TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A licensed bondsman needed a bondsman following her arrest only weeks after a “bounty hunter” was nabbed after busting down the door of the wrong house.
Chinecqua Walker, 48, a licensed bondsman who works for Exit-Us Bail Bonds in Tampa, is charged with aiding and abetting an unlicensed bondsman. Walker was released on bail and has not responded to requests for comment.
Felicia Ann Wells, 52, of Seffner, was also arrested for aiding and abetting an unlicensed bondsman and released on bail. Wells is not a licensed bondsman, according to state records, and has not responded to requests for comment.
Seffner is where Stanley Wilson, 50, allegedly broke down a door of a home in December looking for Jessica Berry on a bond violation. Records show Ybor City Bail Bonds posted the bond for Berry on a drug charge, but the owner of that company said she did not hire Wilson as a “bounty hunter.”
Bounty hunters are illegal in Florida where anyone who tries to take someone into custody on a bail violation must be licensed. Wilson is not licensed, according to state records.
A Jessica Berry who is 13-years younger than the wanted Berry lives in the Seffner home where Wilson cracked open the door.
“What if my kids would’ve been here and not in school?” the wrong Berry said in December. “What if my kid would’ve been standing behind the door?”
Her boyfriend Chris Spencer was behind the door.
“I didn’t think he was a real bondsman. I thought he was here to rob me or something,” Spencer said at the time of the intrusion. “At first I thought because I heard him yelling to come outside so I thought he had a gun.”
There is no indication Wilson had a gun but he did have handcuffs, according to surveillance video of the incident.
He was charged with working as an unlicensed bondsman and battery in connection with the December confrontation, and used Ybor City Bail Bonds to bail him out. Last month he was picked up for another unlicensed bondsman charge and a count of impersonating a public official.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is investigating all the cases but has not responded to questions and released mostly redacted documents that might have otherwise offered details of the allegations against Wilson, Walker and Wells.
A search of court documents shows Wilson bonded out several other people in recent months, but said they were friends who needed help and he denied he was acting as a bondman in those cases.
Wilson also denied he was acting as a bondsman in the Seffner incident, despite the charges and what surveillance video shows.