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Man who terrorized woman gets consecutive life terms

BARTOW - An Orlando man was given two consecutive life prison sentences Monday in the abduction and rape of his would-be girlfriend, who escaped after persuading him to stop and pray at a Lakeland mosque.

Jurors convicted Sean Ashman last month on charges of armed kidnapping, attempted felony murder and five counts of sexual battery with force.

Before Circuit Judge Ralph Artigliere sentenced him, Ashman, 31, read a letter in which he said he had made "some rash decisions," but did not accept responsibility for the crimes.

During trial, prosecutors said he began terrorizing the 30-year-old Orlando woman after she rebuffed his attempts to turn their friendship into a romance.

He broke into her apartment Dec. 21 and took her on an hourslong car trip through three counties. She testified he raped her several times.

The next morning the two Muslims drove to the Islamic Center of Lakeland, where Ashman said he hoped they could pray and talk to the mosque's head cleric about their relationship. But the woman persuaded members to the call the police, who arrested Ashman.

MIAMI - The leader of a nonprofit children's organization was named Monday to head the Miami-Dade County district of the beleaguered Department of Children and Families, an agency still grappling with the aftermath of the disappearance of Rilya Wilson.

Chuck Hood, 41, chief executive of the Miami-Dade School Readiness Coalition, will become the new district administrator for Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys. The district has been under intense scrutiny since agency officials acknowledged last year that 5-year-old Rilya was missing 15 months before her disappearance was noticed.

DCF Secretary Jerry Regier appointed Nancy Dreicer, a former executive for Lucent Technologies in Great Britain, to lead the Jacksonville office.