A stepfather who shot a 25-year-old man whom he had suspected of abusing his stepdaughter, won’t be prosecuted in the 2015 case.
Michael Cates, 49, of Lady Lake, had faced a charge of second-degree murder in the Nov. 21, 2015 death of Jeremy Yelton, an alum of the Villages High School. The fatal altercation on Griffin View Road had been sparked by Cates’ stepdaughter’s accusation that she had been abused by Yelton, with whom she had been in a romantic relationship.
After Yelton was shot during a struggle, Cates called 911.
The prosecutor’s office announced earlier this month that the case against Cates, who has consistently claimed self defense, was being dropped after the sole witness on that fateful night changed his testimony.
Earl Pratt Jr. originally told investigators that Cates had approached Yelton with a baseball bat taken from the vehicle in which Pratt and Cates had been traveling.
During a sworn interview earlier this month, Pratt admitted he had lied during an earlier interview. In the new interview, Pratt said that Cates got out of the vehicle empty-handed and approached Yelton and said, “Did you seriously beat up my daughter?” Yelton, a former lineman for the VHS football team, then attacked Cates and both fell to the ground. In the new interview, Pratt said he was the one who removed the bat from the car, but he later threw it away without using it. He said he had lied because he had feared getting into trouble.
“Because Mr. Pratt has changed his testimony and stated he lied when he said defendant left the car with the bat, the State is left with no substantive evidence to refute a self-defense claim. Though the State would be able to impeach Mr. Pratt with his prior testimony, such evidence legally would not constitute substantive evidence and would not be legally sufficient to sustain a conviction,” the prosecutor’s office said in its filing to drop the case.
