Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
DeSantis signs Miya’s Law on tenant safety
Background checks and a key log required from apartments
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Miya’s Law, a bill named in honor of slain Flanagan High graduate Miya Marcano of Pembroke Pines that seeks to make apartments safer by requiring background checks on employees, at a private ceremony Monday, according to a news release.
Marcano, a 19-year-old Valencia College student, was killed by a maintenance worker who used a master key to access her apartment at Arden Villas, authorities said. Her body was found bound with duct tape Oct. 2 near the dilapidated Tymber Skan apartments following a massive weeklong search.
“Every tenant deserves to be safe in their own home,” DeSantis said in a statement. “By signing this legislation, we are making it safer to live in a rental unit and giving renters more peace of mind in their homes. Miya’s death was a tragedy, and our prayers continue to be with the Marcano family. I am proud to act on their behalf to help prevent a tragedy like that from happening to another Florida tenant.”
Marcano’s parents and brother traveled to the state Capitol Monday to attend the governor’s signing, according to the foundation started by the family in her name.
Yma Scarbriel, Marcano’s mother, called the bill’s signing “bittersweet.”
“Everything has been so dark and hectic throughout, but today we have a bit of a bright light,” she said. “We fought so hard to get her bill where it is today . ... I’m just grateful for everyone — the public our families — everyone who stood behind us and fought tirelessly to help us get where we are.”
Scarbriel and her daughter’s father thanked the lawmakers who sponsored the bill and DeSantis for signing it into law.
“My daughter is my world,” Marlon Marcano said in a statement. “... With the passing of Miya’s Law, I am extremely grateful to everyone involved and I want the community to know that we will do everything we can to ensure what happened to our Miya doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Miya’s Law also requires landlords to maintain a key log of who has access to apartments and provide tenants 24 hours notice, instead of 12 hours, before entering their units for non-emergency repairs, said state Sen. Linda Stewart, the bill’s co-sponsor.
“While Miya’s family will never receive justice and nothing can bring back their daughter, I do
hope that with this new law going into effect, in honor of Miya, that some peace will be brought to the family in knowing that their daughter’s death was not in vain,” the Orlando Democrat said in a statement.
The Orange County Sheriff ’s Office has pointed to Armando Caballero, a 27-year-old maintenance worker, as the person responsible for Marcano’s killing after making unwanted advances toward her. He was found dead by suicide days before her body was discovered.
Marcano, who worked at Arden Villas’ front office, was reported missing following a work shift Sept. 24 after she missed a flight to Fort Lauderdale to visit her family.
Investigators determined Caballero entered Marcano’s apartment with a master key minutes before she was last seen alive.
Caballero was found dead by suicide at the Sabal Club Apartments in unincorporated Longwood a few days after Marcano’s disappearance.
The medical examiner was unable to determine how Marcano died because her body was “nearly completely skeletonized” with black duct tape found around her neck, wrists and ankles, according to an autopsy report.
Investigators believe Marcano was likely killed in her apartment after a struggle and put in the trunk of Caballero’s car from her bedroom window. But Marcano’s family, who have accused OCSO in the past of initially failing to treat her disappearance seriously, say the use of duct tape shows she could have been taken alive.
Stewart said despite their differences, Marcano’s family and the Sheriff’s Office, along with other groups, were able to work together to get the bill passed in the Legislature.
The proposal was watered down at one point during its journey through the House and Senate, but Stewart said they were able to add key protections back in and include a provision to curb human trafficking that prohibits hourly rentals at lodging establishments.
“This was the hardest bill I have ever had to push through in my lifetime,” the lawmaker said. “It was very challenging.”
The law will apply to apartment complexes with 25 units or more but does not include condos, Stewart said.
“This is going to hopefully give [renters] a sense of security, knowing that if they’re going to live in apartments that there’s going to be safety measures in place,” she said. “... I think this will go a long way in cutting back on perhaps as little as theft but also stalking and things of more serious nature.”
Scarbriel said she knows her daughter is smiling and happy at her family for pushing the bill forward.
“What we have gone through as a family with losing Miya at 19 years old in her own apartment — no one should ever have to feel that way ever again,” she said.