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Wild clash begins with van's crash
By JAMIE JONES, Times Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE -- Inside a cozy brown house on Thursday night, Vincent DeSimone relaxed in a La-Z-Boy chair as his wife, Teresa, sat on the couch in her pajamas. They were watching television when they heard a loud boom outside. Mr. DeSimone, 74, thought it was lightning and opened his front door. Nothing. He walked around to the garage. "Someone stole our car," he yelled. "How could they steal the car?" his wife asked, running over. "There's your car," she said. "That's not our car," he replied. He looked at the Pontiac van parked in the middle of his sun room. He realized that someone had driven the van through their garage door and crashed into their red Corolla. The van then pushed the car over a lawn mower, through a wall and into the sun room. A computer, Christmas ornaments, poker chips and an old oak coach went flying. Mr. DeSimone thought the driver must have had a heart attack, and went to help. "He started swinging at me," Mr. DeSimone said. "So I punched him." The driver, Emil Albaladejo, punched back, Mr. DeSimone said. He fell on the ground as Albaladejo, 37, of Inverness, jumped through a window. Another man approached the garage. "I almost punched him, too, and then I realized he was trying to help," Mr. DeSimone said. Outside, several men chased Albaladejo, who ran down the road, saw a white pickup truck and banged on the window. The 29-year-old woman drove as "fast as she could" to get him off the car, but Albaladejo hung on for about two blocks, authorities said. Several Brookridge residents captured Albaladejo and held him until sheriff's deputies arrived. He kicked and punched and screamed, witnesses reported. "I'm Jesus Christ," he yelled, according to deputies. Albaladejo had a cut on his head from the car crash, but he was enraged and would not let paramedics treat him, authorities said. One deputy squirted pepper spray in his eye. It didn't work. "All attempts at communications with Emil were futile," Deputy Vincent Gargano said. Finally, according to reports, deputies used two sets of handcuffs and locked each of his arms to the stretcher, but he kicked wildly. Because he had a leg injury, deputies did not shackle him, and rode along in the ambulance to hold him down. At Oak Hill Hospital, Albaladejo tried to punch several of the emergency room workers, according to reports. They gave him sedatives, which had no effect. Finally, right before nurses placed him on a bed for a CAT scan, he calmed down. Albaladejo of 79 N Spend A Buck Drive remained at Oak Hill Hospital on Friday. Authorities said they plan to charge him with assault and battery, resisting an officer, carjacking and criminal mischief. "I'm usually a very charitable person, but I can't believe that little snot!" Mrs. DeSimone, 73, said on Friday. "He almost gave us a heart attack!" Authorities talked to Albaladejo's friends, who said he drank hallucinogenic mushroom tea and took Dramamine tablets earlier in the day. Samantha Hershey said that while she rode around with Albaladejo, he talked of Jesus. He preached about God in a "distressing way" and then ordered his two friends out of the car on Coronado Drive, authorities said. Witnesses said they saw Albaladejo driving recklessly on Anderson Snow Road, running red lights and causing cars to swerve. He sped past the guard gate at Brookridge before slamming into the DeSimones' garage. The couple stood in their kitchen on Friday, eating sandwiches and sharing a cold Miller Lite. They had called their children to tell them about the eventful evening in their neighborhood, a retirement community. The insurance company had already delivered a check for their 1993 Corolla, which "didn't have a scratch on it before it was totaled," said Mr. DeSimone, a retired New York carpenter. They had just started cleaning their sun room, strewn with encyclopedias, a sewing machine, and bookcases. "If it had been cooler, we would have been sitting in that sun room," Mrs. DeSimone said. "And there the car would have come out of nowhere. I just can't believe it." -- Jamie Jones covers law enforcement and courts in Hernando County and can be reached at 754-6114. Send e-mail to jjones@sptimes.com.
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