On this date, February 12, 2014,
Juan Carlos Chavez was executed by lethal injection in Florida. He was
convicted of the September 11, 1995 murder of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce.
Juan
Carlos Chavez
|
Victim:
9-year-old Jimmy Ryce
|
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/chavez1367.htm
Summary: Chavez abducted Jimmy Ryce at
gunpoint after the boy got off a school bus on a weekday afternoon in rural
Miami-Dade County. After an extensive and well publicized search, three months
later Chavez's landlady discovered the boy's book bag and the murder weapon — a
revolver Chavez had stolen from her house — in the trailer where Chavez lived.
Chavez later confessed to police and led them to Jimmy's remains. Testimony showed
Chavez raped the boy, shot him when he tried to escape, then dismembered his
body and hid the parts in concrete-covered planters.
Chavez v. State, 832 So.2d 730 (Fla. 2002). (Direct Appeal)
Chavez v. State, 12 So.3d 199 (Fla. 2009). (PCR)
Chavez v. Secretary, 647 F.3d 1057 (11th Cir. 2011). (Habeas)
Final / Special Meal:
Steak, French fries, strawberry ice cream, mixed fruit and mango juice.
Final Words:
None.
Internet Sources:
Florida Department of Corrections
DC Number:
M18034
Name: CHAVEZ, JUAN CARLOS
Race: WHITE
Sex: MALE
Hair Color: BROWN
Eye Color: BROWN
Height: 5'11''
ht: 170 lbs.
Birth Date: 03/16/1967
Aliases: JUAN CHAVEZ, JUAN C CHAVEZ, JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ, JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ-GARCIA
Date of
Offense: 9/11/1995 Name: CHAVEZ, JUAN CARLOS
Race: WHITE
Sex: MALE
Hair Color: BROWN
Eye Color: BROWN
Height: 5'11''
ht: 170 lbs.
Birth Date: 03/16/1967
Aliases: JUAN CHAVEZ, JUAN C CHAVEZ, JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ, JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ-GARCIA
County: ORANGE
Date Sentenced: 11/23/1998
Date Received: 12/9/1998
Date of Execution: 2/12/2014
Current Prison Sentence History:
09/11/1995 1ST DG MUR/PREMED. OR ATT. 11/23/1998 ORANGE 9811700 DEATH SENTENCE
09/11/1995 SEX BAT BY ADULT/VCTM LT 12 11/23/1998 ORANGE 9811700 SENTENCED TO LIFE
09/11/1995 KIDNAP;COMM.OR FAC.FELONY 11/23/1998 ORANGE 9811700 SENTENCED TO LIFE
Incarceration History: 12/09/1998 to 02/12/2014
ProDeathPenalty.Com
On
the afternoon of September 11, 1995, nine-year-old Samuel James “Jimmy” Ryce
disappeared after having been dropped off from his school bus at approximately
3:07 p.m. at a bus stop near his home in the Redlands, a rural area of south
Miami Dade County. An extensive and well-publicized search of the area
followed, but failed to locate the child.
At
that time, the defendant, Juan Carlos Chavez, was living in a trailer on
property owned by Susan Scheinhaus. Chavez worked as a handyman for the
Scheinhaus family, and was permitted to use their Ford pickup truck to run
errands or do other work for the family. As part of his duties, Chavez
frequently cared for horses owned by the Scheinhaus family, but housed on
property owned by David Santana, which contained an avocado grove. There was
also a trailer on that property, referred to throughout Chavez's trial as the
“avocado grove trailer” or the “horse-farm trailer.”
