TAMPA — A convicted sex offender who was recently released from a 17-year prison sentence fled his halfway house and repeatedly sexually assaulted two women until each escaped, Florida authorities said.
A judge has now handed down eight consecutive life sentences for 44-year-old Cory Alexander Garries after he was convicted of five counts of sexual battery with a deadly weapon, two counts of kidnapping with a weapon, burglary with assault or battery and aggravated assault, according to the State Attorney’s Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit.
McClatchy News reached out to his attorney September 9 but did not immediately receive a response.
According to federal prison records, Garries had been living at a halfway house in Tampa after he pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in North Carolina and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The “night of terror” began Oct. 5, 2022, when Garries left his halfway house and went to the first victim’s home after she refused to pick him up or pay for his Uber, according to prosecutors and the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman said she let him inside so they could talk, then he pulled a knife on her and told her she would “suffer the consequences for her lies,” deputies wrote in an arrest affidavit.
Then he cut off her hair and repeatedly sexually assaulted her, deputies said.
He beat her and forced her to wash both of them, then after about three hours of violence, he forced her to drive her to his sister’s home at knifepoint, according to investigators.
Garries demanded the woman give him money, but after she insisted she didn’t have any, he made her call and text her friends to send her money, deputies said.
The strange texts tipped off her friends that the woman was in trouble, and they notified law enforcement, according to investigators.
Garries forced the woman to help him load his things from his sister’s home into her trunk and implied he was going to kill her afterwards, then while he was distracted for a moment, the woman jumped in her car and locked him out, deputies said.
He held onto her door handle as she tried to drive away, causing it to break it off, according to prosecutors.
The woman drove to safety and called for help again, but before law enforcement found Garries, he went across the street to a neighbor’s home, broke in and attacked another woman, deputies said.
The second victim told investigators she woke up to Garries raping her, and she said he was debating out loud whether he was going to stab or strangle her to death after, according to authorities.
Garries is accused of assaulting the woman several times, causing her to pass out, until the woman eventually convinced him to smoke a cigarette with her and lie down, deputies said.
When he fell asleep, the woman escaped, according to investigators.
She was running down the street yelling for help when she ran into a deputy and reported what had happened, according to the affidavit.
Law enforcement went to the woman’s home, where they reported finding Garries in her backyard. They found him with at least one victim’s belongings and took him into custody, deputies said.
Both women were hospitalized for their injuries, according to the arrest affidavit.
“These two women suffered the worst sort of violence imaginable, and somehow found the strength to survive and escape,” Assistant State Attorney Joshua Wertheim said. “I commend them on how they were able to face their attacker both in the moment, and at trial.”
By OLIVIA LLOYD/McClatchy News
Olivia Lloyd is a National Real-Time Reporter for McClatchy covering the Southeast. She is based in South Florida and graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Previously, she has worked for Hearst DevHub and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
