Channel 9 found out that a convicted killer has had many arrests over the years, an Osceola County jury found him not guilty twice and the state has either failed to file charges, or dropped cases against him four times since 2000.
Samuel Fertic was released from the Osceola County Jail six weeks after deputies arrested him. Authorities said Fertic torched his home as law enforcement was trying to arrest him on charges of raping a woman the day before.
OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — The attack, which was detailed in an arrest affidavit, accuses Fertic of choking a woman until she was unconscious and threatening her with a machete inside a home.
A timeline shows just how many times Fertic has fallen through the cracks.
In 1997, authorities charged Fertic with battery. He pleaded no contest and served one year of probation and spent three days in jail.
A judge ordered him to have "no hostile contact with his ex-wife, Lisa Fertic."
Three years later, an arrest for tampering with evidence ended when the state chose not to prosecute.
The next year, Lisa Fertic died, and her cause of death was "blunt force injury to head."
A Texas jury convicted Fertic of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but after 10 years in prison, he was released in 2011.
The next year, a charge of battery ended again when the state of Florida did not file information.
Three months later, charges of battery, kidnapping and strangulation ended in a plea agreement. Fertic Served 64 days in jail.
In 2013, Fertic was charged twice with battery, but a jury found him not guilty on both counts.
That same year, the state dropped charges of resisting an officer.
They also dropped battery charges the following year.
Now, it's the state’s failure to file charges that allowed Fertic to walk free Tuesday.
Channel 9 found out that the state received a complete packet from the Osceola County Sheriff's Office on June 14.
“Did it just sit on someone's desk and let the clock tick away? That, we don't know," said former chief judge Belvin Perry.
The State Attorney’s Office said it’s investigating, but officials will not say what information they're waiting on in the sexual battery case.
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office said they've turned everything over to the state, and that their case is closed.
Cox Media Group
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