LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – One of six men charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Lake County in 2018 was found guilty by a jury on Thursday.
Woodrow M. Butler, 63, was found guilty of lewd and lascivious battery in a home in Eustis.
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The then-14-year-old ran away from a children’s shelter in Ocala and made her way to Eustis on or about Feb. 14, according to an affidavit.
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“I was a child,” the victim told Butler in an impact statement after the jury found him guilty, according to the Daily Commercial. “I was vulnerable, and you took advantage of me.”
After arriving in Eustis, the girl met a trio outside of a Family Dollar store, whom she “became comfortable with” and walked with them to the house of a man named “Poppie,” according to the affidavit. “Poppie” was identified as John Pedro Quashie in 2018, according to investigators.
The victim was taken to a shed behind Quashie’s home — where he lived with his girlfriend and two children — and she was given MDMA, or “Molly,” records show. After taking the drugs, the girl was first raped by Quashie, investigators said, and then by “Red,” who is Butler. She was passed around from one man to another, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the victim said that she took more drugs the next day and was taken to the house of a man named “Jermmaine,” whom she said raped her and gave her a drug known as “concrete,” which is heroin cut with fentanyl. The girl said she was then taken back to the shed and raped again, records show.
Between the two days, there was at least one exchange of money, according to the affidavit.
Later, the 14-year-old was taken back to the Family Dollar store, where the manager arranged a ride for her to meet with her ex-boyfriend in Ocoee, investigators said. The ex-boyfriend took her to a hospital in Ocoee, where she was provided a rape kit on Feb. 15, records show.
The DNA in the rape kit. collected on scene by the Ocoee Police Department, matched Quashie’s DNA in May 2018, officers said.
Sentencing was set for June 22 by Circuit Judge Larry Metz.