Bondsman looking for absconded felon, says he'll turn up: “Put a little money on the street and people will turn in their own grandmother.”

Antonio Jamal Gearing must be good at reading a jury.

That’s because Gearing, who was charged with robbery with a firearm, didn’t stick around the courthouse on Tuesday for the 90 minutes it took the jury in his trial to return its verdict.

The verdict: guilty.

By then Gearing, who was able to walk out of the courthouse because he was free on $75,000 bail, was nowhere near the courtroom at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach. He had walked out at the beginning of deliberations, according to a press release from the 7th Circuit State Attorney’s Office.

Gearing, 29, of Daytona Beach, was on trial accused of robbing a Dollar General at gunpoint on May 21, 2018. He got away with $687.

His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Rachel Brothers, who was admitted to the bar in 2013, said she had never before had to deal with a client vanishing like Gearing.

"First time I've ever seen it," she said.

If and when Gearing is captured, he will face between 10 years and up to life in prison without parole for the robbery. His prior criminal record includes a charge of fleeing attempting to elude and driving without a license in 2012 and attempted robbery in 2008.

Police are now looking for Gearing and so is J Gailbreath, who described himself as the owner or vice president at Express Bail Bonds Volusia County in Daytona Beach.

“I’m the one that’s going to pay the $75,000 if we don’t find him,” Gailbreath said in a phone interview.

Gearing’s timing was unusual, Gailbreath said, beyond the fact that he fled. He said it’s been his experience that if a defendant is going to skip bail, they usually do so before the case goes to trial. They don’t wait until the case goes to the jury.

“I’ve never seen it, actually,” Gailbreath said. “They usually go before then. It’s pretty bold to walk right out of the courthouse with deputies there.”

Gailbreath said once he gets a notice from the court he will have 60 days to find Gearing before he has to pay the bail.

But he said in a case like Gearing’s where the bail is high, family members sign papers making themselves responsible for the money. That means that Gailbreath could take them to court to get his money back.

Regardless, he said that you can usually find people, unless they hopped a plane to a country without an extradition treaty with the United States.

“At the end of the day, money talks,” Gailbreath said. “Put a little money on the street and people will turn in their own grandmother.”

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