A Brown County man and former Navy swimmer charged with attempted murder last year for nearly drowning a hotel security guard in a pool at a resort in Florida has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
Muddy River News reports that 34-year old Seth Beavers of Mt. Sterling appeared in Okaloosa County Circuit Court last Monday before Judge Terrance Ketchel for what was scheduled to be a pretrial conference. Court records in Okaloosa County show Beavers agreed to plea 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. As part of the plea agreement, the attempted murder charge was dismissed.
Beavers was charged in March 2023 after authorities in Florida claimed that Beavers attempted to purposefully drowned a security guard 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 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 in lieu of Monday’s plea.