10-16-2009 Florida:APOPKA, Fla. -- An Apopka man accused of shooting a teen that he caught having sex with his stepdaughter will not be allowed to bond out of jail. Wade Edwards is facing second-degree attempted murder charges after he caught the couple in the act.
The family of 18-year-old Julian Harp knows he's lucky to be alive.
“He could have told him to get out of his house instead of shooting him,” Harp’s brother Dmeric Collier said.
Thursday night, Wade Edwards arrived home to an unpleasant surprise. His 16-year-old stepdaughter daughter and Harp were having sex inside the family's Apopka home.
According to a police report, Edwards walked in on the two having sex. He left the girl's bedroom and Harp quickly threw on his clothes fearing something bad might happen.
Edwards walked into the room again, this time armed with .45-caliber handgun. Harp asked Edwards not to shoot, but police said he fired four times as he left the house.
Then Wade called 911 to report what he'd done (911 call).
"I saw someone.. someone was inside my house... with my daughter and I shot him, I feared for my life," Edwards told the operator.
“Is she a juvenile or teenager?” the operator asked.
“Yes.” He replied.
“And you walked in on them and they were there and he scared you?” asked the operator.
“Yes. I feared for my life, I didn't know what to do,” he said.
“But your daughter knows this gentleman?” asked the operator.
"I don't know ma'am, I don't know," he said.
Harp was hit in lower back, buttocks and twice in his left leg. Harp walked across the street and collapsed. A passer-by helped him until rescue crews arrived.
“It didn't take that many times to let him know something. Shot him four times,” Harp’s aunt Gloria Windom said.
Police arrested the stepdad and charged him with attempted second-degree murder. An Orange County judge denied Edwards bond so he will stay in jail.
Edwards’ criminal past includes weapons and assault charges in Saint Croix.
Apopka parent Bill Goff told Eyewitness News what he'd do if he found his child in bed with someone else.
“I think I would have been irate. I may have been physical and thrown the person out, but I don't think I would have shot him,” Goff said.
Harp's aunt Gloria Windom agrees.
“He could have popped him beside the head and said, ‘Get off the girl,’” she said.
His relatives said Harp and the girl have been dating for over one year and it is the first known time there's been a confrontation involving the stepfather.
Sex between a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old is legal in the state of Florida.
By law, an adult under 24 can legally have sex with a minor no younger than 16. That law is called the “close in age exemption."
However, if the adult is 24 or older, then sex with a 16-year-old becomes a second-degree felony. ..Source.. by WFTV.com
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