Leesburg

The following story was previously published on Lake Legal News.

LEESBURG, Florida — A combat veteran with diagnosed mental health issues is facing several charges after a four-hour standoff Monday.

Lake County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call about a suicidal female at a home on Silver Lake Drive around 11 a.m. Monday. The woman’s husband told LCSO his wife, Ieaka Yatanta Olmstead, 41, had been experiencing a mental health crisis that continued to escalate for the last month. He said Olmstead had been receiving treatment at a mental health facility and after 28 days, she checked herself out against medical advice. A representative of the facility confirmed Olmstead’s history to LCSO, according to the affidavit.

Olmstead’s husband said she had not been taking her medication since checking herself out of the facility and on Sunday she had what he called a “manic episode,” according to an arrest affidavit. He said she broke a window on his truck, backed the truck into a trailer and ran over two trees and a fence. She exited the truck and ran inside the home and armed herself with a pruning tool and a .380 Glock handgun. She pointed the gun at him and threatened to slit the throat of their 10-year-old child, who was standing behind the victim.

On Monday, Olmstead threatened to burn the house down and stated law enforcement killing her would be the easiest way to die. The man told LCSO Olmstead was home alone, and her black VW Beetle would be in the backyard. He said he hid the handgun in a closet after unloading it.

LCSO’s Negotiations Team and the SWAT Team responded to the home and a perimeter was established. While gathering information, LCSO found that an AR-15, two shotguns and an additional handgun were in the home. Olmstead had a fire burning in the yard and was seen entering and exiting the residence numerous times, adding items to the fire. A deputy also saw her grab her dog and slam it on the ground numerous times before putting it in a white bag, according to the affidavit.

The Negotiations Team attempted to convince Olmstead to surrender for around four hours and the SWAT Team eventually took Olmstead into custody. She was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of child abuse and animal cruelty. She is being held in the Lake County Jail on $10,000 bond.

The following story was previously published on Lake Legal News.

LEESBURG, Florida — A man who has been booked into the Lake County Jail a dozen times since 2015 is behind bars again, facing multiple charges from two different cases.

On Friday, a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a home in Eustis on a stolen truck complaint. The victim told the deputy he drove the truck to a home in Umatilla on Thursday night to visit a friend; the truck had mechanical issues and he left it front of the friend’s home. Around 4:30 p.m. Friday, the friend heard a vehicle pull up and the truck start, and she assumed the victim picked it up.

The victim told the deputy the truck had GPS tracking and it showed the truck was on Lakeview Avenue in Leesburg. An LCSO deputy in the area of the truck responded to the address the GPS was showing and saw the truck parked out front and Austin Dean Chaudoin, 24, standing outside the truck, according to an arrest affidavit. Chaudoin got in the truck and the deputy made contact with him. Chaudoin exited the truck and the deputy noted the keys were in the ignition and the truck was running. The deputy believed Chaudoin was attempting to flee, but was struggling to operate the truck since it had a manual transmission, the affidavit states.

Chaudoin was taken into custody and found to have multiple warrants stemming from an incident earlier this month in Tavares. In that case, Chaudoin is accused of burglarizing a home and shooting a man in the wrist on Maplewood Street on April 13.

The victim told Tavares Police, Chaudoin, who he knows as “Bobo” knocked on his door wearing a mask, snatched the door open and shot at him. The victim said he grabbed a BB gun and shot back and the pair began struggling for the gun. The gun discharged twice, once near the victim’s face and the second time, striking him in the wrist. Chaudoin then fled the residence and efforts to find him were unsuccessful. Tavares Police filed the warrant for his arrest on April 21.

Chaudoin, of Astatula, is charged with armed burglary, aggravated battery and vehicle theft. He is being held at the Lake County Jail on $37,000. 

The following story was previously published on Lake Legal News.

LEESBURG, Florida – A Tavares man accused of firing several shots in the air in the drive-thru of a local restaurant Friday night was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and discharging a firearm in public shortly after the incident, according to an arrest affidavit.

Just after 9:45 p.m. Friday, Leesburg Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded to McDonald’s, 10402 U.S. Highway 441, across from Lake Square Mall on a report of a shooting. An outdoor carnival was being held at the mall at the time of the shooting.

Witnesses told LPD a black male, wearing all black and a beanie on his head had fired a gun into the air and fled the scene on foot with a white female, according to the affidavit.

LDP and LCSO began searching the area and a deputy located the pair and ordered them to the ground and they were searched, and no weapons were found, the affidavit states. The female, who was not identified in the affidavit, told police she was with the male, identified as Damien Scott Boyd, 28, and his wife in the wife’s vehicle in the drive-thru lane at McDonald’s.

