DeSantis, Scott question Worrell
Both seek information about Orlando shooter’s past cases
Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott are demanding information from Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell following the recent back-and-forth about the handling of past cases involving the shooter accused of killing three people and injuring two others last week in Pine Hills.
The pair sent letters Tuesday chastising Worrell for what they describe as her office's failure to hold Keith Moses, 19, accountable. Prior to his arrest last Wednesday, he had been taken into custody as a minor more than a dozen times on charges including domestic battery, burglary, grand theft and drug possession.
“The failure of your office to hold this individual accountable for his actions — despite his extensive criminal history and gang affiliation — may have permitted this dangerous individual to remain on the street,” said the letter from the governor's office, doubling down on DeSantis' earlier statements accusing Worrell's office of negligence.
“Clearly, Mr. Moses should never have been in a position to commit those senseless crimes last week,” the statement continued. “We must determine if Mr. Moses was enabled by gaps in our sentencing laws that must be corrected or, to be frank, your office's failure to properly administer justice.”
Citing the Florida Constitution, DeSantis demanded a response to six requests for information regarding Moses' criminal history and the investigations in his prior cases. The state attorney's deadline to respond is March 14.
Scott, who blasted Worrell last week and
called for all prosecutors in Moses’ former cases to be fired immediately, also sent a letter to her office Tuesday with a list of questions, mostly about her office’s policies on minors and how prosecutors decide whether they are to be tried as an adult.
“Let me be clear: We will not tolerate the disastrous consequences of woke, softon-crime agendas in Florida,” Scott said. “As I made clear in my statement last week, any member of the criminal justice system that doesn’t share a commitment to that principle shouldn’t keep their job.”
The State Attorney was not immediately available Wednesday morning to comment on the demands for information from DeSantis and Scott.
Since Worrell took office in January 2021, Moses has only been arrested in one case, possession of 4.5 grams of marijuana in November 2021 — a case Worrell has said she could not pursue because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement does not test amounts of marijuana below the felony amount of 20 grams.
“Even if I was able to proceed that case,” she told the Sentinel Tuesday, “there is no sentence in the entire state of Florida that would have required Mr. Moses to be incarcerated in prison.”
She further said that DeSantis and Scott were politicizing a tragedy and rebuked state government for criticizing her understaffed office after opposing her recommendations to raise the minimum wage for prosecutors by $25,000 and other efforts to halt high turnover rates.
The escalating situation between the state’s GOP leaders and Worrell comes months after DeSantis suspended former Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who like
Worrell is a Democrat.
DeSantis, in his executive order of suspension, pointed to Warren’s policy about not seeking prosecution on some minor crimes and, especially, his signature on a joint statement that said he would not charge anyone who violated laws on abortion access and gender transition treatments.
Worrell also signed the transgender healthcare joint statement cited by the governor in Warren’s case.
On the night of Moses’ November 2021 arrest, he and two others were stopped near Barnett Park after a deputy sheriff spotted them smoking marijuana in a car, according to an arrest report. A gun was later found in the search.
At the time, the report added, Moses was on “juvenile felony probation” but the deputy declined to issue a violation as an adult and wrote he would follow up with his probation officer. Moses’ criminal history doesn’t indicate he was accused of violating his probation after the arrest.
As for the gun in the car, Moses and his two companions denied it was theirs, and the report indicates the weapon would be tested for DNA to determine to whom it belonged. Court records show neither Moses nor one of the men in the car was later charged for having the gun. A third passenger was 16 at the time, and records of his arrest that day are not available.
Had Moses been convicted of misdemeanor cannabis possession, Florida statutes would have made the crime punishable by up to one year in prison.
“I want to reiterate that this was Mr. Moses’ first charge as an adult so the likelihood of him or anyone else receiving the maximum sentence for possession of marijuana case was slim to none,” Worrell told the Sentinel Tuesday.