PANAMA CITY — A sex offender whose recent release caused tension between law enforcement and prosecutors has been arrested after he violated terms of his probation and called the sheriff to complain about the strict monitoring of his activities.
Horace Monroe Wood, 45, was released the day he was supposed to go to trial at the end of October, although he was accused of sexual battery by four under-age victims. He pleaded no contest to one count of lewd and lascivious molestation and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office criticized the State Attorney’s Office’s handling of Wood’s case and another molestation case.
However, deputies arrested Wood about 10 a.m. Tuesday after he was caught allegedly violating the terms of his release at a motel in Youngstown. He now could face 15 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge James Fensom.
Wood called Sheriff Frank McKeithen on Monday to complain that BCSO deputies were checking on him too much.
A short time later, Wood was spotted by Parole and Probation officers at a different location even though his electronic monitoring device pinpointed him at his room in the Youngstown Motel on U.S. 231. Wood had removed his monitoring device for an hour and 51 seconds before he was taken into custody.
“Due to the fact he was a sexual predator, it was only a matter of time before he re-offended,” McKeithen said. “We were watching him not because of what he’d done in the past, but what we feared he would do in the future.”
Wood was under the Jessica Lunsford Act following his release. He initially was arrested in November 2013 after one victim came forward, which led to an investigation into three other abuses by Wood.
According to the prosecution’s notes on the case, the incidents took place as far back as 2006 on girls as young as 3 years old. Both factors conspired to result in deficient memories among the girls. Several of their accounts conflicted with one another when pressed on details, which would be used at trial, according the prosecuting attorney Matt Pavese.
“However guilty we all know the defendant to be, we just did not have the case to put him away for life,” Pavese wrote in his conclusion. “I believe I did the best justice could afford in this case and made sure the defendant was labeled a sex offender.”
Following Wood’s release McKeithen criticized the handling of the case and lack of punishment, stating in a letter to State Attorney Glenn Hess that Wood had “not been held accountable.”
“Sexual abuse to our children is a very high priority to the BCSO and I would hope it would be to you, too,” McKeithen wrote.
Hess defended his office’s work. Although the pieces of evidence on their own could not amount to a conviction, Fensom will consider the maximum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison, Hess said.
“Having taken a no-contest plea in the end was better than a not guilty from a jury,” Hess said.
In light of Wood’s arrest, McKeithen said he still believed the case could have been handled differently.
“Point is, now he is in jail,” McKeithen said.
According to court documents, as of Wednesday a date had not been set for Wood’s violation of probation hearing.
McKeithen also criticized the state’s treatment of a lewd and lascivious molestation case against 36-year-old Clay Cowart.
Cowart was charged with two counts of molestation after he was arrested in March 2013. Those charges were reduced Oct. 28 to a single misdemeanor count of battery and the case was transferred to another court.
“When you have a he-said, she-said case and she decides not to testify, you have no case,” Hess said.
Cowart’s case is ongoing, but he was accused of twice molesting the daughter of a woman with whom he was living. Depositions in the case were filed from deputies, investigators and family members who could only testify to hearing the story from victim.
The victim never testified in state depositions.
Hess said the main reason victims back out before testifying is the amount of scrutiny and possible embarrassment they are subjected to, which is inherent in a legal system where two sides battle over the “beyond a reasonable doubt” burden of proof for conviction.
“Many of the victims reach a point where they’ve had enough,” Hess said.