LEESBURG, Fla.—A man once cleared of an aggravated assault charge by reason of insanity is back behind bars after allegedly attacking a good Samaritan last week.
Preston Wade Greenlee, 54, was arrested Wednesday, after Leesburg Police Department responded to a report of a physical altercation between two men at Palm Plaza on 14th Street around 4:30 pm. One of the men was described as a white male wearing a red and white plaid shirt, armed with a pair of scissors, according to an arrest affidavit.
When LPD arrived, an officer found the victim, beaten and bloody, and a witness said the other man was walking toward a nearby Taco Bell. The officer entered Taco Bell and found Greenlee, who he recognized from prior encounters, at a booth. As the officer approached Greenlee, he put a pair of black-handled scissors on the table and complied with the officer’s commands to stand up and put his hands behind his head, the affidavit states.
Greenlee was handcuffed and placed into a patrol vehicle while officers continued their investigation.
The victim was unable to tell police what happened due to a language barrier and his wife completed a statement for him, according to the affidavit. She told police she and her husband saw Greenlee following a woman, “who appeared terrified,” and her husband attempted to intervene. She said Greenlee attacked her husband, punching, kicking and kneeing him, and after seeing a pair of scissors in Greenlee’s back pocket, she was scared he was going to stab him.
A witness told police Greenlee was making racist remarks to a Latino woman. It appeared he was going to hit her, the witness said, and that’s when the victim stepped in to protect her. Greenlee then attacked the victim, punching the victim in the head and face, causing him to fall to the ground. Greenlee continued his attack after the victim fell, kneeing him in the head and face. Greenlee then left the area, and walked toward Taco Bell, where an officer found him.
In 2021, Greenlee was arrested on two separate occasions for the same crime — aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In both incidents, Greenlee was accused of threatening people with a bladed weapon. On Feb. 8, 2021, Fruitland Park Police Department responded to a storage facility at 2281 U.S. Highway 27-441, Fruitland Park, after a man reported Greenlee was walking around his truck with a weapon, talking to himself, according to that arrest affidavit.
When police arrived, they found Greenlee near his truck, talking to himself and unarmed. He told officers the machete was in his storage unit, and an officer secured it in his patrol car. Police spoke to the complainant, and he told police he and his brother were moving things in their storage unit when Greenlee began yelling religious chants and slurs at them. The chants escalated and Greenlee began screaming and walking toward them with a machete behind his back, the affidavit states.
One of the brothers called 911, and the pair barricaded themselves behind a mattress in their storage unit while awaiting the arrival of law enforcement, according to the affidavit. Greenlee was arrested for two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The State Attorney’s Office later dropped the charges after the victims could not be located, according to an announcement of no information filed in that case.
Just nine months later on Nov. 8, 2021, Greenlee was arrested again for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Leesburg Police Department responded to a business on Thomas Avenue on a weapons complaint and the victim told LPD when he arrived at work, he found Greenlee inside the building. Greenlee is a former employee, but had been terminated around 10 years prior, according to an arrest affidavit in that case.
The victim said Greenlee spoke to him, but he kept the conversation minimal due to believing Greenlee was under the influence of drugs; the victim went into the business office and when he came out, Greenlee was outside the side entrance yelling at him.
Greenlee then came back inside and approached the victim aggressively while holding a wooden stick with a blade attached, the affidavit states. Greenlee cursed at the victim and called him the devil and when the victim tried to separate himself from Greenlee, he raised the makeshift hatchet above his head and demanded the victim fight him. The victim told Greenlee to leave and Greenlee fell to his knees and told the victim he loved him, the victim said. He told Greenlee police were on the way and Greenlee fled the area northbound. A witness and a video corroborated the victim’s statements to police.
Greenlee was later arrested at his Fruitland Park apartment and taken to the Lake County Jail, where he was held for nearly two months. He was released on his own recognizance (ROR) in January 2022 after being declared incompetent to proceed but he did not meet the criteria for commitment to a treatment facility. Circuit Judge Heidi Davis ordered him to remain in outpatient treatment and live with his mother in Fruitland Park.
In June 2023, Davis ordered a court-appointed expert to evaluate Greenlee’s competency, and in December 2023, he was found competent.
Two months later, in February 2024, Davis appointed experts to evaluate Greenlee’s sanity at the time of the crime. She ordered another competency evaluation in July 2024 and again appointed experts to assess his mental state during the offense.
In December 2024, Davis found Greenlee not guilty by reason of insanity. He again did not meet the criteria for commitment and was released under multiple conditions, including outpatient and substance abuse treatment, taking prescribed psychotropic medication, and undergoing periodic psychiatric evaluations.
Greenlee is currently being held in Lake County Jail on $25,000 bond, facing a felony battery charge from the Palm Plaza incident.
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