The unidentified female said Boyd and his wife began arguing about relationship issues and the argument escalated with Boyd reaching into the glove compartment and retrieving his wife’s gun. Boyd got out of the vehicle and fired several shots in the air and put the gun back in the glove compartment.  He allegedly told his wife, “I’m done,” and walked away with the unidentified female.

Boyd’s wife cooperated with law enforcement on scene and allowed them to take the gun, according to the affidavit.

Boyd, who was convicted of a 2018 armed robbery in North Carolina, was arrested and transported to the Lake County Jail, where he was released on $11,000 bond.

The following story was previously published on Lake Legal News.

LEESBURG, Florida — “Thirty seconds is a long time after someone says stop.”

Those were some of the words a victim spoke to her accused rapist in a recorded phone call last month after telling Leesburg Police the man forced himself on her, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The victim, whose age is unknown, told police she was at a party on Nov. 25 and around 2 a.m. on Nov. 26, Eric Daniel Coffie, 25, said he was going to go pick up food and more drinks, according to a probable cause affidavit. The victim was concerned that Coffie had been drinking and offered to ride with him, she told an LPD detective.

The pair went to a local fast food restaurant and then Coffie drove her to an empty parking lot in Leesburg where he told her he was supposed to meet someone. Coffie began talking to the victim and complimenting her and she laughed it off because she had never “thought about him that way,” she told police. Coffie allegedly touched her thigh and she pushed him away and attempted to get out of the locked vehicle. Coffie, of Yalaha, pulled the victim by her left arm and she fell into the backseat while trying to get away from him, the affidavit states.

Coffie climbed on top of her and held her down, and when she tried to escape, Coffie is alleged to have grabbed the victim’s wrists and held them above her head before pulling her shorts down and raping her. The victim told him no several times and told him to stop, but Coffie kept saying he was almost finished, according to the affidavit.

When he finally stopped, he just stared at her, the victim said and then began to apologize. The victim took out her phone and began to record their conversation. During three separate recordings, the detective heard a male’s voice say, “I said I’m sorry, I really shoulda stopped. I’m sorry I didn’t.” The victim could be heard saying, “You didn’t stop when I kept saying stop.” The male also said, “I was just drunk, just trying to finish, just trying to get my (expletive) and I wasn’t listening.”

After the rape, Coffie drove to a convenience store and bought alcoholic beverages and then went back to the party, the victim told LPD. After returning to the party, the victim went into a bedroom and went to sleep. She did not shower before contacting police and turned her clothing over to an officer, the affidavit states.

The victim called Coffie while police recorded the call that lasted 13 minutes and 37 seconds. The following is an excerpt from that call.   

“Do you realize the amount of times I had to say stop? Like when I said ‘stop’ you kept going. Don’t you think you should have stopped when I said stop,” the victim asked Coffie.

“Yeah,” Coffie said in the recorded call.

“How long did it take you to realize I was serious and was telling you to stop,” she asked.

“I only did a couple of more strokes and then I stopped,” Coffie said.

“Even after I said stop though,” the victim responded.  

“It wasn’t like I was going for a long (expletive) time, it was maybe like 30 seconds, then I stopped,” he said.

“Thirty seconds is a long time after someone says stop,” the victim said.  

Some of the conversation was unintelligible and Coffie attempted to suggest the sex was consensual in the beginning, the detective noted in the affidavit.

A warrant was issued for Coffie’s arrest Monday and he was arrested later that day for sexual battery on a victim over 12. He was released the same day from the Lake County Jail on $25,000 bond.

The following story was previously published on Lake Legal News.

LEESBURG, Florida — A convenience store clerk was arrested for grand theft and possession of marijuana after she was captured on video stealing lottery tickets, according to an arrest affidavit.

Leesburg Police responded to Circle K, 3300 West Main Street Saturday and a manager told an officer another manager observed an employee handling lottery tickets suspiciously the previous day. After a lottery audit, it was found around 36 scratch-off lottery tickets, valued at $800 were unaccounted for. The complaining manager told police after reviewing surveillance footage, she found that the cashier, Angelique Rose Gayle Williams, 18, took multiple tickets and scanned them, looking for winners.  Williams then cashed in winning tickets for a total of approximately $60 and threw the tickets in the trash.

The video later showed Williams counting the money and putting it in her back pocket, according to the affidavit. When Williams arrived for her shift Saturday, she was arrested and searched and found with a small bag of marijuana. Police asked Williams if she had taken the lottery tickets on other occasions and she refused to answer, but “advised it was not just her,” the affidavit states.

Williams was taken to the Lake County Jail, where she was released on $3,000 bond.