MEXICO BEACH -- A Panama City man was found guilty Wednesday of breaking into a Mexico Beach hotel room and battering two of the occupants, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
Convicted was Ronald Deon Lee, 34, of 6620 Enzor St.
Assistant State Attorney Rob Sale told jurors in his opening statement that Lee made his way into a hotel room occupied by a man and woman and their 11-year-old son, who were from Alabama, in the early morning hours of April 15, 2011. The woman awoke to find Lee, naked, on top of her, a State Attorney’s Office press release said. Her scream awoke the man sleeping in the same bed, who fought Lee and detained him until police arrived, despite being bitten twice and having four of his toes broken.
Salesaid the evidence showed Lee had entered the room twice that morning. The first time he took the couple’s cellphones and keys back to his adjoining room. Lee then returned and attempted the rape the woman, despite the fact that she was sleeping in the same bed as the man. The child was in the other bed. Lee probably entered the victims’ room the first time by climbing across the balconies, the press release said.
Lee was found guilty as charged of burglary of an occupied dwelling with a battery. He faces up to life in prison when Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet sentences him Feb. 4.