tepfather is charged with her death <\/a>after investigators say it happened while he was out of jail, waiting to be sentenced in another case. Ashley Chambers, a neighbor of Missy\u2019s family, said her story is changing how Florida handles certain convictions.<\/p>\n\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that a law like this has to exist in the first place,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cBut the fact that Missy\u2019s legacy will be changing that and protecting other children and other people in the community in the future, I think, is an important legacy for her to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under House Bill 445, individuals found guilty of or entering a plea for a dangerous crime will be immediately remanded into custody and held without bond while awaiting sentencing. The legislation also expands the statutory list of dangerous crimes to include certain computer pornography and child exploitation offenses.<\/p>\n
More Florida politics: <\/p>\n
The law applies to 27 categories of dangerous crimes, including arson, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, illegal use of explosives, child abuse or aggravated child abuse, abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult, aircraft piracy, kidnapping, homicide, manslaughter, sexual battery, robbery, carjacking, lewd or lascivious acts upon or in presence of a child under 16, sexual activity with a child by a person in familial or custodial authority, burglary of a dwelling, stalking and aggravated stalking, acts of domestic violence, home invasion robbery, acts of terrorism, manufacturing controlled substances, human trafficking, drug trafficking, extortion, written threats to kill and attempting or conspiring to commit any such crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust in terms of protecting the public, once one of these guys are convicted, you\u2019ve got to pull out all of the stops to protect these kids,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMissy\u2019s Law removes judicial discretion and ensures dangerous criminals are locked up after conviction,\u201d said Attorney General James Uthmeier.<\/p>\n
Defense attorneys say the mandatory lockup can change the leverage in negotiations, especially when multiple defendants are involved, and one person\u2019s plea is tied to another\u2019s cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effect of this bill is going far beyond what is necessary in order to address what happened in Missy\u2019s case,\u201d said Aaron Wayt of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. \u201cWe\u2019re telling the judge, the prosecutor and the defense attorney in the courtroom, \u2018hey, you can\u2019t take that plea without that person going to jail.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Chambers said the goal is simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hopeful the law will help communities be safer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The new law takes effect July 1.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Judges in Florida will soon have less discretion to let certain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1442,265,6121,97637,30177,28,30,29,2161,38354,20390,20382,11544,99,412,97636,97635],"class_list":["post-213875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-cody-butler","tag-crime","tag-criminal-justice","tag-criminal-justice-reform","tag-criminals","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-government","tag-law-and-order","tag-missy-mogle","tag-missys-law","tag-new-law","tag-politics","tag-ron-desantis","tag-sentencing-law","tag-violent-offenders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}