UPDATE – 9:05 p.m., Thursday
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The son of a County Commission candidate was arrested Thursday on charges that he stole $2,400 worth of jewelry from a home where he had been working as a handyman.
Christopher Wilson, 23, son of Commission District 2 candidate Charlie Wilson, is in the county jail in lieu of $25,000 bail. He faces charges of burglary, grand theft, and providing false information to a secondhand dealer. Commission candidate Charlie Wilson said Thursday evening that he has no idea if the charges against his son are true, but it’s “possible he made some bad mistakes.”
“He needs to face the appropriate consequences,” Wilson said of his son. “I love my son and continue to pray for him.”
According to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, Wilson burglarized a home on the 10700 block of 92nd Avenue in Vero Lake Estates in May and stole several gold pieces of jewelry.
The victim told investigators that Wilson had performed some handyman work at the home prior to the burglary.
Wilson’s ex-girlfriend, Valerie Salvati, told investigators that he had told her he had committed a burglary in the Vero Lake Estates area around the same time the victim had reported a burglary.
Wilson, who was already in the county jail on unrelated charges of election petition fraud and probation violation, was interviewed by detectives, the Sheriff’s Office said.
He told investigators that he stole the jewelry and sold the pieces to a secondhand metal dealer.
Authorities went to the secondhand dealer and confirmed the transactions through receipts, which contained Wilson’s name, driver license number and fingerprints.
The jewelry could not be recovered, as it had already been melted down, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Wilson and Salvati were arrested last month on charges that they committed petitions fraud by forging signatures on election petitions.
On April 1, Supervisor of Elections Kay Clem filed an elections complaint to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, calling into question several hundred petitions that appeared to have forged signatures turned in by Commission Candidate Charlie Wilson’s campaign.
Despite the questionable petitions, the Wilson campaign has submitted the required number of verified petitions to get on the ballot. He is running against incumbent Joe Flescher and former Sebastian City Councilwoman Dale Simchick in the August Republican Primary.
