Courtesy photo/Jail mug. Lawrence Singletary, 40, of New Smyrna Beach, is charged with armed carjacking and battery of an elderly person in Port Orange.
PORT ORANGE -- A 40-year-old New Smyrna Beach man remained incarcerated Sunday night at the Volusia County Branch Jail for an armed carjacking in Port Orange three days earlier involving an elderly victim who managed to escape his alleged attacker, police there said.
Lawrence Singletary Jr. was being held in the Daytona Beach jail on bail of $60,500, following his arrest Friday on charges of armed carjacking, armed robbery, battery on a person over the age of 65 and driving on a suspended license.
The latter charge was filed by Daytona Beach police who apprehended the New Smyrna Beach man at North Street and Segrave Avenue after Port Orange police put out a radio bulletin asking area police to be on the lookout for the victim's 2004 Mitsubishi Outlander.
The 76-year-old victim had been sitting in his vehicle in the 1600 block of Dunlawton Avenue at 11 a.m. when Singlegtary sprung on him, opening his driver's side door and and announcing, "I've got a gun," according to Port Orange police spokesman Frank Surmaczewicz.
Singletary, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and dar sunglasses in hopes of concealing his face, ordered the driver to move over and punched him in the face, but as the elderly man complied, he was able to open the passenger side door and get away from his attacker who sped off, Surmaczewicz said.
The vehicle was not damaged and was returned to the owner about an hour after the attack aftervpolice recovered what turned out to be a plastic gun left behind by the attacker.