In
August or September of 1995, Mrs. Scheinhaus reported to the police several
times that items (including a handgun and some jewelry) were missing from her
residence. Although she suspected Chavez, she lacked evidence of his
culpability. She testified at trial that, in November, she had decided to
obtain the evidence required to pursue her claim. With the help of a locksmith,
on December 5, 1995, while Chavez was away for the day, Mrs. Scheinhaus and her
son, Edward Scheinhaus (“Ed”), entered the trailer located on her property which
Chavez occupied. She found the handgun-which she later identified in court as a
gun she had purchased in April of 1989 - in plain view on a counter opposite
the trailer door. As Mrs. Scheinhaus continued to look inside the trailer, she
discovered, in the closet area, a book bag which was partially open. Looking
inside the bag, she saw papers and books. The work appeared to be in a child's
handwriting, and she noticed the name “Jimmy Ryce.” She also observed this name
on one of the books. When Mrs. Scheinhaus asked her son to look at the items,
he also recognized the child's name. As a result of this discovery, Mrs.
Scheinhaus notified the FBI.
When
Chavez returned to the Scheinhaus residence at about 7:15 on the evening of
December 6, armed FBI agents quickly surrounded and secured him. After being
patted down, he agreed to go with Metro Dade Police officers, who were also
present, to the station for questioning. Chavez's detention included a
questioning process that was punctuated by regular refreshment, food, bathroom
breaks and a rest period, and interspersed with two outings returning to the
Scheinhaus and Santana properties in southern Miami Dade County. Although
Chavez was first brought to the police station on the night of December 6, he
did not sleep until shortly after midnight on December 7. Detective Luis
Estopinan, who was bilingual, conducted most of the questioning, although other
officers also participated. Various police detectives, an FBI agent, Mrs.
Scheinhaus and an independent interpreter all had opportunities to observe
Chavez at various times throughout this period. Chavez was consistently
described as alert and articulate during this time, and no one observed police
detectives mistreating Chavez in any way throughout the period of questioning.
He received repeated warnings and instructions in accordance with Miranda, and
indicated that he fully understood them on four occasions during the period of
interrogation.
Over
the course of the interrogation, and after having been repeatedly advised of
his Miranda rights and knowingly waiving them, Chavez provided several versions
of his involvement in Jimmy's disappearance. As law enforcement officers
engaged in a contemporaneous investigation of Chavez's changing narratives, he
agreed to accompany officers on two occasions to visit the horse farm property
and the Scheinhaus property, where he showed them the location of the events he
had recounted had transpired. On those occasions, Chavez was asked to reveal
where the boy's remains were located, to permit Jimmy's family to have closure.
After the physical evidence resulting from this contemporaneous investigation
totally discredited each version of events which Chavez had initially proposed,
Chavez agreed to tell the truth. However, Chavez explained that, before he
would disclose the location of Jimmy's remains, he wanted the officers to
guarantee that he would receive the death penalty. Estopinan advised Chavez
that he could not guarantee that the death penalty would be imposed. However,
Chavez continued to talk, asserting that the events would not have happened had
he not been sexually battered by a relative in Cuba.
Estopinan
told Chavez that he “felt that it was time for him to be truthful and tell us
what really happened to Jimmy, and went back and began to ask him about Jimmy
and where Jimmy was located. We wanted to find Jimmy.” A break followed this
inquiry and then Chavez reiterated to Sergeant Jimenez the most recent account
which he had given Estopinan. Chavez then went to the restroom for another
break and, upon returning to the interview room, informed the officers that
they were now going to hear the truth: “What do you want to know? I'll tell you
what happened to Jimmy Ryce.” Chavez proceeded to admit to Estopinan and
Jimenez that he had abducted Jimmy at gunpoint, traveled to the horse ranch,
and sexually assaulted Jimmy before finally shooting him. Estopinan explained
that the officers would need details from Chavez, and requested permission to
take a sworn statement. Chavez agreed to continue the questioning, and
Estopinan and Jimenez “began to get details” about what had happened to Jimmy
Ryce.
At
trial, Estopinan testified regarding the final version of Chavez's statement.
