaded “No contest” to a third-degree felony charge involving the vehicle theft, court records show. She was sentenced to 24 months of probation and ordered to pay court costs and fees totaling $568.