A Milton father claiming he held a Lyft driver at gunpoint trying to protect his 13-year-old daughter is now a free man after a jury acquitted him Aug. 26 of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment.
The charges against Sean Hollonbeck, a retired U.S. Army colonel and medical doctor, stemmed from him pointing a rifle at the Lyft driver who drove Hollonbeck’s 13-year-old daughter to Pensacola and back after she snuck out of the house. When the driver returned, Hollonbeck demanded he lie on the ground while Hollonbeck took pictures of his ID.
When the jury announced Hollonbeck’s acquittal following a one-day trial in Santa Rosa County, he was embraced by his attorney and an audible sigh of relief came from the gallery.
Once the jury left the courtroom and Circuit Judge Clifton Drake told Hollonbeck, “Sir, you’re free to go,” a thunderous round of applause rang out from the man’s dozens of the supporters.
“It’s a blessing, prayers are answered; it was common sense,” Hollonbeck said following his acquittal. “I can’t even believe my family had to go through this.”
On the night of May 4, 2024, Hollonbeck’s 13-year-old daughter snuck out of the house around 9:30 p.m. and ordered the Lyft to travel to Pensacola where she purchased drugs, she admitted on the stand. While returning to her dimly lit street, Hollonbeck ran towards the vehicle with his firearm.
Hollonbeck said on the stand he was fearful his daughter may be dead, injured or being trafficked. When he saw the Lyft vehicle head down his home’s street, he said his “training” kicked in, leading him to point the firearm at the driver until his daughter returned inside their home.
Assistant State Attorney Hayden Hudson disagreed with the defense’s argument of justifying Hollonbeck’s actions, saying the father acted outside of his lawful purview.
“What was running through the defendant’s mind explains why this happened,” Hudson told the jury. “It does not justify his behavior.”
However, the jury seemingly disagreed with the prosecutor, siding with Hollonbeck’s attorneys Keith Kilpatrick and Jared Sutherland, who told the jury that their client was just a worried father who didn’t know where his daughter had gone.
“He does what he has to do, what a reasonable person would do, with his training and experience,” Kilpatrick told the jury. “He goes and tries to protect his child, but he does the right thing by calling 911.”
Once Hollonbeck took pictures of the driver’s license plates and ID, he stopped pointing the firearm at the man and went inside, according to multiple witnesses.
Both charges carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and facing a possible 10-year prison sentence, Hollonbeck told the jury from the witness stand that he’d “rather be shot” in the line of duty than have something bad happen to his daughter while she was missing.
Hollonbeck said he held the driver at gunpoint just long enough to discern if there was imminent danger.
“Like my co-counsel said, Mr. Kilpatrick, the right decision was rendered by the jury today,” Sutherland said after the trial. “With this verdict today, it shows the parents of Santa Rosa County that it’s not illegal to protect your children, and that’s what’s important.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: ‘It was common sense’: Milton Army vet acquitted after holding Lyft driver at gunpoint
Reporting by Benjamin Johnson, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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