Kermit In a 2006–2009 case in Palm Coast’s Z Section, 72-year-old Carl Booth, a former Palm Coast resident and former employee of the Volusia County school district, is charged with two capital felonies for raping a girl between the ages of 6 and 9.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly was incensed when Booth was arrested in North Carolina last Friday and freed on an incredibly low bond. When he signed the arrest warrant, a Flagler County judge set the bond at $500,000.
The girl lived next door to Booth. She would come see him because her parents trusted him, and he would use presents to control her, such as an iPod Nano (which was quite popular at the time) or lure her in with the slide he had constructed to his backyard pool.
The woman, who is now 26 and a mother of two, stated in an interview today that no one was aware of this until I told my mother when I was 14. I can’t recall exactly what he said, but he was highly manipulative and advised me to maintain secrets.
In 2009, she moved out with her family. Until he sold it in May 2023, Booth remained at 74 Zephyr Lilly Trail, the home he had owned since 1998. At the end of 2013, he retired from his position as a year-round maintenance worker for the Volusia County school district.
The claimed victim hopes that other victims will come as a result of information being made public about him. She said, “I can’t be the only victim.”
The child had reported the alleged attacks in 2015, claiming that Booth had attempted to have sex with her, according to his arrest record. He made her have oral sex even though she refused.”The case saw little movement for several years due to significant investigative challenges,” according to a release from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office released today. (According to the announcement, the mother of the child also reported incidences from 2006 to 2009 to authorities in 2015.)
When the lady reported to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in 2023 that Booth had texted her on social media, the investigation was reopened. After she had given birth to her first kid, he did so. She advised him to avoid my children and me. He continued. (In 2016, he was arrested for aggravated stalking of another woman.)
Booth was questioned via text message as to why he didn’t confess to abusing a youngster and exploiting her after she had recently lost her father. He said he repented (repented) every single day. He texted, I’m really sorry, I’m not happy with myself. I’m not really like that on the inside, therefore it’s a first and a last!
Around the time he left Palm Coast, that is. He texted her using the same number she had as a child, which she preserved, and he apparently admitted to stalking her at one point. He had been sitting in the parking lot of a store where she worked, considering going inside and confronting her. He claimed that when he suspected she could be upset, he had second thoughts. To say that she was angry would be an understatement.
She remarked, “I believe he is delusional and believes I have feelings for him or something.” In his weird, twisted fucking way, my boyfriend believes that [Booth] loves me. He simply cannot comprehend that his actions were wrong. You’ve seen his mugshot, the one on the Facebook page, after all. He was grinning. She was referring to the mugshot that was utilized earlier today by the Sheriff’s Office when they posted the item on their Facebook page.
“It’s been terrible for all the time that’s passed,” the woman stated. I’ve tried suicide, I have PTSD, I’ve seen therapists and psychiatrists on and off, and I still get dreams and flashbacks. I had a nightmare the other day where I wasn’t there to defend one of my children from Kermit.
The woman is now incensed because a North Carolina magistrate released him on a modest bond as soon as he was arrested on the Flagler County charges.
At the moment, Booth resides in Franklin, western North Carolina, at 726 Echo High Road. On July 29, sheriff’s deputies secured a warrant. The bond was set at $500,000 by the Flagler County judge who authorized the warrant.Booth was taken into custody by the Macon County Sheriff’s Office in Franklin on August 1st, and he was lodged into the Macon County jail.
The sheriff’s release adds that Booth posted bond with an extradition hearing set for September 8 after a North Carolina court subsequently reduced the amount to $35,000.
It infuriated Sheriff Rick Staly. The decision by a North Carolina judge to reduce the bond set by a Florida judge is extremely concerning, Staly said in a statement. After waiting ten years for him to be held accountable, this victim has once again been harmed by a North Carolina court who granted him a very low bond and released him prior to his extradition hearing. In all the years I have worked in law enforcement, I have never heard of an out-of-state court handling a fugitive from justice case in this manner. It is a farce of justice. We will keep fighting for justice, I assure the victim.
How two capital felony charges in North Carolina brought his bond amount closer to the bond he received for aggravated stalking nine years prior is beyond explanation.
Even though Florida law currently stipulates that rapes of children under the age of twelve carry the capital penalty, the incidents occurred before the legislation was passed, therefore prosecutors could not pursue the death penalty if he appeared in court for his upcoming hearing. The case is being prosecuted by Melissa Clark, an assistant state attorney.
To be honest, I was expecting that he would be detained till the trial, the woman stated, but it seems that North Carolina ruined that plan. But ultimately, I hope he spends the rest of his life in jail. When my investigator informed me that he had been arrested and sent to jail, I was overjoyed. When my detective informed me that he was out on lesser bond today, I had a panic attack. George Hristakopoulos, the leader of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Major Case Unit, was the person the woman was referring to.
This case is a disturbing reminder of how predators can exploit situations to harm children, Staly said, commending the bravery of the victim and the work of our Major Case Unit in obtaining a warrant and arrest.
Booth was charged with aggravated stalking of a 34-year-old part-time nurse at the Windsor assisted care facility, where his mother resided, in July 2016, at the age of 63. He would frequently go there and look for the nurse, despite the fact that she was married and had no connection to him. She claimed in a court filing for an injunction that she felt quite threatened by him.
He went to her house after locating her unlisted address. When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Windsor to arrest him, the nurse was hiding from him in a staff break room. The third-degree felony charge was reduced to stalking, a misdemeanor, in a plea. Booth received a one-year probationary period. The woman and her husband both secured an open-ended injunction against him.
