FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 10, 2007

State Attorney Steve Meadows announces the sentencing, in Bay County Circuit Court, of Benjamin Jerome Forest, to 25 years in prison.

Forest, 41, of East 7th Street in Panama City, was reportedly high on crack cocaine, around 11 p.m. on January 17, when he robbed the Hardee’s, in Lynn Haven, and kidnapped and sexually battered a 29-year old worker at knife-point.

Forest entered pleas of no contest to robbery with a deadly weapon, armed sexual battery, and armed kidnapping and was sentenced to 25 years prison on each count. Florida law requires that an inmate serve at least 85 per cent of his sentence.