DeLand sex offender shown dragging woman to truck found not guilty of kidnapping, rape
A sex offender accused of kidnapping a woman and raping her after a video showed him dragging her from an Ormond Beach bar and into his car, was acquitted by a jury on Friday.
The case drew widespread attention two years ago due to the video of Jason Minton dragging the apparently unconscious woman from the River Grille at 950 U.S. 1 in Ormond Beach and into his pickup truck.
The jury found Minton not guilty of kidnapping to facilitate the commission of a felony, which was punishable by up to life in prison. Jurors also found Minton not guilty of sexual battery on a helpless person, which was punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Minton, 46, had been locked up in the Volusia County Branch Jail awaiting trial since Feb. 21, 2020. He was released at 5:21 p.m. Friday.
Attorney Aaron Delgado represented Minton during the trial before Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn in Daytona Beach.
“Obviously, everyone regrets what happened,” Delgado said in a phone interview Friday. “It was a bad situation for everybody. And I'm just glad Mr. Minton isn’t going to face prison for basically a drunken, regrettable episode in both their lives.”
The State Attorney's Office declined comment.
Minton did not testify during the trial, so jurors did not hear from him during the proceedings.
And jurors also didn't hear that Minton is a registered sex offender because that could bias them against him.
Alleged kidnapping, rape: Man accused of kidnapping and raping helpless woman
Registered sex offender: Man accused of touching woman despite her telling him to stop
Murder trial awaits: Palm Coast man convicted of rape, still faces murder charge in separate case
Minton has been a registered sex offender since his conviction in 2006 of lewd assault and sexual battery of a victim under 16, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. He was also convicted in 2006 of failing to comply with registration requirements. He served prison sentences totaling five years.
Dragged from restaurant
Minton met the woman at the River Grille on Feb. 18, 2020, for what he said was to interview her for a job.
Delgado said that both Minton and the woman drank heavily at the restaurant that day, drinking multiple shots of whiskey and a glass of wine.
He said the woman did not remember anything in a 14-hour gap which started when she was at the River Grille and ended when she woke up at her mother’s home in Flagler Beach.
Delgado said that he argued she had agreed to the sex.
“We said ‘Look, it was consensual sex. She just doesn’t remember,'” Delgado said.
He said the prosecutor was required to overcome that legal burden.
“If someone is presumed innocent it takes more than ‘Gosh, I don’t know. I have no memory’ to overcome that,” Delgado said.
Delgado said there was no physical evidence that the woman was forced to have sex, such as injuries from her resisting. She had only some minor scratches on her knees and elbows which Delgado said was mostly from her falling down.
He said prosecutors played a video of Minton dragging the woman to his vehicle and lifting her in, but Delgado said the quality of the video, which was played at a slower speed, made it seem worse.
"It was slow motion," he said. "The state characterized it like him dragging her lifeless body. The state argued she was unconscious."
But Delgado said there was evidence she had been moving in Minton’s vehicle, such as a cigarette of the same type that she smoked snubbed out in the passenger area of Minton's vehicle. And Delgado said a video appeared to show some movement later where she was in the passenger seat.
“She had been moving and doing things in his car, she was not just a passed-out person,” Delgado said.
He said Minton brought her back to her car at the River Grille about an hour or an hour-and-a-half later. That's where her mother found her and took her home to Flagler Beach.
Minton’s freedom could be short-lived.
He is charged with third-degree felony battery in a case involving another woman and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Minton is accused of meeting a DeLand woman for a fake job interview on Feb. 14, 2020, at an Orange City bar. Then he drove her to a secluded area and pulled at her shirt and bra and touched her shoulders several times against her will.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida sex offender shown dragging woman to truck found not guilty