Chavez said that he had observed young children playing in water on his way
home from Home Depot at approximately 3 p.m. Some of the boys were wearing just
their underwear, and “as he saw the young boys wearing just their underwear, he
took an interest in them.” After observing the children, Chavez drove off, but
returned a short while later, because he “still had a mental picture of what
happened, meaning that he saw the young boys in their underwear by the canal
bank, and decided that he wanted to take another look.” Estopinan testified:
"And while this is occurring, he was driving on the avenue, he sees a
figure of a person, and then he realizes it was a young boy that he saw. At the
same time he sees the young boy who later turns out to be Jimmy Ryce, again
he's thinking about the young boys who are at the canal bank. He said at this
point he's feeling something sexual and ... that he has a mental picture in his
mind of the young boys in the canal with their underwear and he's also
picturing Jimmy Ryce the young boy.
As
he's driving the pickup truck in the opposite direction of Jimmy Ryce, he said
at the time he had with him the Scheinhaus revolver, the Taurus, .38 caliber.
And he said at this time Jimmy is walking on the left side of the road, and
what he did is driving on the opposite side, he begins to drive on the opposite
side of the traffic and drives and stops right in front of Jimmy Ryce causing
him to stop. The minute that Jimmy stops, he stops the truck, he gets out of
the truck with the gun in his hand and tells Jimmy at gunpoint, do you want to
die? And Jimmy made a comment to him, no. And he told Jimmy in English to get
inside the truck. And Jimmy responds by getting into the truck via the driver's
side door. Once Jimmy is inside the pickup truck, Jimmy removes his backpack
and puts it between his legs and he Chavez gets into the truck with Jimmy,
still holding the handgun. It's at that point he takes the revolver and he
places it underneath his lap and tells Jimmy to put his head down so Jimmy
wouldn't be seen by anyone. And at that point he tells me that he drives back
to the horse ranch where the trailer was located. He told me that Jimmy left
his backpack inside the pickup truck.
Once
they both exit the pickup truck, both him and Jimmy at his direction they go
inside the trailer that's located inside the horse ranch. He goes on to explain
that once inside the trailer he tells Jimmy to sit down on the bed. Jimmy
complies. And that he sits on a black office chair close to Jimmy by the
entrance and he begins to talk to Jimmy, he notices that Jimmy is, he's nervous
and he's scared and Jimmy begins sobbing. And while this is occurring, Jimmy
began to ask him, why did you take me? And Chavez explains to him, well, why do
you think I took you, things to that effect. He wants Jimmy to answer his own questions.
He goes on to explain that at this point he feels like doing something sexual
and that he tells Jimmy to remove his clothing. He said Jimmy complied by
removing his shirt, his shorts, his sneakers and he wasn't sure if Jimmy was
wearing socks or not. And then Jimmy remains in his underwear only, his white
underwear he believes. He goes on to tell me that at this point he gets up and
he tells Jimmy to also go ahead and remove his underwear. Jimmy complies and
removed his underwear. And then he tells Jimmy to lay on the bed in the trailer
and Jimmy complies. Jimmy lays on his stomach on the bed. Chavez tells me that
he went into the bathroom area of the trailer looking for something. And I
asked him, what are you looking for. He told me I was looking for something
like a lubricant. And then he goes into the bathroom and he finds a see through
plastic container, he said, with some blue lettering on it. And then he took a
sample of the contents of the container to see if it would burn, and when it didn't,
he came back to where Jimmy was and he placed this, the substance or the
lubricant on to Jimmy's rectum, he said, and as he was placing the lubricant on
Jimmy's rectum, Jimmy is asking what are you doing. And he mentioned to Jimmy
that what do you think is going to happen, things to that effect.
He
unzipped his pants, he exposed his penis and he inserted his penis into Jimmy's
rectum. He told me right after he inserted his penis in Jimmy's rectum, he
again has a mental picture of the young boys in their underwear which he had
seen at the canal and he said that he quickly ejaculated, and once he
ejaculated inside Jimmy, he said he removed himself." Chavez said that he
and Jimmy then dressed and left in the truck, indicating that he had intended to
leave Jimmy in the area where he had picked him up. However, upon nearing the
area where he had abducted Jimmy, Chavez noticed that police cars were present.
