Registered juvenile sex offender charged with molesting girl under 12

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Larance Devonte Scott, 22, a registered juvenile sexual offender, was arrested yesterday and charged with molesting a girl under 12 years old.

Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the Verdant Cove apartment complex Thursday, where the victim reportedly said Scott had lured her behind a shed under the guise of being partners in a game of hide-and-seek. She said while they were there, Scott made comments about physical strength and challenged her to lift him off the ground. She lifted him and put him back down. He then allegedly lifted her off the ground, with his hands on the back of her thighs. She told a deputy that she immediately told him to put her back down and stop touching her, but he allegedly picked her back up by wrapping his right arm around her thighs, with his palm on her buttocks. Scott was not located at the time.

Deputies responded again on Friday morning when a caller said Scott was still in the complex and sitting in a car.

Post Miranda, Scott reportedly said he had been with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend the whole day on Thursday while helping them move; both the brother and girlfriend also reportedly said he had been with them the whole time.

Deputies reportedly viewed video surveillance that showed Scott walking behind the shed at about 6:50 p.m. on Thursday, then luring the victim behind the shed and making hand gestures for her to follow him behind the shed. The video also reportedly shows Scott placing his hand into his pants while speaking with the child.

Scott later reportedly changed his story and said he had been alone at one point to talk on the phone, but he denied ever being behind a shed, interacting with a child, or touching a child. However, when confronted with the video footage, he reportedly admitted that he had gone behind the shed and that there were children in the area; however, he continued to deny that he had ever played with or touched a child.

Scott was convicted of sexual assault on a juvenile victim when he was 17, and that case resulted in his registration as a juvenile sexual offender. He has five adult felony convictions (one violent). He was convicted of failure to report his address as a sexual offender in 2021 in both Alachua and Putnam Counties; the Alachua County arrest report stated that he had given law enforcement officials the address of a cousin, where he had never lived. He was sentenced to two years in state prison for the Putnam County conviction and was released on May 11, 2023. He was sentenced to 18 months community control (house arrest) for the Alachua County conviction, and his lawyer stated in a motion on May 26 that the intent was for that sentence to run concurrently with the prison sentence; the motion asked the judge to end the community control sentence so Scott could “return home to the state of Georgia with his family.” Judge William Davis granted the motion on May 26 and terminated the community control.

Bail information is unavailable on weekends.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.