A Florida prosecutor who found herself in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crosshairs this week has fired back in an interview with The Daily Beast, fingering her local sheriff as among those who painted a target on her back months ago in the leadup to a “ridiculous witch hunt” by the state’s top lawmakers.
And she went a step further, accusing Orange County Sheriff John Mina—with whom she closely works—of his own missteps during a previous case involving the alleged killer in what has now become a politically fraught murder probe.
Florida State Attorney Monique Worrell, the Orlando attorney tasked with prosecuting the killer in the shocking triple-murder of a 9-year-old girl, a 38-year-old woman and a local news reporter last week, emerged as the next Democratic prosecutor targeted by DeSantis after his office booted Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren earlier this year over his refusal to prosecute abortion patients. After a trial, a federal judge ruled Warren’s ouster was unconstitutional but that there was nothing the judge could do to stop DeSantis’ crusade.
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Last Wednesday, law enforcement arrested 19-year-old Keith Moses as the prime suspect in the appalling murders of T’Yonna Major, Natacha Augustin, and Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons. According to prosecutors, Moses gunned down Augustin, before returning to the scene and firing into the crowd, killing Lyons and Major, and injuring another journalist and Major’s mother.
Days later, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and DeSantis both piled on criticism of Worrell’s handling of Moses’ prior cases, many of which took place before her term. (Moses’ “lengthy criminal history” included gun charges, aggravated battery and assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and grand theft charges, Mina told reporters.)
“I know the state attorney in Orlando thinks that you don’t prosecute people, and that’s the way that somehow you have better communities. That does not work,” DeSantis told reporters on Monday.
“If the failures we suspect are confirmed, Gov. DeSantis would be right to remove her,” Scott echoed in a tweet.
The governor’s general counsel, who oversaw the ousting of Warren, also sent a letter to Worrell demanding extensive information about Moses’ past and attacking her for what they claimed were her failures to keep him off the street.
Sheriff John Mina.
Orange County Sheriff’s OfficeBut Worrell told The Daily Beast on Friday that testimony during Warren’s trial showed that Mina, who ran for sheriff as a Democrat, had long wanted Worrell out as well. He told investigators that Worrell was also a “George Soros-funded prosecutor who’s antagonistic to law enforcement” who “should also be removed,” she told The Daily Beast.
Mina told investigators that “to be a law enforcement sheriff in that area [Orlando] was very difficult,” according to trial testimony reported by the Tampa Bay Times.
“The reason that was given by the governor’s office at that time for not removing me is because they didn’t have a reason,” Worrell told The Daily Beast on Friday. “Well, they’ve been trying to find one ever since then.”
According to Worrell, the letter from DeSantis’ office was nothing more than a factless “fishing expedition.” Moses’ sealed juvenile cases, she said, were handled by others, but not mishandled.
“While it can certainly be criticized, it’s not something that is a basis of some sort of illegal activity on behalf of my office,” she said.
Despite Mina complaining that Moses was never convicted for his acts as a juvenile, she said, no juvenile technically gets a “conviction,” and anyone speaking about a juvenile’s prior misdemeanors is violating Florida law.
And, as the Tampa Bay Times reported on Thursday, the sheriff’s office has admitted it was they who failed to test DNA samples on a gun found in Moses’ only previous arrest as an adult.
The case eventually presented to her from that arrest, of 4.6 grams of marijuana possession, she could not prosecute, she said.
The mudslinging in a case of shared responsibility, she claimed, was a distraction.
“The conversation needs to be around: what can we do to reduce the likelihood that this will ever happen again?” she told The Daily Beast.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to most of The Daily Beast’s requests for comment about Worrell’s claims. However, a spokesperson said in a statement, “The Sheriff is familiar with the restrictions related to release of juvenile information and is comfortable that the statements regarding the Defendant were appropriate.”
In Worrell’s view, lawmakers have seized on the two tragic deaths to raise their own political profile and power against the will of the electorate.
“There’s definitely a target across my back and it has nothing to do with anything that I’ve done, but just simply with the fact that the governor wants full control over Florida politics and he doesn’t respect the will of the electorate,” Worrell told The Daily Beast.
“Governor DeSantis and Senator Scott have come in and decided to politicize this by taking attacks against me, without even having the decency to reach out to the families and offer their condolences” she later added. “It’s shameful.”
The families of some of Moses’ alleged victims agree—even while they call for the maximum sentence for their loved ones’ killer.
“What DeSantis and Scott have done is intentionally tried to mislead and confuse the public so they don’t have to deal with the real issue of gun violence and sane gun laws,” said lawyer Mark NeJame, who represents the families of Major and Lyons.
NeJame declared that family members are “disgusted” and “appalled” by what he said was lawmakers running a smokescreen on the real issue at hand—their failure on gun control.
“It’s going to be the O.K. Corral on the streets,” he told The Daily Beast, specifically calling out DeSantis’ push for open carry and stand your ground legislation.
NeJame noted he had a good working relationship with both Mina and Worrell.
“It’s clear that Monique Worrell is a political adversary of this power-hungry governor and Senator Scott, and what they’re doing is attempting to capitalize on the death of this child and this young reporter for their own political benefit.”
Representatives of DeSantis did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Scott’s office did not comment on accusations that his public statements on the case were purely political.
Worrell said that she will continue to defend her attorneys in Orlando.
“It is my responsibility to defend my team and explain to the community that the accusations against this office are not based in fact and to educate the community on all of the components that go into supporting incidents like what happened last week,” she said.
