Brickell Man Trashes Starbucks, Injures Guard Days After Bond Release

A Brickell man accused of smashing a Starbucks front door, hurling merchandise off shelves and injuring a security guard was booked into jail Monday afternoon — just three days after a judge let him walk free on his own recognizance in an unrelated felony case. Miami police officers arrested 29-year-old Erickwoody Charles at 8 a.m. Monday near Southeast Ninth Street and Brickell Plaza, identifying him as the man witnesses say caused mayhem inside the Starbucks at Mary Brickell Village earlier that morning.

According to WPLG Local 10, witnesses reported an irate man tearing through the coffee shop, and per the arrest report, Charles grabbed a chair from inside the Starbucks, jumped onto the countertop, threw merchandise onto the floor, smashed the store's front glass door and scared employees before officers caught up with him. A security guard who tried to stop him was injured in the arm during the struggle, the report states. Fire rescue personnel later took Charles to a hospital. The Starbucks sits at 901 Southeast Miami Avenue inside Mary Brickell Village, a roughly 200,000-square-foot open-air shopping and dining complex that has anchored the neighborhood since it opened in May 2006.

Climbing on a Stranger's Truck

Charles didn't stop at the coffee shop, according to the arrest report cited by the outlet. He allegedly climbed onto a nearby truck, leaving footsteps on it, and cracked the vehicle's truck-bed cover, before ultimately being found lying on the roof of a passerby's car. Officers arrested him at the scene and identified him as Erickwoody Charles, who is also known as Erick Charles, according to the report.

He now faces one battery charge and two counts of criminal mischief. Under Florida Statute § 806.13, criminal mischief becomes a third-degree felony once property damage reaches $1,000 or more, while damage between $200 and $1,000 remains a first-degree misdemeanor — meaning the exact valuation of the harm to the Starbucks and the truck will determine how serious those charges ultimately become. That figure has not been made public. Separately, first-degree misdemeanor battery under Florida Statute § 784.03 carries up to a year in county jail, a year of probation and a $1,000 fine upon conviction.

Released on Bond Just Days Earlier

The Monday arrest came only three days after Charles was released on his own recognizance on August 21, in a separate case where he had been out on a felony bond stemming from a grand theft and burglary warrant. Miami-Dade prosecutors filed that grand theft and burglary case on July 20, and a judge set his bond at $5,000 the same day, after Miami police officers first arrested him on that warrant on July 19. Third-degree grand theft under Florida Statute § 812.014 applies once stolen property is valued at $750 or more and carries a potential penalty of up to five years in state prison.

Because Charles is accused of committing new crimes while free on that earlier release, his case could fall under Florida Statute § 903.0471, which lets circuit courts revoke pretrial release on their own motion and order a defendant held without bond if there is probable cause the person committed a new offense while out on bail or recognizance. It remains an open question whether prosecutors will move to keep Charles detained without bond under that provision.

A Judge Already Under Scrutiny

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel M. De La O is presiding over two pending cases involving Charles. De La O has served in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit's Criminal Division at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building since being elected to the bench in 2012. The judge has been under statewide political pressure since June, when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Governor Ron DeSantis publicly called for his impeachment after he acquitted a defendant by reason of insanity in a high-profile Miami murder trial involving a claimed COVID-induced psychosis defense, according to Court TV.

Court records show Charles already has a criminal history in Miami-Dade dating back to a marijuana possession case when he was 19. He also has convictions for misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct, trespassing and resisting arrest, along with convictions out of Miami Beach in 2024, when he was 27. Charles has been identified as a downtown Miami resident. He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center near Doral shortly after 1:20 p.m. Monday, a county facility with an inmate capacity of roughly 1,300 that handles initial intake for arrests across Miami-Dade.

Part of a Busy Stretch for Brickell Policing

The Starbucks disturbance is the latest in a string of public disorder incidents to hit Brickell's commercial core this month. Just over a week earlier, on August 17, police arrested three men after a drive-by BB gun shooting near Brickell Avenue left a scooter rider injured near his eye. Earlier in August, a bystander tackled a jewelry thief despite being pepper-sprayed in another Brickell commercial corridor incident.

The uptick comes as Miami police work to staff up the neighborhood. In August 2025, the department consolidated Brickell, Downtown and Edgewater into a new East District built to handle an estimated 120,000 service calls a year, and city officials have said they plan to add 300 officers over three years to boost foot and bike patrols in dense areas like Brickell.