Believing “that someone had reported Jimmy missing and they were looking for
Jimmy,” Chavez kept Jimmy's head down in the truck and returned to the horse
farm. Estopinan testified regarding what transpired when Chavez and Jimmy
returned to the horse farm: "He said once inside the trailer, Jimmy is
trembling and crying. And Jimmy asked, what's going to happen to me? Are you
going to kill me? He noticed that Jimmy was very frightened. And he begins to
speak to Jimmy in order to calm him down." Chavez told Estopinan that he
tried to calm Jimmy down by asking him questions.
He
then explained how he killed Jimmy: "Well, the next thing Chavez mentions
happened is he heard a helicopter fly over the horse ranch. It was his opinion
he believed the helicopter belonged to the police, that the police were
searching for Jimmy. When he heard the helicopter flying over him, he went
ahead and held Jimmy close by to him so Jimmy wouldn't go anywhere, and
eventually he heard the chopper several times flying over him, and at one point
he said he got up and began looking out the window to see if he could see the
chopper, the helicopter that is. And while he was looking for the helicopter,
Jimmy is still close to the front entrance of the trailer. He said that Jimmy
made a dash for the door, Jimmy ran for the door trying to escape. He said that
he tried to reach up to Jimmy, but he got tangled on the floor of the bathroom
and at that point he said he took out the revolver belonging to Mrs.
Scheinhaus, he pointed the handgun in the direction of Jimmy, fired one time
hitting him. He said that Jimmy collapsed right by the door and collapsed to
the right by the door inside the trailer. He said after he shot Jimmy, he came
up to Jimmy, he turned Jimmy around and held Jimmy in his arms and Jimmy took
one last breath, he expressed it, and he said that was the last thing Jimmy
did."
Chavez
described that, to dispose of Jimmy's body, he found a metal barrel inside the
trailer at the horse farm, and placed Jimmy's body inside the barrel. He
transported the barrel containing the body from the horse farm to the
Scheinhaus residence, where he removed the barrel and placed it in Chavez's
disabled van, which was parked in the stable area. Chavez removed Jimmy's book
bag from the pickup and carried it with him to his own trailer. That night,
Chavez looked at some of the note pads inside Jimmy's book bag. Chavez noticed
blood on his own clothing and eventually destroyed the clothes. During the
night and into the next morning, “all he could think about was what he was
going to do with Jimmy's body.” Two or three days later, Chavez attempted to
use a backhoe on the Scheinhaus property to dig a hole in which to bury Jimmy,
but the machine did not operate properly. Chavez remained concerned,
particularly when he noticed that the lid of the barrel which contained Jimmy's
body had come off. Chavez pulled Jimmy's body from the barrel onto a piece of
plywood, and, from there, his remains fell to the ground. “And he said at that
point he went ahead and began to dismember Jimmy's body with the use of a
tool.” Chavez described the tool he used to dismember Jimmy's body, and even
drew a picture of the implement. He explained that it took him a while to
dismember Jimmy's body, as he was becoming sick and vomiting. “But then he
completes it and he places three of Jimmy's parts into these three planters.
And once he fills these planters with Jimmy's remains, he goes ahead, goes into
the stable area of the stable where the building is located and he locates some
cement bags. With those cement bags he seals the tops of the planters with
cement.”
The
oral interview concluded at 10:50 pm on December 8. While an interpreter and a
stenographer were being obtained to record a formal statement, Chavez remained
in the interview room, and did not further converse with Estopinan until the
interpreter arrived. Then, at 11:45 pm, Chavez began to provide a formal
statement. Estopinan, Sergeant Jimenez, and the court reporter were present as
the statement was obtained. After some preliminary questions, Chavez was again
advised of his Miranda rights. At this time, Chavez confirmed that he had
voluntarily agreed to waive his first court appearance and that he had given
the officers consent to search his property. When the statement was completed,
each page of the statement was reviewed, and Chavez made any corrections he
desired. He acknowledged in the statement that he was making the transcribed
statement voluntarily; that no one had threatened or coerced him into making
the statement; and that he had been treated well. Estopinan testified that, at
the time he made his sworn statement, Chavez was “polite, cooperative and he
was alert.”
