MIAMI – Arthur Booth was back in court Tuesday morning to face additional charges after his arrest the week prior; he’s accused of going on a burglary and robbery spree in Miami and Hialeah. Authorities said the victims were seniors.
This time, the 58-year-old faced Judge Mindy Glazer, his former classmate at Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach.
Their unexpected courtroom reunion made national headlines in 2015 when Glazer recognized Booth from the bench as he faced a similar series of charges.
At the time, she told him “I hope you’re able to change your ways. Good luck to you.”
Fast-forward nine years and it appears that’s not what happened. Booth, in Tuesday’s appearance, seemingly couldn’t look at his old friend.
“I want to say hi to Arthur. Wish it wasn’t like this,” Glazer said Tuesday. “Anyway, I can’t hear the case. I’m going to get another judge to hear it, OK? Hope things work out for you.”
Booth was arrested in one of the latest cases last Tuesday.
Three of the four incidents happened in Miami.
“He would pose as some sort of maintenance worker in an attempt to get into the victims’ homes only to rob them of jewelry and flee the scene,” Officer Kiara Delva, a Miami Police Department spokesperson said.
One of those victims was 83-year-old Ana Venuela.
She told Local 10 News in Spanish that Booth, wearing a hard hat and ID, came to her door posing as a water inspector named “Julio.”
Venuela said her first instinct was to keep him out, but she changed her mind, believing he may have been with the other city workers she’d seen outside that day. She let him in.
“I got scared,” she said. “I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to kill me.’ I was already in my room.”
Before she knew it, he was telling her to turn on faucets and went straight to her bedroom and jewelry box. He took a bracelet she’d had since she left Cuba 34 years ago and shoved his way out.
He’s also accused of posing as a plumber and targeting a 78-year-old Hialeah man and snatching a chain off a woman he stopped to ask for directions in Miami’s Grapeland Heights neighborhood.
Police said they were able to track his vehicle down to a CVS at 690 NW 57th Ave. in Miami’s Flagami neighborhood and later took him into custody, eventually connecting him to the Hialeah burglary and other cases.
As of Tuesday, Booth remained held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges including burglary with assault or battery and home invasion robbery.
He was on probation at the time of his latest arrest.