ORMOND BEACH -- A robber made off with cash early this morning after smashing a hotel clerk on the side of the head with a fire extinguisher, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.
However, the suspect left behind plenty of evidence to help Sheriff's deputies quickly link the culprit to the crime.
Responding deputies scouring the Destination Daytona Hotel & Suites on U.S. 1 near Ormond Beach for clues found a folder with personal information, including the suspect's high school diploma, Social Security card and the title to his vehicle. Three hours after the robbery, 32-year-old Jacob Swanson was in custody facing charges of robbery with a deadly
weapon, aggravated battery, burglary of an unoccupied structure and preventing or obstructing extinguishment of fire.
Swanson is accused of barging into the hotel and accosting a 46-year-old female clerk. When the suspect demanded money, the clerk pulled out her cell phone to call for help. The suspect, however, grabbed the clerk's phone and then smashed the side of her head with a fire extinguisher.
"The impact opened up a gash that required six staples to close," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. "After
striking the clerk, the suspect forced the victim into the front office and then stole her purse, a money drawer and a money bag from the hotel's on-site pub. The suspect then fled the scene. Deputies later discovered that he had also broken into a vacant room at the hotel."
Deputies began converging on the scene after the clerk called 911 at
5:05 a.m. to report the robbery. She was later taken to an area hospital
for treatment of her injury. Meanwhile, deputies quickly zeroed in on
Swanson after finding his personal records and then got another break in
the case in the form of a tip that the suspect was staying at a Sleep
Inn in Palm Coast, approximately 17 miles north of where the robbery
took place. Investigators passed the information on to Flagler County
deputies, who rounded up Swanson at the hotel and took him into custody
at about 8 a.m. Swanson was booked into the Flagler County Inmate
Facility while Sheriff's investigators in Volusia County obtained arrest
warrants. Swanson subsequently confessed to Volusia investigators and is
being held in Flagler County on $135,000 bond.