Merritt Island Man Sentenced to 30 Years for Lewd Battery Involving 15-Year-Old Girl
By Space Coast Daily // February 16, 2026
BREVARD COUNTY • MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA – A 37-year-old man will spend the next three decades in prison after a jury convicted him of lewd and lascivious battery involving a 15-year-old Merritt Island girl, according to court documents.
Tevaris D. Holmes was found guilty in November following a trial in which Assistant State Attorneys Sara Flenniken and Rebecca Price presented evidence that he engaged in a sexual relationship with the teenager in 2022, shortly after his release from prison. The girl later became pregnant.
Prosecutors introduced a recorded phone call between Holmes and the victim’s mother, during which Holmes acknowledged he was the father of the child.
The call was part of a controlled investigation conducted by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office after the teen’s parents reported the relationship and pregnancy in October 2022.
During the monitored call, Holmes admitted he had sex with the girl once and stated he “should have been a better person.” When asked whether he intended to help care for the baby, he responded, “If I’m out of jail, of course.”
In a second phase of the trial, jurors determined Holmes qualified as both a Prison Releasee Reoffender and a Habitual Felony Offender based on his prior criminal history. Those designations allowed the court to enhance his sentence from a potential 15 years to 30 years in state prison.
Flenniken urged the court to impose the maximum penalty, telling the judge the case warranted the enhanced sentence.
Holmes has an extensive criminal record. Before the recent conviction, he was arrested in 2023 and later sentenced in 2024 to seven years in prison on charges of trafficking fentanyl, possession of cocaine with intent to sell, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Court records show he previously served time in the Brevard County Jail and in state prison for offenses including drug possession, making written threats to kill, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, driving while license revoked as a habitual offender, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
