Timothy Allan Shea Kydd appears in a mugshot from August 2019. (Hernando County Detention Center)
A Florida man has been found guilty of trying to kill a woman with a hammer in 2019 because she wouldn’t have sex with him in an attack broken up by the woman’s child, who appeared in the doorway asking what was happening, authorities in the Sunshine State say.
Timothy Allan Shea Kydd, 33, was convicted on one count of attempted murder in the second degree by Hernando County jurors on Monday, according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
The underlying incident occurred on Aug. 17, 2019, when HCSO deputies arrived at the victim’s residence in Brooksville, Florida, a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime says.
The victim, identified only as Patricia, “screamed during this attack,” and her son witnessed the violence, the court document says. During the attack, Patricia’s son saw Kydd “strike his mother on the head with a hammer at least one time.” The woman’s “scream also alerted” a neighbor who looked out and saw “a white male defendant leave on foot from Patricia’s apartment,” the probable cause affidavit says.
Patricia told HCSO deputies that she barely knew her assailant when the horrific attack occurred. Rather, the two met in person “the day before” after meeting one another “on a social media site online,” the court document says. Patricia told deputies that she drove to an apartment in Ocala, Florida, to pick Kydd up the day before the attack. “She drove him back to her home,” the affidavit continues, “where he spent the night with her and her [7-year-old] child.”
Ocala is a large city and the county seat of Marion County, Florida; Brooksville is a relatively tiny town and the county seat of Hernando County. They are located roughly an hour apart by car.
According to the victim, after stopping to buy drinks, the two went to bed around 2 a.m. Kydd, she said, insisted on having sex – but she declined. When the two woke up, she told deputies Kydd still wanted sex – but she “still denied him,” the affidavit says.
Then Kydd asked for tools to fix a broken wheel on his backpack. The woman obliged the request but told the man that he needed to leave after he fixed his backpack. As she began to take the toolbox away, she turned her back, and that’s when “she felt a blow to her head and fell to the floor,” the affidavit says. Next, Kydd got on top of her as she screamed. The intervention of the victim’s child may have saved her life. The defendant left the woman’s apartment soon after her child appeared in the doorway to ask what was happening.
A neighbor who came to check on the commotion called 911 after being apprised of the attack. The victim was rushed to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with multiple skull fractures, including an orbital fracture and a cervical fracture.
Kydd was arrested at his mother’s home the next day.
After his arrest, Kydd was charged with numerous other offenses, including one count of criminal mischief for damaging a sprinkler head that caused his detention center pod to flood. He pleaded no contest to that charge. Almost exactly seven months later, the defendant did the same thing and was given an additional charge.
He pleaded guilty the second time.
Kydd also currently stands accused of one count of written threats and one count of threatening to throw or place a bomb for allegedly sending a letter about a courthouse bomb to the judge overseeing his attempted murder case to delay proceedings.
“The courthouse was evacuated,” the sheriff’s office alleged in a press release. “A check of the courthouse did reveal a suspicious item that was later deemed safe. Kydd admitted to sending the letter from the detention center. Kydd denied any involvement in having a device placed at the courthouse.”
That threatening case is still pending.
In another case, Kydd pleaded guilty to battery on law enforcement for elbowing a detention deputy in the face.
Sentencing is pending on the three minor cases.
The defendant is slated to be sentenced on May 31 before 5th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Daniel Merritt Jr. – the same judge allegedly threatened – for his attempted murder conviction.
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