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In December 2006, Smith Joseph of Golden Gate was sentenced to 20 months in a state prison for stalking a woman four years earlier.

This February, a year after his release from prison, Joseph was arrested on charges he stalked a former neighbor for three months by sending the 26-year-old Golden Gate woman text messages, joining her gym and showing up at her place of employment after she repeatedly refused to date him.

Joseph, of 4631 17th Ave. S.W., also sent the woman numerous text messages. The last one read: “I know you are contacting the police and I don’t care, it would be worth going to jail.”

Last week, he got his wish.

A Collier County jury convicted him of stalking and he also pleaded no contest to violating an order of protection. At his sentencing Thursday, Collier Court Judge Mike Carr called him despicable. He imposed the maximum for the first-degree misdemeanor stalking charge.

“The woman’s lucky she’s all in one piece,” Carr said afterward. “The guy is a real time bomb waiting to go off. ... People need to understand we take these threats seriously.”

“The system worked, he was arrested and she’s safe,” Carr said, praising the woman for testifying against Joseph.

Carr sentenced him to a year in county jail on the stalking charge and a consecutive six-month term for marijuana possession involving drugs deputies found in his jacket. In addition, Carr sentenced him to a year of supervised probation for violating a domestic violence order of protection and ordered him to undergo a psychological examination and random Breathalyzer and urinalysis tests.

The case was prosecuted by assistant state attorneys James Stewart and Erik Leontiev and Joseph was represented by Assistant Public Defender Amy Shirvanipour.

The victim, who was traumatized and granted a permanent order of protection in January, declined comment about the case Thursday.

Collier County Sheriff’s arrest reports call Joseph a career criminal. Court records show he’s been arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious indecent assault on a child under 16, two felony counts of resisting arrest, battery, trespassing, and for violating house arrest and probation.

In February, the victim, who was “scared and upset,” told sheriff’s investigators that Smith, who used to live with her neighbor in Whistler’s Green, had continued harassing her while free on bond for violating her order of protection. In January, she’d reported he’d been harassing her for three months, prompting his arrest on Jan. 3. He posted $55,000 bond four days later on charges that included a felony count of habitually driving on a revoked or suspended license.

Arrest reports provide the following account:

After the woman repeatedly refused to date him, Smith obtained a membership to her health club, Gold’s Gym, “so he could see her.” He asked to speak to her, but she pointed to cameras in the lobby and asked him to leave and to never come back.

He also stopped by a children’s gymnastics center where she works. She told him to leave and to never come back, but he returned about 10 more times.

She called him and told him to leave her alone and to stop harassing her. As a result, he got her phone number and repeatedly sent her text messages. He also sent flowers to the gymnastic center and when she returned from vacation, he sent her a text message welcoming her back and saying he’d missed her.

Each day, as she left work, he wrote, “Have a nice day.” On Feb. 6, he arrived at the gymnastics center again. “Are you serious?” she asked. “You need to leave right now.”

“No,” he said, reaching into his jacket to grab something before fleeing. The woman and other witnesses told deputies he appeared very angry.

A day after the woman filed a report, she called deputies to say he’d arrived there again. Deputies tracked down his pickup truck and when they searched him after his arrest, they found a folded up piece of paper in his pocket that contained marijuana. As they pulled it out, Joseph said, “Oh, sh—.” In addition to the stalking and marijuana charges, he was charged with habitually driving while his license was suspended or revoked.

After he was released from jail on bond, he was jailed, but posted bond five days later and arrived at the gymnastics center on Feb. 6. He told an employee he was checking up on his daughter, but he had no children who were members there. “Are you serious?” the woman asked when she saw him. “You need to leave right now.”

Deputies went to his apartment and he was taken to jail for violating the order of protection. Five days later, the state attorney’s office filed a notice of information, declining to prosecute the felony traffic charge.