Okaloosa County deputies arrest three after violent kidnapping leads to dramatic escape and hospital visit

Fort Walton Beach, Florida – In the early morning hours on May 12, residents on Mooney Road near Fort Walton Beach were jolted awake by the sound of masked intruders forcing their way into a home. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office reports that a group of armed suspects at approximately 2:45 a.m. forced their way through the front door. Before being pushed into a waiting car, one of the occupants was hit and pepper-sprayed.

The ordeal did not stop there. Deputies claim the assailants drove the guy to a trailer on Carlos Drive, where they kept beating him. Despite his injuries, the victim was able to escape and run away from the site. He walked to a Racetrack Road convenience store, where police located him bruised and bleeding. He was sent to a nearby hospital for treatment by paramedics.

When asked, the man explained to officers the intruders wanted details on a someone he did not know. Frustrated by the lack of answers, they stepped up their attack and then abandoned their original strategy.

In the interim, deputies had started combing the Mooney Road region. Three people fitting the suspect description came back to the site early that morning. They were immediately arrested without incident.

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Since then, officials have named the three and filed charges. Twenty-seven-year-old Joe Trejo and 30-year-old Lennys Cotto, both from Ocala, face counts of armed burglary and kidnapping. Eustis’s seventeen-year-old Kaylynn Corsi is accused of kidnapping and providing law law enforcement a false name.

“These arrests are the result of a very rapid response and excellent work by our night shift patrol deputies and our investigators. They had to deal with multiple crime scenes and a complex evolving situation, and the outcome is commendable,” said Sheriff Eric Aden in a release.

As the investigation continues, detectives are piecing together the motive behind the break-in and the identity of the person the suspects were allegedly seeking. Law enforcement’s quick response has so far brought three dangerous people into jail and stopped what might have been an even more serious crime.