ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — A man accused of kidnapping and raping a woman was denied bail Saturday morning.
Police said Jason Minton dragged an unconscious woman into his vehicle to rape her.
Minton’s lawyer says his client is a registered sex offender, and has been accused of rape before, but he says Minton is innocent in this case.
Ormond Beach police say that Tuesday afternoon at the River Grille on U.S. 1, Minton was seen on surveillance footage dragging an unconscious woman to his car.
His attorney, Aaron Delgado, doesn’t deny it is Minton in the video, but he says his client is innocent.
“I think when all the facts come out, you’ll see this in a very, very different light,” Delgado said.
Minton overheard the victim talking about wanting a new job. He told her that his employer is looking for a secretary and would pay her $35 an hour. They met for an interview over lunch.
Investigators say the next thing that she remembers is waking up at her parents’ house after they found her in her car in the restaurant’s parking lot. The victim picked Minton out of a photo lineup.
“He went to that restaurant with every intent of raping the victim,” said Keith Walker with the Ormond Beach Police Department.
The woman said she believes Minton had sex with her, and she complained it was very painful.
While at a hospital, the woman said she received a call from an unknown number and she answered the phone. The woman said she immediately recognized that it was Minton, hung up and said she was busy.
It was later found that Minton’s contact information, text log and call log had been removed from her phone without her consent or knowledge.
Delgado also defended Minton against a previous sexual battery case in 2015. Minton took a plea deal and was sentenced to a year’s probation.
Although Delgado said it’s not rare for police to arrest the wrong person, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said he believes Minton might also be a suspect in one of his cases.
Watch that news conference below:
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