26 Year Old Palm Coast Man Accused of Illegal Sex and Battery of a Pregnant 16 Year Old Girl

Jazzpen Lee Leonard is a 26-year-old resident of Buttonwood Lane in Palm Coast. Earlier this year he was sentenced to three years’ probation on a felony charge of deliberately destroying a fire sprinkler in his jail cell at the Flagler County jail last Dec. 3, causing “an enormous volume of water” to flow from the sprinkler head, his arrest report read at the time.

He’d been jailed a few days earlier on a misdemeanor, his latest in a string of arrests stretching back to his juvenile days, including charges last year of domestic violence and false imprisonment involving his then-18-year-old girlfriend. The charges were dropped. He’d faced a similar charge, also dropped, in 2011, when he allegedly struck the mother of his child–a different woman–in 2011. He’s also faced injunctions and minor drug charges.

On Tuesday (May 28), Leonard was arrested on four felony charges: unlawful sexual activity with a minor, aggravated battery on a pregnant person–the 16-year-old mother of his child–felony battery and criminal mischief causing damage over $1,000. The first two charges are second-degree felonies. In Florida, it is illegal for a person 24 years old or older to have consensual sex with a 16 or 17 year old.

The 16 year old told Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy she was seven months pregnant and had recently broken up with Leonard because of the “mental and physical abuse from him,” according to the sheriff’s report. She said he’d lied to her during their courtship, only later revealing to her that he was 26, not 19. Leonard was insisting on speaking with her after the breakup despite her blocking several numbers on her cell phone. He’d get new numbers and text her. Finally on Tuesday, she agreed to meet with him for 30 minutes. He sent her an Uber ride that took her to the residence at 29 Buttonwood Lane.

Once there, according to her account, he immediately began yelling at her and telling her she’d never leave him, because there’d never be another man who would treat her as he did. He apparently said those things without a sense of irony. She was in fear and didn’t want anything more from him. “He subsequently grabbed her neck one handed and proceeded to squeeze her neck,” his arrest report states, “causing red marks” that showed by the time a deputy spoke with the alleged victim. She said she managed to get away from him several times only for him to regain control, squeezing her jaw, causing bruising around an eye and cheekbones, then grabbing her cell phone and using it to strike her “several times.” She said he then pushed her to the ground and smashed her phone on the road before he let her collect the debris and go home.

She told deputies she was in contact with Leonard’s probation officer (a severe probation violation could potentially convert his three years’ probation term to prison) and that she would seek an injunction against him.

Deputies arrested Leonard at his home. The arrest report does not indicate whether he offered his version of events, only that the alleged victim was “clearly showing signs” of having been battered. He’s being held at the Flagler County jail on $40,000 bond. Previously, he’s also gone by such aliases as “Jazzper” and “Jazzper Que.”