SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Police at the New College of Florida arrested a 30-year-old Bradenton man this week following a two-month investigation into an incident that happened at a dorm room on campus in August.
Jon Cannon was arrested at his workplace on Holmes Beach Thursday evening after authorities obtained a warrant for his arrest. The 30-year-old is charged with burglary, including battery.
According to the arrest warrant, he entered a freshman student’s dorm room in the early morning hours of Aug. 25. The student was asleep when police say Cannon stuck his hands down her pants.
Authorities sifted through hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from cameras across the campus.
“We actually found that he was lurking around on campus, hiding in the shadows, looking into windows and such for the majority of the night,” acting Sergeant John Chirgwin said. “We were able to get a timeline and follow him around campus all night and then we were able to see him leaving the scene of the burglary and heading west through campus. He crossed in North Tamiami Trail and entered the parking lot right across the street and a vehicle was seen leaving the parking lot.”
A license plate reader camera from a nearby intersection ultimately helped track the suspect down.
Throughout the course of the investigation, authorities learned this wasn’t Cannon’s first time lurking around on a college campus. Sgt. Chirgwin says he’s done it in the past in other states.
“Cannon has been charged for his crimes at Rider University in New Jersey, the College of New Jersey and he is alleged to have committed a very similar crime in Wyoming at the University of Wyoming,” Sgt. Chirgwin said. “He currently has a warrant out for his arrest on that one so obviously it is alleged at this time that he committed the crime, but it is through DNA evidence.”
New College PD worked hand in hand with larger, local law enforcement agencies throughout the investigation.
“We don’t have the resources that these other agencies do, so anytime I needed anything, the SCSO crime analyst was right there and had everything I needed within seconds,” the acting sergeant explained. “It felt good to get essentially a predator off the streets. Somebody that was a predator coming onto our campus and now hopefully he’s going to be in jail for a significant amount of time.”
