A convicted killer arrested on suspicion of sexual battery was released from jail Tuesday in Osceola County and the sheriff's office said it’s concerned.
Authorities said it took the SWAT team and every available resource to arrest Samuel Fertic on the sexual battery charge last month.
Fertic had been behind bars without bail since June 9, but Tuesday he walked out of jail on his own recognizance, because the State Attorney's Office has not filed information in the case to keep him locked up.
A motion Fertic filed in court Tuesday requested the release because the state had not yet filed formal charges in the cases against him.
The sexual battery charge outlined in an affidavit details an attack with "a machete," and a sexual assault "five different times."
Perhaps the most chilling part of the report is that the victim told deputies during the attack that Fertic said, "You need to die. You remind me of my ex-wife and I'm going to kill you."
Fertic served a 10-year prison sentence on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, involving the killing of his ex-wife, Lisa King in 2001 in El Paso, Texas.
When authorities tried arresting him in June, they said he set his home on fire. Deputies kept fire crews away because they said Fertic was a danger.
9 Investigates uncovered more than a dozen mug shots since 2001. Fertic has been arrested for battery, kidnapping and resisting an officer, but some of those charges were dropped, and he was found not guilty on others. But Fertic had served time for battery charges.
In a statement to Channel 9, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said, "Law enforcement is concerned about his recent release. While we do not agree with the decision, we will abide by that decision."
The decision to let Fertic walk free is not final.
The State Attorney’s Office said it's waiting on lab reports to decide if it will formally file charges for the fire, but officials did not answer why they have not filed on the sexual battery charge.
The cases are open and active.
Prosecutors in El Paso had witnesses who claimed Fertic killed people in Osceola County in the 1990s.
Osceola County deputies told Channel 9 last week that they are looking into those claims.
Cox Media Group
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