Three weeks ago 20-year-old Aiden Barnett of Palm Coast’s B-Section wrote Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols that he was a “a completely changed person” since he fled from a cop on his motorcycle at 115 miles per hour after being pulled over on I-95 a year and a half ago, the back of his jacket imprinted with the words, “Police Abuse Their Power.”
Barnett had taken video of the encounter and posted it to TikTok, as he had a previous stop that April, calling it an illegal stop. “Cops,” he’s heard saying in his own video, “really go through all that training just to get out ran by a kid an a 3k piss missile.” His own TikTok videos helped “cops” track him down. He was arrested, charged with fleeing police, a second-degree felony with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, and pleaded to house arrest for a year and probation for an additional two.
Now he was writing the judge to ask for a waiver on the anger-management class he was required to take as part of the plea agreement, and to let him buy out the 50 hours of community service he was required to provide. He told Nichols he had “matured over the last couple of years since this incident that happened. I am no longer a young, immature, rebellious teenager. I hold a full time job, where I received the First Coast Manufacturers Association 2024 Outstanding Employee Award.” He was one of some three dozen people receiving the award.
The judge granted the requests on Jan. 9.
On Friday (Jan. 24), Barnett was arrested on an aggravated child abuse charge, a first-degree felony with a maximum penalty of 30 years if guilty, after allegedly punching a 17-year-old girl so violently that she ended up in the hospital with a minor concussion, a black eye and double vision. An emergency department nurse at AdventHealth Palm Coast contacted the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office to report that the girl had been admitted at the emergency department with a head trauma. The girl’s mother, who was with a newborn at home and unable to be at the hospital, had requested that law enforcement be contacted.
The incident was recorded on video, but not by Barnett, and witnessed by one of the alleged victim’s friends. The victim herself had difficulties speaking with the deputy at the hospital. The witness told the deputy that several girls had been at Wawa on State Road 100, where they met others, following them to a party on Utrillo Place in Seminole Woods. The party was intended only for a small group of people, but others joined when they heard about it, upsetting the host. That address had drawn a noise complaint that night, between midnight and 1 a.m. The witness described an altercation developing at the house, and involving two girls. The alleged victim tried to break up the fight.
“The first minute of the video consist of loud verbal and physical altercations between 8-10 people,” Barnett’s arrest report states. At the one-minute mark, the alleged victim “retreats to a bedroom in an attempt to remove herself from the situation,” the report states. “A male subject in a white hat and white and black plaid jacket followed her and sought her out into the bedroom and proceeded to punch her until she is on the ground. It is uncertain as to whether or not he proceeded to punch her after she was on the ground. Parties then removed the male from the room and [the girl] is lying on the ground crying. The incident appears to be unprovoked between the male subject” and the girl.
A witness at the hospital told the deputy that she suspected the assailant was a person named Aiden–but not Aiden Barnett. The deputy located and interviewed the different Aiden, who turned out to have an alibi: Ring video and Life360, the tracking app, recorded him away from the party at the time of the incident. License plate reader video tracked a Black Ford F-150 registered to Barnett “in the area of Wawa,” and an image a witness had provided of the person she thought was the assailant matched that of Barnett’s driver’s license.
The deputy interviewed Barnett in his mother’s presence at his home on Bayside Drive. Aiden Barnett initially said he was aware of the party in question but had not attended. He then said he had gone there, but only to pick someone up–a third person named “Aiden”–and had not gone in the house. Barnett allegedly changed his story, said he went to Wawa to pick up someone called “Mel,” and went to the house where the party was taking place, but did not go in. When the deputy confronted him with the image the witness had provided law enforcement, Barnett confirmed it was him, but said “it was impossible for him to be the person identified by the witness but could not provide a reason why it was impossible.”
Barnett is charged with aggravated child abuse and probation violation. His probation in the fleeing and eluding case has been revoked, pending a hearing. He’s being held at the Flagler County jail on $10,000 bond on the abuse case, and no bond on the probation violation.
“I appreciate anything you can do to help me out in this situation as I am trying to better myself and succeed in my career,” Barnett had written the judge on Jan. 5, “and being on probation is frowned upon with a lot of employers in the industry. I have learned my lesson and have used this experience to better myself and my habits.”
