A sex offender in Leesburg was arrested for failing to register after being found in his grandmother’s shed.
Terrance Jamel Wolfe, 40, is a registered sexual offender in the state of Florida for his conviction of lewd, lascivious battery for sex with a victim aged 12-15 in Lake County, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. He also has three prior convictions for failure to comply as a sexual offender in May 2012 and June 2017 in Lake County and in June 2017 in Sumter County.
Wolfe conducted a re-registration with the Lake County Sex Offender Registration Office on Nov. 29, 2023, and gave the address of 920 April Hills Boulevard, Lady Lake, which is on his ID card. He has registered that he has been staying at this address since Dec. 14, 2022. An attempt to verify his address went out on May 9, 2023, and he has yet to confirm this as his residence, the report said.
On Friday, two detectives with LCSO received information that Wolfe was staying at his grandmother’s residence at 1206 Berwick Drive in Leesburg. Contact was made with his grandmother, and she advised that Wolfe stays in a shed on her property. She opened the shed, and the detectives observed a mattress and numerous belongings, the report said.
Upon leaving the residence, the detectives found Wolfe a couple of blocks away on Crest Avenue sitting on a chair in a driveway. He stated that he was homeless and stayed in his grandmother’s shed. He also provided a phone number which was never registered to the detectives, who then told him to go to the office and register correctly, the report said.
At about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Wolfe called one of the detectives from the unregistered number. He was asked why he had not gone to the sex offender registration, and he stated that he was good because he talked to the detectives on Friday. He still had not updated any information with the registration office or DHSMV, the report said.
Wolfe was then arrested and charged with sexual offender fail to report after vacating residence, fail to report driver license office change address and fail to register changes to cell/telephone number. He was transported to the Lake County Jail with bond set at $75,000.