EUSTIS, Fla.—The man accused of attempting to rape a woman at a Eustis massage business last year pleaded no contest to most of his crimes and was sentenced to eight years in prison, according to Lake County Clerk of Court online records.
Timothy Paul Taylor, 36, was accused of entering the back door of A-1 Massage and Spa, 1316 South Bay Street, and asking for a sex act on March 16, 2023. The female victim told Taylor they did not perform sex acts and he pulled his pants down, grabbed her by the hair, put a BB gun to her head, pulled his pants down and demanded the sex act. She told him no, he let go and told her he would come back and kill her if she called law enforcement, police told Inside Lake last year.
The victim fled out the front door while Taylor fled out the back door to a black sedan. He popped the hood on the vehicle, closed it and then fled out of the parking lot onto Bay Street. Police said Taylor put the BB gun under the hood of the vehicle before fleeing and a citizen found it nearby.
Police, with the assistance and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, Eagle One, located Taylor later the same day in an area with heavy vegetation off Selleen Drive near the home he shared with his mother on Palmetto Street, and he was bitten several times and apprehended by an LCSO K9 and his handler.
Taylor was arrested for attempted aggravated sex battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and resisting arrest. He was held in the Lake County Jail, and in October 2023, the possession of a firearm charge was dropped, and he pleaded no contest to the remaining charges. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, with credit for 222 days time served in jail. Taylor was adjudicated a habitual offender and is designated as a sexual predator.
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