Boy, 11, released from jail after detention over 'deadly' home-made slingshot

Christine Dellert
The Orlando Sentinel
Feb. 23, 2007

After spending nearly 72 hours in an Ocala juvenile jail, the 11-year-old Lake County boy detained for his 'deadly' makeshift slingshot returned home to his parents Tuesday night.

Kevin Cottle said he didn't deliberately try to hit another student at Tavares Middle School with his home-made slingshot.

'I wasn't trying to hit him. It was an accident to shoot him,' he said soon after he was released from the Marion Regional Juvenile Detention Center Tuesday night. 'I just want to say I'm sorry.'

The sixth-grader at Tavares Middle was arrested Friday when he was accused of using a toy balloon slingshot to hit another student in the chest. He faces second-degree felony charges of shooting or throwing a deadly missile.

A Lake County judge ordered Kevin released from the juvenile detention center on Tuesday afternoon and placed him in home confinement in Tavares until his case is resolved. Kevin isn't allowed around the student he is accused of harming.

That boy suffered a welt when a plastic pellet from Kevin's slingshot struck him, according to a Lake County Sheriff's Office report. Kevin fashioned the slingshot from a stretchy balloon, a plastic milk jug top and rubber bands, officials said.

But Kevin's mother, Pam Cottle, said authorities overreacted, charging her son with a felony and locking him up in an Ocala facility with violent children.

'We just want the correct punishment,' she said. 'We'll accept community service, go to teen court, whatever the case may be -- but we do want the charges changed.'

Kevin Cottle said he shot the pellet at a locker and the projectile ricocheted and hit the other student.

Samuel Oliver, the Tavares attorney representing Kevin, said Tuesday he expected authorities to downgrade allegations lodged against the boy.

Prosecutors are 'apparently skeptical of whether or not this merited the charge that was levied by the Sheriff's Office,' he said.

Assistant State Attorney Walter Forgie said he couldn't comment on the case.

Oliver also criticized deputies for consulting with the State Attorney's Office when arresting the boy.

Lake sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Christie Mysinger said the school resources deputy 'didn't make this decision alone.'

The deputy spoke with her supervisor who also consulted prosecutors to discuss the charging, Mysinger said.

Forgie added, 'Prosecutors are made available to law enforcement not to advise on when an arrest should be made, which is at the discretion of law enforcement, but to answer legal questions they might have.'

Mysinger said too much focus has been placed on the wording of the charge. The statute Kevin Cottle was charged under covers severe injury or great bodily harm.

'I didn't think anybody thought he was going to kill the kid with it,' she said.

She also said it's common for deputies to consult with prosecutors in certain circumstances.

'When you have a case that borders on several different statutes and you're trying to decide which one is the best fit -- it's not uncommon,' she said.

Kevin Cottle's problems go beyond the criminal charge.

Tavares Middle School Principal Mike Herring said school administrators have started the 'expulsion process.' But he wouldn't comment on the disciplinary action they'll take. Lake schools have a zero-tolerance policy for weapons, Herring said.

School officials kept students in class Friday morning after several students told administrators they had seen Kevin with the slingshot.

When asked about his release from jail, Kevin said he was hungry.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations, Pam Cottle said she'll worry about disciplining Kevin after he's back home. First, she'll feed him. 'It's not like I'm gong to reward him,' she said. 'But the kid is starving to death in there. . . . He is in trouble with his father and me. But that will wait until the day after he gets home.'