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Friendly act might have hidden criminal intent

A woman says her son's friend stole money out of her purse after helping her cash a Social Security check and taking her to the grocery store.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published March 10, 2005

PORT RICHEY - Only a few months ago, he was accused of beating a 5-pound puppy nearly to death. Now he is accused of ripping off his friend's 76-year-old mother.

Curtis Charles Guy, 24, was arrested Tuesday, this time on charges of grand theft and exploitation of the elderly. Pasco County sheriff's deputies give the following account of a March 3 incident:

Guy and his girlfriend, whom the report did not identify, took his friend's mother to an Amscot check-cashing store to cash her $730 Social Security check. The woman put the money in an envelope inside her purse. Afterward, they drove her to the Kash n' Karry on Little Road to shop for groceries.

The woman said Guy asked her to look at some groceries she might be interested in buying, and while her back was turned, she thinks he went into her purse and took $360. She realized the cash was missing on the way home.

When the woman told her son, he confronted Guy and asked him to empty his pockets. Guy jumped into his girlfriend's Pontiac Grand Am and sped out of the driveway, hitting two parked pickup trucks on his way out, a Sheriff's Office report said. The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash as a hit and run.

Tuesday, Guy met with Detective Denton Steele at the Sheriff's Office. Guy admitted he took $150 from the purse because he was desperate, and spent the money for "food and such," Steele reported.

Guy was in the news last year after deputies accused him of giving the 7-week-old puppy a concussion, a broken jaw and two skull fractures on Nov. 20. Deputies said he grabbed his girlfriend by the throat and pushed her to the ground during a fight, then he repeatedly slammed their puppy on the ground while the girlfriend, 18-year-old Billie Jo Wyatt, begged him to stop.

After that arrest, Guy was released from the county jail on a $10,500 bond, facing charges of felony cruelty to animals and misdemeanor battery. He pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.

The pit bullterrier mix, Roxy, recovered and was adopted by a woman in St. Pete Beach, who renamed her Susie. "She's doing exceptionally well," Donna Hamilton said Wednesday. "She flies out that doggy door. She runs in the yard. She plays. She is truly a wonderful, loving, gentle little dog."

Wednesday, Guy was being in the held the county jail again, this time on $25,000 bail.

His criminal record is lengthy. Guy left state prison in August after serving nearly three years for robbery and aggravated assault. In May 2000, he tried to rob a New Port Richey gas station that fired him a week earlier. In November that year, he flashed a knife at Kash n' Karry employees who encountered him walking toward the front of the store with two 12-packs of beer about 4 a.m. - two hours after alcohol sales were cut off. His record also includes convictions for grand theft, criminal mischief and battery.

But Guy, 8325 Emmons Ave., told the Times in November that prison reformed him. He said that deputies' allegations in the cruelty to animals case were false, and that people were unfairly sending him hate mail.

"I've got people sending me letters with no (return) addresses on it," he said, "talking about I'm a dog beater, and I'm a woman beater, and I need to be sent to prison and . . . stuff like that."

Steve Thompson covers crime in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is sthompson@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 01:15:14]