TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The man who raped and murdered 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce almost 20 years ago is scheduled to be executed Feb. 12.
Gov. Rick Scott signed a death warrant Thursday for 46-year-old Juan Carlos Chavez, who kidnapped, raped then dismembered the boy on Sept. 11, 1995
Jimmy 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. He later cut up his body. Investigators found the remains three months later in concrete-filled planters.
Lawmakers later passed the Jimmy Ryce act, which allows the civil commitment of dangerous sexual predators once they have completed their prison terms.