Marilu
Balbis testified that she was the professional interpreter providing services
during Chavez's sworn statement. Ms. Balbis was an independent contractor who
had been an interpreter and translator for twelve years. The confession was
unusually long, and Ms. Balbis had the opportunity to closely observe Chavez's
demeanor. Chavez did not appear sleepy, and was alert. At no point did the
detectives give Chavez any answers. Once the confession was finished, Ms.
Balbis read each page, word by word, to Chavez to make sure that it was typed
correctly. Chavez approved every page by initialing each page at the bottom.
Ms. Balbis indicated that the police officers treated Chavez with courtesy, and
that she did not observe them threaten or raise their voices toward Chavez.
Officer
Michael Byrd recovered the loaded handgun from Chavez's trailer. Byrd also
found a poster in Chavez's trailer bearing the likeness of Jimmy Ryce, which he
processed as evidence. A box of bullets containing live ammunition, and one
spent shell casing, were also found in the trailer. Crime scene technician
Elvey Melgarejo testified that, on December 8, 1995, he helped search and
process a trailer on a horse/avocado farm. He searched the trailer and found “a
tube of JR water-based lubricant” on a shelf inside the trailer. Melgarejo
collected a sofa cushion and part of the wood floor of the trailer just inside
the front door. These items were packaged for transmittal to serology for processing.
Melgarejo also traveled to the Scheinhaus property, where he noticed the three
concrete-filled planters and became suspicious that they might contain a
cadaver. Fingerprint technician William Miller identified Chavez's fingerprint
on the handgun recovered from his trailer. To determine whether fingerprints
were present on the handgun, he placed it in a laboratory chamber in which
super glue fumes were released, surrounding the handgun and adhering to the
residue and oils left by any fingerprints. As a result, a fingerprint matching
that of Chavez was found on the firearm. Miller testified that there were “ten
points of identification throughout this fingerprint, which is only common to
Chavez. It's an absolute and positive identification that his left thumb print
made on the weapon.”
On
December 8, 1995, Miller also examined the books and notebooks found inside the
book bag belonging to Jimmy Ryce. He found Chavez's fingerprint on the front of
one notebook found in the book bag. The fingerprint located on the interior of
the notebook cover was found to “have sixteen points of identification, a
positive identification, based on the left thumb print of Mr. Juan Carlos
Chavez against the print which was developed on the inside cover.” Another
print of value was located on the textbook entitled Journeys in Science. He
found “this particular print of value from this area to be made by the right
middle fingerprint of Chavez. I had nine points of identification.” When
compared to the prints of Mrs. Scheinhaus and Edward Scheinhaus, the prints on
the book bag contents did not match.
Forensic
serologist Theresa Merritt of the Metro Dade Police Department testified that
she received items for examination on December 8, 1995. She was dispatched to
the horse farm to assist crime scene personnel in attempting to determine
whether blood was present. Merritt tested a twin-size mattress from the
trailer, a cushion present on the bench in the trailer and a cut-out portion of
the threshold area from the floor of the trailer. A scraping from the floor
area produced a positive result for the presence of blood. Another sample, from
a cushion in the trailer, yielded blood scrapings.
Anita
Mathews, assistant director of the forensic identity testing laboratory for
“LabCorp” of North Carolina, testified that she was “responsible for doing
interpretation on the results of the testing that the technologists conduct.”
Mathews testified that they were not able to obtain a sufficient quantity or
quality of genetic material from samples collected from the body of Jimmy Ryce
for testing. However, DNA from the oral swab samples taken from his parents,
Don and Claudine Ryce, was compared to the blood found on the floor of the
trailer. This comparison produced the conclusion that the blood on the floor
was extremely likely to have come from a child of Don and Claudine Ryce. Two
other blood samples taken from the floor of the trailer carried the same
genetic characteristics. Another blood sample, taken from the cushion found in
the trailer, also was consistent with having come from the biological child of
the Ryces.
