OCALA, FL (352today.com) – An Ocala man has been found guilty of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child.
Terry Hartsock III, 26, Ocala, was convicted of lewd and lascivious battery of a child Aug. 14, 2025, with the accused being tried in the Fifth Circuit Court, with Judge Barbara Kissner-Kwatkosky presiding.
The investigation went on for more than two years and initially started with the filing of a report regarding a missing and endangered child, a 13-year-old girl, who had last been seen at her home in Hernando.
Deputies from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office found Hartsock and the victim at an Ocala RV Park in the accused’s trailer in Oct. 2022.
It was after the victim was reunited with her family, that she disclosed that she had been sexually assaulted, and after a forensic examination, it was determined that the DNA evidence that had been taken from the victim matched the accused.
