Realtor Finds Man Sleeping in Boca Raton Home When Preparing It For Sale

Davieon Dean Ellsberry (Photo: Palm Beach County Jail)

A 26-year-old man was arrested after Boca Raton police said a real estate agent found him sleeping inside an unoccupied home he had allegedly broken into through a rear window. The same man was accused in a disturbing incident in a grocery store bathroom in 2024.

Davieon Dean Ellsberry was charged Monday with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, a felony, and two counts of resisting an officer without violence, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Boca Raton Police Department.

Officers responded about 8:58 a.m. Monday to a home in the 250 block of NW 46th Street after a real estate agent preparing the property for a showing discovered an unknown man asleep in a front bedroom and called police. The agent told officers no one had been inside when he last checked the home the previous day. Police said they made loud announcements at the front door ordering the man to come out. He instead tried to leave through a rear door in what officers described as an attempt to avoid them, then surrendered at the front of the house after an officer confronted him and gave commands, the affidavit said.

Ellsberry initially identified himself as “Jim Smith” of Missouri, police said. After he was read his rights and told that giving a false name while detained could result in a resisting charge, he repeated that name, according to the affidavit. Officers later identified him as Ellsberry, who listed a Boca Raton address, though his driver’s license had been issued by Arizona, the report said.

Ellsberry told police an unknown man doing renovations had allowed him to stay in the home Sunday. The real estate agent and the homeowner both said no renovations were taking place and that no one had permission to be inside, the affidavit said. The homeowner, who police said provided a sworn statement, told officers no one was authorized to stay there. An inspection found a forced rear kitchen window with a handprint on the outside and a footprint on a counter just inside, police said. Crime scene technicians documented the scene.

Ellsberry was previously arrested in Phoenix in February 2024 after he was accused of following a 16-year-old grocery store employee into a women’s restroom at a Safeway, sliding under a stall divider with his pants down and grabbing her, according to Phoenix police and local news reports. He was charged then with attempted sexual assault and kidnapping. The term “sex offender” was stamped on the Boca Raton police report, however Ellsberry’s name did not appear in the state Megan’s Law database.

Ellsberry remained lodged in the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $40,000 combined bail on the burglary and resisting charges.