Tattoos lead to man’s identity, arrest

A Marathon man who gave a false name to a Sheriff’s sergeant was correctly identified by his tattoos and was arrested Friday afternoon.

Sgt. Mark Maison was dispatched to check out suspicious people at the end of 37^th Street in Marathon just before 4 p.m. When he arrived, he spoke with the five people who he found there, standing next to a parked truck. He recognized three of those who were there. He called the truck’s Pennsylvania tag into Sheriff’s dispatchers and asked for identification from the two people he did not know, a male and a female.

The woman produced a driver’s license from Pennsylvania. The man said he’d lost his ID, but gave his name as Dean Garner.

A check on the name Dean Garner did not return any information. The truck, however, was registered to a Joshua Garner who had a warrant from Pennsylvania for violation of parole on robbery charges. A description of Joshua Garner included several distinctive tattoos of clowns on his arm. The man who gave the name “Dean Garner” had those same tattoos.

Sgt. Maison called for backup officers and attempted to take Garner into custody. Garner struggled with him, broke away and jumped into the water at the end of the street. He initially refused to come out. The officers called for help from the U.S. Coast Guard. As they were en route, Garner exited the water and was taken into custody.

He was charged with resisting arrest and giving a false identification to a law enforcement officer. He was also charged with the outstanding warrant. He was booked into jail.