Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Davongelo Cortez Kimbrough, 33, was arrested yesterday and charged with putting a 7-year-old child in his car, unsupervised, before allegedly entering his ex-girlfriend’s apartment without permission, attacking her and a man, and later contacting her over 100 times after she asked him to stop.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy reported that the female victim said on June 29 that Kimbrough, her ex-boyfriend, had threatened her seven-year-old son to get him to open her front door at 4:26 a.m. on June 28. The child later reportedly said that Kimbrough told him he would “whoop” him if he didn’t open the door. Kimbrough allegedly carried the child down to his pickup truck and put him in the truck, alone, before returning to the apartment. The female victim said she believed the child had been left alone in the truck between about 4:27 a.m. and 5 a.m.; she did not know whether the doors were locked or whether the truck was running while the child was inside.

The deputy noted that although Park Lane (7553 SW 58th Lane) is a gated community, there is “easy pedestrian access to all parking lots, and the parking lot cannot be observed from the interior of the apartment,” and the child reportedly said that Kimbrough’s truck “was not parked where Davongelo usually parks, right outside the apartment, and instead was in a parking spot across the complex, far away. He was unable to see the apartment from where he was left.”

The female victim said she was awakened by Kimbrough when he pulled the covers off her bed and dragged her off the bed by her feet; he then did the same to a male friend who was staying with her that night. She said Kimbrough kicked her male friend repeatedly and knocked him down when he tried to stand up. She said she tried to get between them, which allowed her male friend a chance to grab his belongings, but Kimbrough attacked him again. She said Kimbrough pushed her in the face, causing her to fall and injure her ankle. She called 911 and yelled at Kimbrough that he was going back to prison, and he allegedly responded by going into the kitchen and picking up a metal object.

The female victim said she never saw the metal object, but she believed it was a knife because Kimbrough was near her knife block, so she hung up the phone. She said Kimbrough never pointed the object at them or threatened them with it, but when a 911 call-taker called her back, she did not answer because she was afraid.

The female victim said Kimbrough came out of the kitchen, no longer holding the object, and again attacked her male friend, preventing him from leaving the apartment. The three of them struggled at the door, and her male friend was eventually able to leave. The female victim said Kimbrough ran after her male friend, but he was already gone, and Kimbrough returned to the apartment with the child before leaving the apartment at about 5:08 a.m.

The female victim said Kimbrough repeatedly threatened her and her male friend and told her male friend that if he or anyone else ever returned to the apartment, he would kill them. She reportedly did not provide a name for her male friend, and as of the time the arrest report was written, he did not want to be a victim of a crime.

The female victim later said that Kimbrough had contacted her about 100 times by both text and phone call and also asked his family members to reach out to her; she said no direct threats were made, but Kimbrough said she and the child are his family, and nothing will change that, placing her in fear for her safety because she fears he will return to her apartment. Although she has told him multiple times to stop contacting her, he has allegedly continued to contact her.

The child reportedly said Kimbrough carried him downstairs and placed him in the driver’s seat of his pickup truck, without a seatbelt. He did not think the truck was running, but he felt the air-conditioning. He wasn’t sure whether the truck’s doors were locked.

Kimbrough has been charged with confining a child under the age of 13 without the consent of the parent, burglary with battery, felony child neglect without great bodily harm, and stalking. He has at least six felonies (three violent) and at least five misdemeanor convictions (non-violent); he has served one state prison sentence for six felony charges and was released in 2020. Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered him held without bail pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.