Terrance Booker

Introduction

Terrance Booker is a former Tallahassee youth pastor who was sentenced on October 2, 2026 to a total of 80 years in prison for the sexual abuse of boys connected to the church where he worked for roughly a decade. Booker, 41, had been arrested in the fall of 2025 on numerous counts of lewd and lascivious battery, lewd and lascivious molestation on children between the ages of 12 and 16, and sex offenses against a child; after his conviction, Circuit Judge Stephen Everett imposed the 80-year term according to court records. At the time of his arrest, investigators had identified four victims.

Background Information

Booker had been a member of his Tallahassee church for about 15 years and served as its youth minister for about 10, according to church co-Pastor Judy Mandrell’s account to the Tallahassee Democrat. His youth work extended beyond the church itself: he also worked at W.T. Moore Elementary School for its after-school programs. The Florida Department of Children and Families had investigated him as far back as 2020, but suspended that case because of “inconsistencies and contradictions” in victim interviews — a missed early signal that preceded years of additional abuse allegations.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Booker was convicted of multiple child sex offenses and sentenced to 80 years in prison on October 2, 2026. Some charges remained pending at sentencing.

The case that finally stuck began in July 2025, when another victim came forward to the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and the Criminal Investigations Bureau reopened the inquiry that DCF had suspended five years earlier. Booker was arrested that fall on numerous counts of lewd and lascivious battery, lewd and lascivious molestation on children between the ages of 12 and 16, and sex offenses against a child. Four victims were identified at the time of his arrest.

At sentencing, one victim described multiple occasions in high school when Booker molested him, court records show. The victim said Booker asked to cuddle with him and would frequently “fondle” him, and that the molestation mostly occurred at the victim’s house — though he also said Booker touched him inappropriately whenever he was around him at the church or in a car with him. Judge Stephen Everett sentenced Booker to a total of 80 years in prison on October 2, 2026.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentence lands on a case that local child-protection systems had touched and released: DCF’s 2020 investigation was closed over inconsistencies in victim interviews, and the abuse continued until a new victim’s 2025 report reignited the law-enforcement investigation. The church’s own account — a 15-year member and 10-year youth minister — underscored how long the access lasted, and his simultaneous work in an elementary school after-school program broadened the community’s reckoning over where he had contact with children. Booker still had pending charges that had not been adjudicated at the time of sentencing, and he was due back before the court on October 13, 2026 for a case management hearing on them.

Current Status

Booker, 41, is serving an 80-year prison sentence imposed October 2, 2026, with additional charges still pending adjudication. The October 13 case management hearing was set to resolve the remaining counts. Given his age, the sentence functions as the rest of his life in prison.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Booker’s decade of youth ministry and his school after-school work ended with his 2025 arrest, and the 80-year sentence removes any prospect of release within his lifetime. The case’s arc — a 2020 DCF investigation suspended over interview inconsistencies, then a reopened police inquiry after a 2025 outcry — has become part of the public record of how institutional first looks at accused youth workers can fail, and how a single new victim coming forward five years later produced the convictions the first investigation never reached.

Sources

• Tallahassee Democrat (via Coral Springs FL News): “Former youth pastor sentenced for child sex charges” source