After UF gymnast Melanie Sinclair's arrest Tuesday, a lot of questions remain unanswered.
The nine-time All-American gymnast found herself tangled in the web of the Gainesville Police Department's crackdown on a local burglary and gun-dealing ring.
It seems implausible at best that a standout college athlete, who by virtue is expected to set a moral example for the student population, finds herself on the business end of three felony charges.
But let's pause before we lump Sinclair in with the others involved in this crime ring and think about how someone with so much to lose even gets into this sort of situation.
In a convoluted, murky chain of events, police used taped phone conversations between Sinclair and her two-time felon of a boyfriend, Bud Williams, 21, to trace the stolen goods. Williams told the gymnast to deny any knowledge of the nine firearms that were apparently stashed in her home at Brandywine Apartments, 2811 SW Archer Road.
It's a shame that Sinclair's boyfriend didn't have the foresight to realize he didn't have the luxury of privacy in, you know, jail.
But this is the same guy who was arrested earlier this month for brandishing a loaded shotgun around his apartment complex, so realizing the consequences of actions are clearly not his strong point. In fact, he was in jail on 11 counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, one count of armed burglary and two counts of grand theft from a dwelling.
It's hard to imagine what it must be like to be in Sinclair's position, and it's even harder to imagine how she got there.
It seems strange that Sinclair, who has been a standout gymnast on UF's highly competitive gymnastics team, would leave practice at the end of the day, sweaty and covered in chalk, and drive to a home full of stolen guns and a cracked safe.
It's hard to imagine her waking in the morning and walking past a stack of ripped-off computers and not questioning how they got there.
Sinclair told police she knew something was wrong with the activities going on in her apartment, but didn't know what it was.
While we would love to give her the benefit of the doubt, we find it hard to believe that Sinclair wouldn't have at least wondered about the mysterious stash of high-ticket items accumulating in her house.
And with a boyfriend who has past felony convictions, we think this may be a classic case of someone getting in with the wrong crowd and losing sight of her goals for the sake of her social life.
Additionally, her boyfriend even offered her a pearl necklace from the safe, according to the police report. It is at this point that Sinclair should have put on her thinking cap and realized that her boyfriend may have been up to no good.
Either way, we feel bad for Sinclair, who has been suspended from the team indefinitely and is being held without
