A 23-year-old Green Cove Springs man who jumped inside the Nile Crocodile enclosure last November at St. Augustine’s Alligator Farm and caused thousands of dollars of damage as he scrambled to escape the reptiles was sentenced to a year in the St. Johns County jail, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
Brandon Keith Hatfield was convicted Friday of criminal mischief, trespassing and violation of probation after pleading no contest, according to court records. After his release, he faces two years of community control as well as payment of $5,450 in damage he caused before fleeing with a bloody trail behind him.
Hatfield got into the park about 7:45 p.m. and damaged part of its snack bar, then climbed over a 10-foot tall fence with barbed wire around the “Oasis on the Nile” exhibit, St. Augustine police said. Security cameras show a 9-foot-long crocodile lunging at the intruder, who escapes to the water’s edge where the “crocodile locks onto his left foot,” the arrest report said. Hatfield escaped, climbing part of the facility’s zip line feature where police found “evidence of considerable bleeding.” A statue valued at $3,000 also was knocked over.
Hatfield was found just before 7 a.m. the next day crawling in a Holly Lane backyard across Anastasia Boulevard, clad only in underwear, police said. He claimed he had been bitten by an alligator. Taken to Flagler Hospital, he tried to leave and was caught as he got into a retention pond surrounded with barbed wire, the report said.
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