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Tallahassee high school student arrested for lewd and lascivious battery on child

Donald Snead
Posted at 12:30 PM, Feb 05, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-05 07:34:16-05

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - An 18-year-old Rickards High student has been charged with lewd and lascivious battery after being accused of having sex with a 14-year-old child. 

Donald James Devine Snead, 18, was booked into the Leon County Detention Center on Sunday.

On Jan. 26, 2019, investigators interviewed a 14-year-old child in reference to a sexual battery and gathered DNA evidence from the victim.

According to an adult witness, noises were coming from the victim's room early that morning. When the witness went into the teen's room, she found the victim in a towel and Snead lying on the victim's bed with red boxers around his ankles. 

The witness immediately called law enforcement, but Snead had run away by the time she returned to the victim's room. 

The witness also told investigators that she informed Snead and the family members he lives with that the victim was 14 years old a few weeks prior. During that visit to Snead's home, the witness said she requested that Snead stay away from the victim and Snead agreed.

When investigators spoke to the victim, documents say the victim denied having sex with Snead at first. Later on, the victim admitted that Snead had snuck into the bedroom through a window to have sex with the victim that morning.  

The victim told investigators that the pair had been "having sex" for the past month, sometimes without protection. The victim also acknowledged knowing that Snead was 18. When the victim was informed that what Snead was doing was illegal, court documents say the victim laughed and said "he can go to jail, I don't care."

Investigators then went to Snead's residence to speak with him. Documents say Snead denied that he had gone to the victim's house and denied having sex with the victim. 

According to court documents, Snead was not arrested at that time because he "genuinely" appeared to be asleep upon deputies' arrival and did not seem like he had just run away from the victim's home. Investigators also noted that Snead was wearing blue boxers, and not red boxers like the adult witness described. 

Documents say investigators collected DNA evidence from the victim and collected evidence that included the victim's bed comforter, items of clothing from the victim and the victim's cellphone.

During the collection of evidence from the victim's home, investigators noticed that a lock that had been on the victim's bathroom window appeared to be broken and was lying on the bathroom floor. Fingerprints were gathered from the window and submitted to determine whether they were Snead's.

On the victim's cellphone, documents say investigators found photos and a video of Snead and the victim.

Investigators wrote that the photos appeared to have been deleted from a remote location, but they were able to recover the photos and put them into evidence.

Based on DNA evidence, the victim's statements, a written statement from Snead directly contradicting evidence, and witness accounts, the investigator found probable cause to charge Snead with lewd and lascivious battery.

Snead was arrested over the weekend. He has since been released from jail on a $15,000 bond.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Snead is currently enrolled at Rickards High School. We have reached out to Leon County Schools to determine Snead's current status as a student and are waiting to hear back.