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Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis announces crackdown on ‘porch pirates’ in new Florida bill
A new bill moving quickly through the Florida legislature would intensify penalties for retail theft and “porch piracy,” making it a third-degree felony to steal packages worth over $40.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the crackdown at a Tuesday news conference in Cape Coral, describing it as a measure to avoid a “culture of lawlessness” in progressive states like California and New York.
“You have Amazon will deliver it, they drop this stuff off, and sometimes it’s gone,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “And you have the ability with cameras now on people’s doorsteps, this is easily solvable, but you’ve got to have adequate penalties to be able to do that.”
The bill, HB 549, was added to the Florida House Judiciary Committee agenda on Monday. Its companion bill in the senate is SB 824. In addition to penalties for porch piracy, the legislation also targets retail thefts, adding new penalties for looting and “smash and grab” crimes and lengthening the amount of time in which someone can be prosecuted as a repeat offender from a month to a year.
“If you go into a pharmacy, and the toothpaste is behind lock and key — it’s almost like Fort Knox, some of these places, just for normal items — you know you’ve got some problems,” DeSantis said.
Also in attendance at Tuesday’s news conference were Attorney General Ashley Moody, FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass, State Rep. Bob Rommel, the bill’s sponsor in the House, and John Gavin of Gavins Ace Hardware.
In 2023, Florida was ranked as the state with the lowest number of Google searches related to package thefts, according to a report by Lombardo Living. It also has some of the lowest larceny rates. State law already makes it a third-degree felony to steal a package worth over $100 from someone’s porch.
But Moody said Tuesday that the goal of the legislation is to “keep Florida Florida.”
“You know, all these other states are going to have slogans like ‘make California Florida,’ or ‘make New York Florida,’” she said. “We have to keep Florida Florida, continue to be the leader. And this is a great example of how we do that.”
Some Democratic lawmakers have criticized the bill, calling the new penalties too harsh.
“For a first-time offender who doesn’t necessarily know the value of the item that they’re stealing, to give that person the scar of a felony offense … is incredibly problematic,” Rep. Michael Gottlieb, D-Davie, a criminal defense attorney, told the Tallahassee Democrat.
The new bill also makes it a third-degree felony to commit coordinated “smash-and-grab” crimes, in which a group of people storm a store, loot it, and storm out, a phenomenon that has become popular on social media.
Meanwhile, the legislation includes a provision so that prosecutors add up thefts over the course of a year, rather than a month, to determine whether the suspect will be charged with a felony.
If someone’s total thefts exceed $750 in value, they will now be charged with a third-degree felony. The same is true if someone commits three or more thefts of more than 10 items at two or more locations over the course of a year.
NEWS
A man is in custody after deputies said he tried to kidnap a woman at a Wawa near Winter park. Per investigators, Matthew Seaberg approached the victim from behind, picked her up by the waist, and threw her into his truck.
Florida
Jury selection continues in fatal boat crash trial of South Florida real estate mogul George Pino
MIAMI — A new group of prospective jurors was questioned Tuesday in the trial of South Florida real estate mogul George Pino, who is charged in connection with a 2022 boat crash that killed a teenager in Miami-Dade County.
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During jury selection in a Miami-Dade courtroom, Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez asked potential jurors what they already knew about the case and whether they had recently seen or heard anything about it.
Several prospective jurors said they knew only basic details, including that a fatal boating crash occurred and that a teenage girl died. Others said they recalled media reports that alcohol may have been involved.
As questioning continued, some prospective jurors disclosed connections to schools and communities tied to the case.
Passengers aboard Pino’s boat included his wife, his teenage daughter and 11 of her friends, many of whom attended private schools in Miami-Dade County.
One prospective juror said they graduated from a local private school around the time of the crash and were familiar with some of the students involved.
Another said references to schools and witnesses brought back memories of seeing posts and articles about the incident shared on social media.
A third said their child participates in youth sports with students from schools connected to the case.
Investigators said the boat struck a channel marker while returning from an outing on Biscayne Bay. Seventeen-year-old Lourdes Academy student Lucy Fernandez drowned after the crash.
Tinkler Mendez also addressed concerns that a prospective juror had been viewing a news report about the case on a cellphone while waiting outside the courtroom.
Another prospective juror reported hearing the report but said it was not loud enough for everyone in the area to hear.
Tinkler Mendez reminded prospective jurors to avoid news coverage and social media discussions related to the case as jury selection continues.
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STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man who confessed to killing his girlfriend’s infant daughter and throwing her body in a pond three decades ago is set to be executed Tuesday evening.
Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in 1997 for the death a year earlier of 5-month-old Gabrielle Hanshaw.
This would be Florida’s eighth execution so far this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
According to court records, Lukehart was watching his girlfriend’s baby in February 1996 while his girlfriend was caring for her older daughter, who had been ill. At some point, the girlfriend said Lukehart drove away from their Jacksonville home, and she couldn’t find baby Gabrielle. Lukehart called his girlfriend about 30 minutes later and told her to call police because the baby had been kidnapped and he was chasing the kidnapper.
Later that evening, Lukehart was found in a neighboring county after driving his car off the road. During questioning the next day, Lukehart told investigators that Gabrielle died after he dropped the baby on her head and then shook her. He told police that he panicked and threw the baby in a pond. Law enforcement officers searched the pond and found the child’s body.
The Florida Supreme Court denied Lukehart’s appeals last week. His attorneys had claimed that medication he was taking for kidney disease could have a negative reaction with the lethal injection drugs. They also argued that having only a month between the signing of Lukehart’s death warrant and the execution deprived him of his due process.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Lukehart’s final appeal on Monday.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.
Another execution is planned in Florida later this month. Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, was convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1992.
All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
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