A man has been charged with perjury in connection with the 2015 shooting death of a Villages High School alumnus.
Earl Albert Pratt Jr., 25, of Fruitland Park, was arrested Wednesday night after he turned himself in at the Lake County Jail. He was wanted on a warrant charging him with perjury.
Earlier this year, Pratt admitted that he had lied about what took place the night of Nov. 21, 2015 when 25-year-old Jeremy Yelton was killed.
Pratt’s admission forced the prosecutor’s office to abandon a charge of second-degree murder against 50-year-old Michael Cates of Lady Lake.
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.
Yelton was shot during a struggle.
Cates, who had a .357-caliber handgun tucked in his waistband that night, has consistently claimed self defense.
Investigators were originally told that Cates was carrying an aluminum baseball bat when he approached Yelton.
In his revised version of the story of that night, 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 the 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.
Pratt is free on $2,000 bond.