A poster of Jimmy Ryce hangs on a stop sign near the home of his parents. (AP)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed a death warrant for the man convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce on his way home from school almost 20 years ago.
Forty-six-year-old Juan Carlos Chavez is scheduled to die by injection Feb. 12 for the Sept. 11, 1995, slaying.
The boy was abducted after being dropped off by a school bus near his home in south Miami-Dade County. Chavez took him back to his trailer, where he raped him. He held Jimmy captive for three hours before he shot the boy as he tried to escape.
The case horrified the state and led to the passage of the Jimmy Ryce Act. It allows authorities to commit dangerous sexual predators to mental institutions once they have completed their prison terms.
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