BRADFORD COUNTY, Fla. – A Bradford County woman, who was arrested Friday and is accused of murdering her partner, has a previous record of domestic violence, according to arrest reports from 2020.
Mindy Osteen, 35, was arrested outside of Auntie Lili’s Child Care Center on Washington Street on Friday evening after Bradford County deputies received calls about a woman, later identified as Osteen, who was holding a gun outside the day care facility.
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Soon after, deputies said additional calls reported shots fired and a man injured. When deputies arrived, they found the man, identified as Christopher Jones, had been shot multiple times. He later died at the hospital.
Melanie Russo, Jones’ older sister, told News4JAX her brother had reached out for help as his relationship with Osteen became increasingly concerning, fearing for his own safety and that of his children.
“People wanna stand up and speak for women all the time. Men can be victims, too. Men can be victims too, and I saw it with my own two eyes. I saw him live through it,” she said.
Records show Osteen had been previously found guilty of several charges following a domestic violence incident involving a former partner and their child in 2020.
In May 2020, deputies responded to a home in Starke after receiving reports of a “disturbance.”
According to the arrest report, a witness told deputies that Osteen and the father of her child got into a “heated verbal argument,” in which Osteen tried to slap him with “an open hand” several times.
The report goes on to say that after the verbal argument, Osteen “got even more enraged,” grabbed her keys and drove off with the child.
Another witness said she saw the incident from her yard.
The witness told deputies she heard yelling coming from the home and saw Osteen getting out of a car, which appeared wrecked, in a yard at the corner of SE 144th Street and SE 19th Lane.
According to the arrest report, the witness told deputies she saw Osteen drag her child “in a number of awkward-looking positions” before dropping the child on the road’s surface. She then said that, after Osteen dropped the child, she “did not react” at all, and continued to yell at her partner.
Osteen, her partner and their child eventually returned to the home.
Osteen was detained following the incident, and according to her arrest report, she began to kick the windows, the roof and the in-car camera located in the deputy’s cruiser.
“This kicking caused significant damage to the camera and the radio antenna attached to the roof of the patrol car,” the arrest report states.
Osteen was charged with cruelty towards a child (later changed to culpable negligence), criminal property damage, domestic battery, and other charges in connection with the 2020 incident. She was later found guilty of all charges.
Court records show Osteen spent three months and five days in jail in connection to those charges.
Osteen is now in Bradford County jail after being charged with Jones’ murder. She also faces two counts of cruelty toward a child and possession of a weapon.
She is being held without bond.