West Volusia News

From February 1, 2023 post.

SEX OFFENDER CHARGED AGAIN IN LATEST SEX CRIME INVOLVING A MINOR

A Central Florida sex offender and prolific criminal has been charged with another sex crime involving a teenage girl.

Merrill Maurice Calhoun, 40 (DOB 9/15/1982), was served with his latest arrest warrant today at the Volusia County Branch Jail, where he’s been in custody without bond since his arrest in May for failure to properly register as a sex offender.

Calhoun’s new charges stem from DNA confirmation of allegations he engaged in sex with a teenage girl on two occasions in the DeLand area when she was 14 and 15 years old. He’s charged with 2 counts of lewd or lascivious battery of a victim under the age of 16.

Calhoun was previously arrested on a similar charge in 2017, when another 14-year-old girl made a similar disclosure to a caseworker. However, that case ultimately was not prosecuted.

Calhoun has been a registered sex offender since a 2003 conviction in Orange County for lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim 12-15 years old.

Since 2012, he has been arrested 32 times in Volusia County alone, his various charges ranging from armed burglary to burglary with assault/battery, aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon, assault on a law enforcement officer, domestic battery by strangulation, simple battery, possession of cocaine, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury, to many more. He has also been arrested multiple times for failure to properly register as a sex offender.

Calhoun remains in the Branch Jail with no bond and a hold for his latest prison sentence. In November, he was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to sell and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Original source can be found here.