Woman arrested in pain pill robbery


Tara Lynn Davis. (Photo courtesy of the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.)
Tara Lynn Davis. (Photo courtesy of the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.)
  • Palm Coast Observer
  • News
  • Share

Deputies responding to a call about a fight arrived at an elderly Palm Coast woman’s home April 14 and found the woman, 67-year-old Pamela Anne Berdebes, bleeding from her left forearm and holding an ice pack over her left eye.

They arrested a 27-year-old Bunnell resident, Tara Lynn Davis, on charges of robbery, grand theft and battery on a person 65 or older.

Berdebes, who refused medical treatment after rescuers evaluated her, told a deputy that she was home alone packing when Davis showed up to repay $350 she’d borrowed, according to the deputy’s report. Davis had lied about money before, Berdebes said, so she wouldn’t let Davis in the house until she showed her the cash.

When she let Davis inside, Davis thanked her for lending the money, handed it over, and asked if she could help the older woman pack, Berdebes said.

But during the packing, Berdebes told the deputy, Davis — who knew that Berdebes took prescription Oxycodone — asked Berdebes if she had any pills.

Berdebes told Davis she didn’t. But when Berdebes got up on a ladder about three or four feet off the ground to get a box off of a shelf, she told the deputy, Davis came into the utility room, grabbed Berdebes’ right pants pocket and took the $350 and a prescription pull bottle of approximately 84 Oxycodone pills.

Berdebes told the deputy that Davis knocked her off the ladder, and that Berdebes grabbed Davis’ hair instead of hitting her because Davis was pregnant. But as Berdebes fell, she told the deputy, Davis punched her in the face and throat with a closed fist, then kicked and hit her when she was on the ground.

Davis then hit Berdebes in the face with a cell phone, Berdebes told the deputy, and the pain caused her to let go of Davis’ hair.

Davis then ran off with the $350 and the pills, Berdebes said, leaving Berdebes bleeding and with a swollen left jaw and eye and marks on her torso and forearms.

Berdebes locked the door and initially called a friend instead of the police, she told the deputy, because “she was scared that Ms. Davis would go get her boyfriend … and they would kill her,” and that she was worried that deputies would think she was a drug dealer.

The deputy found Davis at a home in Bunnell, took her into custody, and read her her Miranda rights, which she waived, according to the deputy’s report.

She denied any knowledge of the $350, saying that she’d bought a gallon of milk form Berdebes a week before, but no other money had changed hands. She also denied knowledge of the prescription painkillers. But the deputy “observed her to have a red mark on her right check and red marks on her chest and right arm,” and noted that “the knuckles on her right hand looked to be red and irritated compared to her left hand.”

Berdebes couldn’t explain the red knuckles or the marks on her body, the deputy wrote in the report, but “the marks were consistent with those found on someone who was recently involved in a physical altercation.”

Davis is being held at the Flagler County jail on a combined $11,000 bond.

 

 

Latest News

×

Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning local news.