A convicted sex offender and another man reportedly suffered severe burns in a fire at a home in The Villages.
The Villages Public Safety Department was called at 3:26 p.m. Saturday to the home in the Tate Gregory Villas in the Village of DeLuna after a blaze erupted in the garage.
Two men were airlifted and taken to the burn treatment center at Orlando Regional Medical Center. They were taken by helicopter from a landing zone set up at Everglades Recreation Center.
A sex offender, 63-year-old Fred William “Sonny” Trinkle has been living in the villa, which is located at 2771 Horvat Lane, according to registration information on file with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The villa is owned by the estate of Trinkle’s late mother, who died in 2024 at age 101. Trinkle had previously lived with her in the Village of Bonnybrook.
Trinkle was convicted in 1996 in Manatee County of a lewd and lascivious offense involving a child. He has also been convicted four times for failure to report his address and failure to comply with reporting requirements. Those instances occurred in 2006 and 2007 in Manatee and Sumter counties.
On Aug. 11, 2009, Trinkle was arrested by Sumter County sheriff’s deputies on a charge of selling cocaine within 1,000 feet of a place of worship. He was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison. He was released June 27, 2014 and moved into his mother’s home in Bonnybrook.
In 2016, he was arrested in a bogus return scheme at a store at Southern Trace Plaza in The Villages. He was placed on probation in that case.