TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA – Two men are facing felony charges after a woman told Brevard County investigators she was held captive for days inside a home on Daryl Terrace in Titusville, an ordeal that ended on June 16 when she fled through the front door and begged a neighbor mowing his backyard to call police.
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Dwayne Antwan Mitchell, 42, of Jacksonville, who an arrest affidavit describes as the man who carried out the violence during the woman’s captivity, faces a five-count felony case that includes kidnapping and sexual battery. Adam Carnell Copeland, 41, of Titusville, accused of driving the woman to Lake City with her face covered, was booked into the Brevard County Jail on July 6 on a kidnapping charge.
An escape through a neighbor’s backyard
According to the affidavit, sworn by Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit Agent Ashley Jennings, the case began on June 16 when a Titusville man mowing his backyard on Darryl Terrance was approached by a woman who ran onto his property and asked him to call police. While they waited for officers, the affidavit says, she spontaneously told him she had been held against her will for several days in a residence nearby.
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The woman, identified in the affidavit only by the initials LN, told Titusville police she had just escaped from a house at 3195 Daryl Terrace. As officers approached that home, they saw the front door standing ajar. The door, the affidavit notes, abruptly shut. Property records verified the residence is owned by Adam Copeland and Theadora Copeland Bishop, according to the affidavit.
Mitchell described as the primary aggressor
Dwayne Antwan Mitchell (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office booking photo, June 17)
The woman was taken to Parrish Medical Center, where she gave a sworn recorded statement to the Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit. She said that in early June she had been picked up near Blanton Street and South Grannis Avenue in Titusville and driven to the Daryl Terrace home, where she spent time with a man she came to know as Mitchell, who went by the street name “Ghost.”
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When she later said she was ready to go home, the affidavit states, Mitchell began punching her in the face. She recalled being zip-tied in the laundry room of the residence and told she was not allowed to leave. Over a period of several days, she said, the restraints were removed intermittently so she could eat, sleep and use the restroom, and she was later moved to a small bedroom. When she asked to go home, the affidavit says, she was beaten. Mitchell kept a Glock handgun on him for the duration of her captivity, according to the affidavit, and at one point pointed it at her head and told her that if his “brother” wanted him to kill her, he would.
Investigators noted her injuries corroborated her account, including wrist injuries consistent with being bound by zip ties.
Mitchell was taken into custody on June 17 and initially booked on a parole violation along with charges of resisting an officer and battery on a law enforcement officer. On June 19, prosecutors filed a five-count felony case against him in Brevard County court: kidnapping to inflict bodily harm or terrorize, sexual battery on a victim 18 or older, aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability, assault with intent to commit a felony, and possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted Florida felon. That case, 05-2026-CF-035790, is pending.
A trip to Lake City
Adam Carnell Copeland (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office booking photo, July 6)
On June 13, the affidavit states, the woman was placed in the back seat of a vehicle with clothing covering her face and told she would be taken to a Greyhound bus station in Lake City, Florida. She was ordered to lie down and not look at the driver, whom Mitchell referred to as his brother. Peeking through the clothing, she described the driver as a tall, lighter-skinned black male wearing a black and white beanie.
The bus station turned out to be closed because it was a Saturday, and the group drove back to the Daryl Terrace residence, according to the affidavit.
Investigators say a law enforcement tag reader database placed the vehicle, a 2016 black Nissan Rogue registered to Theadora Copeland Bishop, in Lake City on June 13 at 2:55 p.m. The affidavit states Copeland and Mitchell were also captured on multiple business surveillance videos in Lake City, including video of the two purchasing flip flops and drinks, and that Copeland was seen wearing a black and white beanie matching the woman’s description. Three separate sworn law enforcement officers positively identified Copeland on the video, the affidavit says.
The search warrant and the arrests
On June 16, a judge signed a residential search warrant for the Daryl Terrace home, and the Sheriff’s Office SWAT team executed it. Mitchell was deemed the sole occupant of the residence, and investigators seized items including a Glock 17, zip ties and electronic devices, according to the affidavit.
The next day, June 17, agents located the Nissan Rogue at a daycare. The affidavit states Copeland, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was seen exiting it and entering the daycare. Upon seeing a Sheriff’s agent, the affidavit says, he fled out the back door of the daycare and abandoned the vehicle in the parking lot. Agents positively identified Copeland during that encounter.
Notably, the affidavit acknowledges the woman did not identify Copeland in a photo lineup. Because her vision was intentionally obstructed during the Lake City trip, the affidavit states, she never saw the driver and could recognize him only by voice. She did verify that the man who was with Mitchell the night she was picked up was the same person who drove her to Lake City.
Copeland was arrested and booked into the Brevard County Jail on the night of July 6 on a charge of kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm or terrorize, contrary to Florida Statute 787.01(1)(a)(3), jail records show.
PLEASE NOTE: An arrest affidavit contains allegations only. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