Dr.
Roger Mittleman, Chief Medical Examiner for the Dade Medical Examiner's
Department, testified that, on December 9, he conducted an examination of the
contents of the three planters. The cement in each planter encased the remains
of what appeared to be a young boy. The remnants of a cement bag were in at
least one of the planters. Dr. Mittleman described the clothing found on
Jimmy's body: “It was dressed in this T-shirt and had on jeans and underwear.
There was one sneaker on; ?one sneaker was off. There were socks.” The doctor
then corrected himself, and stated that only one sock was found on the body.
The doctor testified that a body expands as it decomposes due to the breakdown
of material and biological processes, causing gases to expand. This process
could cause a body placed in a barrel to expand to the point that a lid would
be forced off or open. The remains were significantly decomposed. Using dental
records from Jimmy's family dentist, a forensic dentist testified that the
comparison with the jaw and teeth of the body was so strong that the “skeletal
remains” were “positively identified as that of Jimmy Ryce.” An X-Ray of the
body cavity revealed a flattened projectile jacket that lodged in the area of
the heart and “great vessels.” The bullet entered at the point where the right
sixth rib is located, went upward in the body, through the lung and the heart,
and exited from the upper left chest Based upon the trajectory of the bullet,
the gun would have been pointing slightly upward and below the individual who
was shot. However, there was no evidence on the body which would demonstrate
how far away the gun was when it was fired.
On
December 20, 1995, Detective McColman had transported a tool known as a “bush
hook,” which had previously been impounded, to the medical examiner's office.
Dr. Mittleman was asked to examine the bush hook to determine if its cutting
characteristics were consistent with the injuries inflicted on Jimmy's body.
The medical examiner noted that a number of the injuries inflicted on the body
during dismemberment were consistent with having been made by the bush hook.
However, he also testified that it was possible that more than one instrument had
been used. Firearms examiner Thomas Quirk of the Metro-Dade Police Department
Crime Laboratory testified that a .38 caliber Taurus model 85 revolver (State's
Exhibit 23) was submitted for his examination after it had been processed by
the fingerprint section. He also received one aluminum jacket from a projectile
recovered from the body of the victim, and two .38 caliber casings-a projectile
identified as having come from a red bullet box and a casing that had been
fired from a firearm. The two empty .38 caliber shell casings found in Chavez's
trailer were fired from the .38 recovered from Chavez's trailer. Quirk
testified that the manufacture of the barrel and the rifling process provide
microscopic differences which are transferred to the bullet during firing and
which repeat, similar to a fingerprint. Also, the projectile jacket recovered
by the medical examiner and the lead core (the fatal bullet) were positively
identified as having been fired by the gun recovered from Chavez's trailer: “My
conclusion is that this bullet was fired in this weapon to the exclusion of all
other weapons in the world. This is the gun that fired this bullet.”
After
the State rested, Chavez moved for judgment of acquittal, which was denied.
Defense counsel specifically argued the State's failure to establish a corpus
delicti for the crime of sexual battery. The defense then began the
presentation of its case. During the examination of Ed Scheinhaus, Ed explained
that he had been under house arrest at the time the kidnaping occurred. He
worked from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and was required to stay at home at all other
times, unless he arranged in advance to be away from his house. He had an ankle
device, and would be called each day at random times (as controlled by a
computer) throughout the period he was confined to his home. When called, he
would have to “report in” by placing the ankle bracelet next to a device
installed in his home. Chavez also testified in his own defense, stating that
he had belonged to a counter-revolutionary group in Cuba. He gave details of
his imprisonment (for attempting to escape and for stealing military property)
in Cuba, and his eventual escape from the island.
