Around a dozen citizens, neighbors and churchgoers gathered Monday evening in the pews of Mount Zion United Methodist Church of Reddick’s sanctuary to pray for a 91-year-old Reddick woman who was beaten and sexually battered in her home this month.  

Authorities arrested the 14-year-old perpetrator, Jesse Stone, last week after he confessed to illegally entering the woman’s home on the night of June 8. After entering, he watched pornography on her iPad before punching and raping her in her bed, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, which used DNA evidence to positively identify the suspect. 

The woman’s niece reported to Fox 35 that when the woman couldn’t fight back anymore, she started praying. The woman is recovering at her daughter’s home after being hospitalized for bruises and skin torn off on her arm. 

The attack shocked the Reddick community.  

“Reddick is a beautiful community where the majority of us have been there all of our lives,” Reddick Church of God pastor Mira Sherman said at the vigil. “We know one another.” 

Throughout the vigil, titled “Showing the love: A community gathering for our neighbor,” the Rev. Milford Griner, the senior pastor at Mount Zion, referred to the victim as “Mother” to protect her privacy. Those in attendance had opportunities to comment on Mother’s impact in the community, read scripture and pray. 

“She [is] a Christian lady, pillar of this community,” one of Mother’s neighbors said. “Everybody knows her, you can’t help but love her.”  

Reddick resident Shirley Youmans agreed.  

“If she don’t know you by name, you better know she know your mama and your daddy,” she said.  

Youmans read Psalm 91 at the vigil from a black leather pew Bible, before sharing how she woke up during the night of the attack from the sound of helicopters from the sheriff’s office. She felt God call her to pray even though she didn’t know who or what for. 

“I didn’t know what it was until that next day at church. All I could do was pray, ‘Lord, God cover. Cover,” she said. “Whatever it is Lord, I don’t know who it is…I took my hands and I just put them up and I said, ‘cover God, cover God, cover God.’” 

Some attendees at the vigil didn’t know Mother, but believed prayer to be the remedy for any community in need. “If someone wants prayer for Reddick, I had to stop by here,” one attendee said. “If anything’s going to help us, it’s going to be prayer…we need somebody to fight for us.” 

Others at the vigil pointed out the need to pray for the perpetrator. Growing up, the teen would frequently visit Mother’s house to talk to her and play on her iPad. He casually visited earlier on the day of the attack.  

“I would never have thought he’d do something like that,” one attendee said. “I’ve known him since he was a baby. That’s why it’s so hard. He needs some help.” 

The teen is in custody at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Rev. Griner, who has a background in law enforcement, explained issuing a verdict would likely take time to conclude in order to be handled delicately with a minor involved. 

“They’ll go all the way back to his childhood to see how he was raised, who raised him, how he was raised in school along with other people; everything with a fine-tooth comb,” Griner said. “They want to get to a motive.” 

Before dismissing the vigil, Pastor Sherman led everyone in a “handwave to God” and a hymn. 

“We’ll continue to pray, praise God, and we’ll continue to hope that justice is done. Nothing can be swept under the rug,” she said. “The Bible says, ‘Whatever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.’ So you can’t go and do all this wrong stuff and think you’re just gonna slide by. You may not get [justice] on this side, but you’ll get it on the other side.”