Mount Sterling man charged with March 2023 attempted homicide in Florida pleads no contest to misdemeanor

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — A Mount Sterling, Ill., man who was charged in March 2023 with attempted homicide pled no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge earlier this week.

Seth Beavers, 34, appeared in Okaloosa County Circuit Court on Monday before Judge Terrance Ketchel for what was scheduled to be a pretrial conference. Court records in Okaloosa County show Beavers agreed to plea “nolo contendere” to a reduced first-degree charge of battery to cause bodily harm and received a sentence of 12 months of probation and mandatory anger management classes.

“Nolo contendere” is like an Alford plea in Illinois in which the defendant does not accept or deny responsibility for the charges but waives the right to a trial and agrees to accept the penalty.

As part of the plea agreement, the attempted murder charge was dismissed. 

Beavers was charged with attempted murder after authorities in Florida claimed he almost drowned a security guard in a swimming pool at a condominium on Okaloosa Island between Fort Walton Beach and Destin in northern Florida. Investigators with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department said the security guard told Beavers, a former Naval rescue swimmer, that the pool at the Panhandle condo was closed and he would have to leave. 

Deputies said in a press release given to WEAR-TV, an ABC affiliate in Pensacola, Fla., that the security guard asked Beavers to leave but claimed Beavers instead started a physical altercation, telling the security guard he would drown him. The victim said Beavers then rolled him into the pool while holding him against his will, hit him in the head and pushed him underwater.

Deputies said the security guard, who couldn’t swim, got away briefly before he claimed Beavers struck him again, wrapped his arm around his neck and pulled him back into the water, submerging his head as if trying to drown him.

The Associated Press reported investigators said Beavers told them the security guard swung at him. He allegedly admitted he pulled the guard into the pool, held him underwater, struck him four times and told him he was going to drown him.

Investigators said that as a Navy swimmer, Beavers received extensive training in how to disable others in the water.

Beavers originally was lodged in the Okaloosa County Jail on a $200,000 bond, but he posted a signature bond and was released on April 26, 2023. He pleaded not guilty to the felony charge on May 16, 2023.

Beavers’ attorneys were Michael Flowers and Timothy Shaw with Anchors Smith Grimsley of Fort Walton Beach.