Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a 35-year-old Sanford man facing multiple child sex crime charges. This marks the first time the 18th Judicial Circuit, which serves Seminole and Brevard counties, has pursued such a sentence under a 2023 Florida law.
Case Details
Assistant State Attorney Daniel Faggard filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case against Daniel Rodriguez on June 11. Rodriguez is accused of recording himself raping, molesting, and exposing himself to two child relatives, including a 6-year-old girl.
A Seminole County grand jury indicted Rodriguez on June 9 on 69 counts, including two counts of sexual battery on a child younger than 12, six counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child younger than 12, and 50 counts of possession of material depicting sexual conduct by a child.
State Attorney William Scheiner said Rodriguez’s case underwent a ‘very intensive review’ before prosecutors decided to pursue the death penalty. The two sexual battery charges involving a child younger than 12 are capital felonies, and under the 2023 Florida law, prosecutors may seek the death penalty in certain capital sexual battery cases involving children under 12.
Scheiner called capital sexual battery ‘a particularly heinous crime in and of itself.’ Prosecutors argue the circumstances meet the legal threshold required to seek a death sentence and have identified two aggravating factors they intend to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
Investigation and Arrest
Rodriguez became the target of an investigation by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office after the Sanford Police Department received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that included two digital video files depicting child sexual abuse.
Investigators connected those videos, along with nearly 300 other photos and videos, to a Verizon account with a mobile phone number assigned to Rodriguez, according to the State Attorney’s Office. Rodriguez was arrested on May 19 and remains in the Seminole County jail without bond.
Original reporting: WESH Orlando — read the source article.
