LAKE MARY, Florida — Accused rapist and convicted sex offender Jason Minton has now been charged with felony battery in a separate Volusia Sheriff’s Office case, in addition to his sexual battery and kidnapping charges from Ormond Beach PD.
The victim in the Sheriff’s Office case reported the Feb. 14 incident last week. She told deputies Minton approached her at a business plaza in DeLand, gave her his business card and offered her an interview for a job with Tucker’s Tree & Bobcat Services. She later contacted him, and he picked her up in the company truck, drove her to a bar in Orange City, ordered her multiple drinks and kept asking if she wanted more. The victim reported that at one point, her drink was unattended while she used the restroom.
The victim left with Minton, and he drove her to a wooded lot in Orange City that he described as a job site. The victim said he pulled at her shirt, her bra, and touched her shoulder several times in a series of unwanted advances, and offered her cash in exchange for sex, saying, “With how much money I am going to be giving you, you can’t tell me no, and I can do whatever I want.” The victim was able to refuse Minton’s offers and advances, and eventually he dropped her off in DeLand.
Since the announcement of Minton’s sexual battery and kidnapping charges last week, more than half a dozen women have contacted the Sheriff’s Office to report similar incidents involving him over the past several years. Sheriff’s detectives are in the process of reaching out to those women for interviews and more information, and Sheriff Chitwood encouraged any other potential victims to contact law enforcement.
“I want to thank each of those brave women for coming forward, and I also want them to know we’re going to give their cases the attention they deserve,” Sheriff Chitwood said. “Ormond Beach police did a great job getting Jason Minton off the street, and our deputies and detectives are going to be working hard doing everything they can to make sure every potential victim is heard.”
Minton was booked on his new charge today at the Volusia County Branch Jail, where he remains in custody with no bond allowed. The battery charge is a felony due to Minton’s prior battery conviction.
PRIOR CHARGES: In 2015, the Sheriff’s Office arrested convicted sex offender Jason Minton on charges of sexual battery and kidnapping.
The victim in the case reported she went out for drinks with him. After several drinks at a bar, he was supposedly going to take her to a restaurant. Instead, he brought her to his house and forced a pill down her throat. The victim said she became incapacitated and faded in and out of consciousness while he raped her.
The case went to trial, and Minton had local defense attorneys Aaron Delgado and David Damore on his side. What happened next is described on the Aaron Delgado & Associates website, in a post titled “From Life in Prison to Complete Freedom in 48 Hours.”
You can read their full account at https://communitylawfirm.com/facing-life-in-prison
The short version is: Minton’s attorneys were able to prevent evidence of a prior offense from coming into the trial. In their own words, “Mr. Delgado was able to highlight inconsistencies between the Williams Rule witness’ present-day testimony and her testimony almost twenty years ago, thereby undermining her credibility.”
Rather than serve any prison time, Minton was able to secure a plea deal that meant he would plead to a misdemeanor, accept a year’s probation and avoid serving a single day in prison.
As his attorneys wrote, Minton went “from facing the possibility of life in prison to walking out of the courtroom a free man in less than two full days of trial.”
You might be wondering why this matters today, more than three years after that trial.
Jason Minton currently has felony warrants for his arrest on new charges of sexual battery and kidnapping in Ormond Beach.
The victim in that case told Ormond Beach police that she met with Minton ostensibly for an interview for a secretarial job at a Tree Service business. She said the interview was at a bar, and she had some drinks with Minton.
The next thing she remembers is waking up with painful injuries that suggest she was raped.
Surveillance video from the bar showed Minton dragging the victim to his truck, pushing her inside and leaving. She appeared limp, unresponsive and unconscious. You can see it for yourself right here.
You should also know that the Sheriff’s Office is investigating a separate case in the Orange City area where a young woman reported she met with a man for an interview for a job at a tree service business.
She said he met her at a bar and persistently ordered her alcohol. He then drove her to a secluded area, pulled her shirt down and touched her against her will, and offered her cash in exchange for sex. Fortunately, the victim in this case was not incapacitated, and she was able to resist, refuse and reject the suspect’s advances.
That case is still under investigation by our detectives, but I believe the suspect’s identity will be determined very soon.
You have to wonder if Jason Minton’s next plea deal will be featured on his defense attorney’s website, too.
He seems to be the poster boy for getting off light. We can all expect him to have the best defense attorneys money can buy.
Until he’s behind bars where he belongs, I want to urge ANY woman who is approached or contacted by Jason Minton to stay as far away from him as you can.
