Alligator Farm jumper sentenced to community control, jail time, restitution

Jacksonville — The 23 year old man who broke into the St. Augustine Alligator Farm last November and jumped into a pit filled with crocodiles is being sentenced to jail time and community control.  Brand Hatfield will also have to pay almost $5,500 restitution to the Farm to offset the cost of the damage he caused.

The Alligator Farm said their surveillance footage showed the man breaking in, damaging property at the snack bar and then entering the newly opened “Oasis on the Nile” Nile Crocodile exhibit.  The Alligator Farm said Hatfield was then seen on the video climbing on a structure and jumping in to the pool.

He was bitten by a crocodile, and left behind a lot of blood and a single Croc shoe floating in the pool of water.

The man then climbed on to a zip line platform, according to the Alligator Farm, before running away.

St. Augustine Police said they got a call the next morning about a suspicious man in his underwear crawling around in a backyard along Holly Lane.  While responding, they found Hatfield, who said he’d been bitten by an alligator.

Hatfield’s arrest report says he told police that an old man tried to feed him to alligators at that man’s home.  He reportedly said the man had an alligator on a leash and many baby alligators in his garage, and that man was trying to feed him to those alligators.  Hatfield further claimed the old man hit him with a hammer and forced him to drink a “black concoction”, before he was able to escape - according to the arrest report.

Hatfield’s mother told Action News Jax he was high at the time he broke into the Alligator Farm.

Hatfield pleaded no contest on Friday to trespassing and criminal mischief charges and was sentenced to two years of community control, a maximum of 364 days in jail with credit for 121 days served and restitution of $5,450.