Orange County Judge Elaine Barbour released a convicted s*xual predator with a history of attacks on women—setting him loose on a $9,500 bond even though prosecutors begged her to keep him locked up.
Jacoby Vontrell Tillman, a 23-year-old with a lengthy rap sheet, allegedly ambushed a 23-year-old woman on the Little Econ Greenway Trail in east Orlando, choked her until she was unconscious, stripped her and beat her causing severe injuries to her eyes, neck, and nose.
The victim, who had to be hospitalized described the assault saying he tried to r*pe and m*rder her.
Surveillance video captured Tillman tossing her clothes over a fence before going into a nearby home.
According to the affidavit Tillman said he wanted to go a step further, telling a friend
“I didn’t r*pe the lady, I was trying to k*ll the lady”Because he “wanted to know what it was like to choke someone out.”
The affidavit also says that Tillman’s mother tried to help him arrange a get-way flight from Florida – something the prosecutors brought up in court when pleading with the court to keep him locked up.
In 2022, Tillman was convicted of battery for attacking another female jogger—on the same trail.
He served one year in prison and has served stints in Orange and Volusia County jails for similar violent crimes.
However, Judge Barbour set him free two days after his arrest – without conditions like an ankle monitor or trail bans saying
“Don’t mess up, or else.”
Orange County Sheriff John Mina, blasted the release as “atrocious,” saying Tillman “should have never been released” and vowing to fight for victims’ justice.
He’s being charged with attempted s*xual battery with a deadly weapon, battery by strangulation, attempted first-degree m*rder, and false imprisonment.
