Gainesville Man Arrested for Cyber Harassment and Sending Written Threat

Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) deputies arrested Blanton Neil Martin, 45, early Monday morning on charges of sending a written threat to kill or do bodily harm (felony) and cyber harassment (misdemeanor).

Deputy John Miller made contact with the victim at the station Sunday night, who was reportedly in visible distress due to threatening text messages sent by Martin.

The victim advised that she had just recently met Martin at a coffee shop on Saturday and he initially appeared friendly so they exchanged numbers.

Later on, Martin sent the victim texts that made her feel uncomfortable and she told him to stop contacting her.

“Following this explicit command to cease contact, [Martin] continued to send persistent and bizarre messages,” reported Miller. “The communications quickly escalated to direct threats of death and severe bodily harm. I personally reviewed the text messages on the victim’s mobile phone. I observed a message from [Martin]'s phone number stating, ‘I am going to break your mind open and feed it to my wolves.’ I observed a second message targeting anyone in an intimate nature with the victim, stating, ‘If I catch you with another man I will put him in the fish fryer.’ [Martin] sent fourteen text messages to the victim after she advised him to not contact her, including the messages with the threats. The victim, in her sworn statement, advised she was very concerned for her safety and for the people around her to include her friends and family.”

If found guilty of his felony charge, Martin faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He’s held without bond pending a pretrial detention motion by the State Attorney’s Office.