A 20-year-old former substitute teacher accused of inappropriately touching students told a judge in a letter that he is “created from fire” and here to “collect the souls of the innocent” for a mythical creature.
Syed Asher sent the one-page, all-caps letter to the judge overseeing his case earlier in January saying he’s collecting the souls and sending them to Jinn, creatures found in Arabic and Islamic mythology.
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Asher sent the letter nearly six weeks after his new attorney Lyle Mazin said Asher may have mental health and developmental issues.
“There was already one evaluation done on him prior to this letter," Mazin said. "So if anyone is accusing him of this being a ruse -- absolutely not true.”
Last March, Asher agreed to talk to a detective after a girl from Boggy Creek Elementary said Asher touched her inappropriately during class.
When asked by detectives if he had any medical conditions that would impede him from speaking to them, he replied “not really, not really.”
Osceola County detectives say he admitted to some of the allegations that day, saying, “I shouldn’t do that to little kids. That’s very wrong.”
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Mazin says you “cannot judge a book by its cover” about Asher.
“Just because someone presents as one way does not mean that they don’t have issues -- developmental or mental health or otherwise,” Mazin said.
Last month, Mazin rejected an unofficial plea deal for Asher where the state offered 12 years, which is less than half of the 25-year minimum sentence.
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