According
to his trial testimony, Chavez encountered Ed Scheinhaus at the horse farm
trailer after Jimmy had already been killed, and helped Ed to dispose of the
boy's body. Chavez testified that, after he was brought to police headquarters
in connection with Jimmy's disappearance, he was mistreated. He stated that,
when he was placed in the police car, he was told, “Don't do anything stupid or
we'll shoot you. We're going to kill you.” He complained that his watch and
beeper were taken away from him, and returned only after he gave his final
confession. Chavez stated that, when they were interrogating him, he did not
know what date or time it was. He said that he was not permitted to sleep, and
no one ever offered him a pillow or a blanket. Chavez also claimed that the
officers brought the book bag into the interrogation room, and asked Chavez to handle
it and look through its contents, which he did. According to Chavez, the police
goaded him into making up lies. He stated that the officers suggested details
of his confession, and, to avoid deportation, he did whatever they wanted.
After the defense rested, the State presented rebuttal testimony. The officers
refuted that they had ever threatened Chavez, coerced him, or suggested any
part of the confession to him; they denied that they had taken Chavez's watch
away or that anyone had hit him;and they testified that he had never mentioned
Ed as the perpetrator during the questioning process. Ed Scheinhaus's parole
officer testified that Ed (who is in the pest control business) had his
permission to travel to take care of a client on the afternoon on which he had
received a speeding ticket, and that Ed had shown the ticket to the parole
officer himself, without being asked to do so.
He
testified that Ed had lost his ankle bracelet once (prior to September 11), and
that he had come in that same day to have it replaced with a new one. He said
that the file would only reflect times when calls were made to the house and Ed
did not respond. He said that he had nothing in the file for the month of
September 1995, which indicated that Ed had remained home as required, and that
no violations had occurred.
At
the close of rebuttal, Chavez renewed all motions, including the motion to
suppress his statements, the motion for judgment of acquittal (particularly
reiterating that the State had failed to prove the corpus delicti of the charge
of sexual battery), and the motion for mistrial, based upon alleged cumulative
errors. These motions were denied. The jury was instructed, and, following
deliberation, entered verdicts of “guilty” on all of the counts charged. Following
the penalty phase of the trial, the jury recommended death by a vote of twelve
to zero.
UPDATE:
Juan Chazvez was executed for the rape and murder of 9 year old Jimmy Ryce in
1995. Chavez did not make a verbal final statement, but submitted a written
statement that read in part: "I doubt there there is anything I can say
that would satisfy everybody, even less those who see in me nothing more than
someone deserving of punishment." Jimmy's father Don, who is now 70,
witnessed the execution along with his son Ted. They told reporters outside the
prison that the execution closes a long, painful chapter and hopefully sends a
powerful message to other would-be child abductors. "Don't kill the child.
Because if you do, people will not forget, they will not forgive. We will hunt
you down and we will put you to death," Don Ryce said. Jimmy Ryce's death
led to changes in the legal system, and the way police respond to missing child
cases. Don Ryce said recently that he and his wife became determined to turn their
son's horrific slaying into something positive, in part because they felt they
owed something to all the people who tried to help find him. They also refused
to wallow in misery. "You've got to do something or you do nothing. That
was just not the way we wanted to live the rest of our lives," he said.
The
Ryces created the Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction, a
nonprofit organization based in Vero Beach that works to increase public
awareness and education about sexual predators, provides counseling for parents
of victims and helps train law enforcement agencies in ways to respond to
missing children cases. The organization has also provided, free of charge,
more than 400 bloodhounds to police departments around the country and abroad.
Ryce said if police searching for Jimmy had bloodhounds they might have found
him in time. Another accomplishment was 1998 passage in Florida of the Jimmy
Ryce Act, versions of which have also been adopted in other states. Under the
law, sexual predators found to be still highly dangerous can be detained
through civil commitment even after they have served their prison sentences.
Such people must prove they have been rehabilitated before they can be
released. Chavez had no criminal record, so the law would not have affected
him.
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