INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Kaitlyn Hunt, the now-19-year-old accused of having a sexual relationship with her then-14-year-old girlfriend, will remain in jail until Dec. 20 and then be released on strict community control for three years, Judge Robert Pegg decided Thursday morning.
{{tncms-asset app=”editorial” id=”3e731f82-2c5a-11e3-99f3-0019bb30f31a”}}
The decision came after the State Attorney’s Office and Hunt’s attorney, A. Julia Graves, negotiated a plea deal to bring the case to resolution.
Hunt pled no contest to two misdemeanor charges of battery, two counts of interference with child custody and one count of contributing to the dependency of a child.
A charge of transmitting materials contributing to the dependency of a child was dropped.
Hunt appeared in court wearing a black blazer over her orange jail-issued jumpsuit and quietly responded to Judge Pegg’s questions with “Yes, sir” or “No, sir.” She made no other comments in court.
“We are certainly glad it’s over,” said Attorney Charles Sullivan Jr., who represents the underage girlfriend’s family.
When asked how the now-15-year-old is doing, her mother said, “She’s coping.”
“We’re thankful to reach a satisfactory and fair agreement,” Sullivan said, adding, “We think it’s fair. We think it’s appropriate. She (Hunt) can redeem herself.”
Hunt’s attorney, Graves, said outside the courtroom that she’d rather have gone to trial than accept the plea deal.
“I would have loved to have gone to trial and cleared a few things up,” Graves said, “but it was too big a risk.”
Hunt’s parents reacted to the latest developments outside the courtroom.
“I have so many emotions,” Hunt’s mother, Kelley Hunt Smith, said. “This was Kate’s decision…I support her.”
Smith said she didn’t necessarily agree with the plea deal but could understand her daughter’s desire to move on.
Her step-father, Charles Smith, said the hardest part of the entire ordeal has been “losing our daughter. Our daughter is sitting in jail.”
He said the plea deal was the lesser of two evils.
“She’s just a kid,” Smith said.
Hunt’s mom contends that her daughter never should have been arrested to begin with given that “they’re kids.”
“I understand the law,” she said, but there was no malice, no intent, no manipulation on her daughter’s part.
“They made bad choices together,” Hunt Smith said her daughter and the underage girl.
She said she plans to fight the Florida law that, she says, is antiquated – a law that allows for those 18 and older to be arrested for having sexual relations with minors. She said the law was meant to save children from adult predators – not from high school relationships.
“You might as well turn high schools into prisons,” she said.
