Staff report

ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – Javon Stephon Barclay, 28, was arrested yesterday morning and charged with fleeing a traffic stop and driving without a valid license after deputies identified the car he was driving as one that had been driven by the murder victim at Cynthia Chestnut Park on Sunday night.

Deputies responded to the park Sunday evening and found a male victim in the parking lot who had been shot; the victim succumbed to his injuries and was later identified as 44-year-old Gainesville resident Johnny Walker.

The investigation revealed that a gold BMW sedan that had been driven by Walker was missing from the parking lot where he was shot. At about 10 a.m. on Monday, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ASO) learned from the Ocala Police Department that the stolen BMW was traveling north on U.S. Hwy 441 toward Alachua County.

Deputies from ASO and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office staged along U.S. Hwy 441 to intercept the car, and ASO deputies saw the car entering the county from the south and began following it in the 13300 block of U.S. Hwy 441; after deputies confirmed that the tag matched the tag of the stolen vehicle and additional units were in the area, they attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the driver refused to stop. Deputies deployed stop sticks several times along U.S. Hwy 441, and the driver reportedly drove around the sticks and into the median, making a U-turn at one point to head back southbound. A PIT maneuver was finally used to stop the BMW and take the driver, later identified as Barclay, into custody.

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Barclay was taken to a local emergency room for minor injuries stemming from the apprehension before being booked into the jail.

Barclay has 13 previous driver’s license suspensions, with the most recent in June 2023. He was charged with a third or subsequent violation of driving without a valid license and fleeing officers with lights and sirens active both third-degree felonies.

Although his listed address is in Ocala, court records show that Barclay is homeless and unemployed and has been in Alachua County for two months. He has four felony convictions (two violent) and seven misdemeanor convictions (two violent). He has served two state prison sentences, with his most recent release in May 2022; he is also on probation for aggravated assault. He has an active warrant out of Georgia and an active warrant out of Marion County for assault with a deadly weapon with no bond. Judge Walter Green set bail at $200,000.

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.