Edwin McFarlane, Boy Accused of Taking 3-Year-Old From Store, Held in New Sex Case

March 15, 2011 — -- A teen who less than a year ago was accused of attempting to take a 3-year-old from a Florida department store is behind bars for allegedly sexually assaulting a girl in the back of a school bus.

Edwin McFarlane, 15, is being held at the Marion County Regional Juvenile Detention Center after authorities allege he forced his more than 300-pound frame on a teen girl last Thursday, unzipping her pants and sexually attacking her on a South Lake High School bus in school bus in Groveland, Fla.

According to the police record obtained by ABC News, McFarlane allegedly approached the victim, who was lying on her back on a seat preparing to take a nap, and assaulted her.

"She told him to stop but he kept saying her name and did not stop," said the report from the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

A classmate who was also on the bus told police that he heard the victim say "Edwin stop" and that McFarlane responded, "Just once, come on," according to the report.

Video surveillance on the bus shows McFarlane approaching the girl and spending "several minutes" with the victim in her seat, but the back of the seat obstructs the view of exactly what the two teens were doing, according to authorities.

Police say McFarlane later admitted to assaulting the girl, saying that he knows what he did was wrong and that he did "hear the victim tell him to stop six times."

The teen has since written an apology letter to the victim, police say, and has been charged with both sexual battery and false imprisonment.

But this is not the first time that McFarlane has brushed with the law.

In June 2010 the then 14-year-old was arrested despite stating that he was helping a seemingly lost 3-year-old girl look for her mother in a Burlington Coat Factory.

Surveillance video of the incident shows McFarlane walking out of the store with the little girl. McFarlane later told police that he thought her mother left the store without her.

Shortly after that, the girl's panicked mother headed outside, found her daughter with Edwin and returned to the store.

While Edwin was outside, a store clerk called 911 about a possible abduction.

"She doesn't know the guy at all," the clerk said in the call. "She was at the cash register. Her child was right next to her. The guy was walking out of the store, called the child over to him. She went over to him and walked out of the store."

After the mother found McFarlane and the girl, McFarlane returned to shopping with his mother. A few minutes later, police officers arrived on the scene and arrested him.

But a few weeks later, authorities decided not to charge McFarlane.

"Although there was probable cause for the arrest of Edwin McFarlane for the June 10, 2010, incident at the Burlington Coat Factory, after careful review of the circumstances, I write today to ask your office to forego bringing any formal charges against this young man," Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings wrote in a letter addressed to Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar.

After McFarlane's 2010 arrest, the case became a hot button issue in Florida where an unscientific poll taken by The Orlando Sentinel shortly after the incident showed that 93 percent of respondents did not agree with the police action to arrest the teen in the first place.

Today, Nieves told ABC News that Sheriff Demings made his decision last year "based on the totality of the circumstances," and now that "McFarlane finds himself in the middle of a criminal investigation the sheriff is certain that Lake County justice will prevail."

McFarlane told ABC's "Good Morning America" last June that he was "just trying to help."

If he had it to do all over again, Edwin said at the time that he would still help the little girl, but maybe alert an adult and "ask for help" next time.

Because McFarlane is a juvenile, he is entitled to a trial within 90 days and can only be detained for 21 days because of state law, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

A court date for McFarlane was not immediately known, and messages left for his attorney, Natalie Jackson, were not returned.

ABC News' Lee Ferran contributed to this report.