Ex-Manatee star Walters in trouble at Missouri
Missouri reserve running back Trevon Walters was arrested Friday by Columbia police on suspicion of stealing a debit card and using it to make purchases. The redshirt sophomore out of Manatee High School was suspended indefinitely.
The stealing offense is considered a felony, according to a report by the Columbia Police Department obtained by the Post-Dispatch. He was also arrested on two counts of misdemeanor fraudulent use of a credit device.
Walters, 21, was arrested at 9:15 a.m. Friday and booked at 12:04 p.m. on Friday, with bond set at $4,500 for the stealing charge and $1,000 for fraudulent use of a credit device.
On July 18, Columbia police were dispatched to a residence in reference to a burglary. A 19-year-old male victim reported stolen items, including a debit card. Multiple unauthorized transactions were made on the card on July 17. Officers reviewed surveillance video from a business where the card was used and identified Walters as the person using the card.
Walters has been suspended indefinitely while Mizzou learns more about the situation, team spokesman Chad Moller said Saturday. Per university system policy, an athlete charged with a felony is suspended immediately from practice and competition. If the athlete pleads guilty or is found guilty of a felony charge, the athlete is barred permanently from participation in athletics at any school in the UM System. A student suspended from participation in intercollegiate athletics as a result of a felony charge shall not be prohibited from receiving financial aid during the pendency of such felony charge.
A post that went up on Walters’ Facebook page Saturday read: “I want to let people know I made a mistake and in life everyone make mistakes I’m a college football player that’s why people may look at my mistake different but it is what it is I owned up to my mistake and I take full responsibility of it y’all either gone give up on me or help me get through this either way I know God got me at the end of the day.”
Walters, a redshirt sophomore from Bradenton, has not appeared in a game for the Tigers. He redshirted in 2014 and missed all of last season while recovering from a knee injury suffered during spring practices. He’s one of six scholarship running backs on the current roster and wasn’t expected to be among the team’s top ball-carriers.
According to Missouri law, stealing a credit card is a class C felony. Fraudulent use of a credit device or debit device is a class A misdemeanor unless the value of the property or services obtained is $750 or more.
This report contains material from the Bradenton Herald
This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 11:50 PM with the headline "Ex-Manatee star Walters in trouble at Missouri."