BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WALA) – Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputies have charged a Florida man with multiple counts of rape, sodomy and willful abuse / torture of a child. This, after the alleged victim came forward several months after deputies said the abuse began.
Twenty-two-year-old Gavin Orlando Jernigan of Cantonment, FL was picked up on his warrants in Escambia County last week. He was booked into the Baldwin County Jail over the weekend.
Jernigan made his first court appearance since his arrest on Monday, January 13, 2025. Before setting bond, Judge Bill Scully listened to details of the case from the prosecution. They described a situation of ongoing abuse where the alleged victim who was known to Jernigan was forcibly raped and otherwise sexually abused beginning in June of 2024.
“There’s several allegations and we expect there to be a lot of…some additional charges to come out of Grand Jury as far as counts and things but it goes from everything from incapacitation, when our adult victim was incapacitated through forcible compulsion,” explained Capt. Daniel Steelman with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office…