{"id":4723,"date":"2026-06-19T21:34:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=4723"},"modified":"2026-06-19T21:34:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:34:04","slug":"prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-against-sanford-man-accused-of-raping-child-relative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=4723","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors seek death penalty against Sanford man accused of raping child relative"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prosecutors in Seminole County are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of twice raping his 6-year-old relative \u2014 marking the second time in recent months that Central Florida officials have sought capital punishment in such a case.<\/p>\n

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Daniel Emilio Rodriguez, 35, of Sanford, recorded himself raping, molesting and exploiting the girl over the course of two years and also masturbated in front of her and a 10-year-old male relative, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

He was arrested May 19, indicted June 9 on 69 counts of sex crimes and remains in the Seminole County Jail without bond. He recorded at least one rape as child pornography, and images obtained through search warrants depict sexual abuse that also show either Rodriguez\u2019s face or his tattoos, a news release from prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Rodriguez under\u00a0a first-of-its-kind Florida law (HB 1297) passed in 2023 that made convicted child rapists with victims under the age of 12 eligible to face the death penalty.<\/p>\n

The move follows Lake County prosecutors announcing last month they were using the law to seek the death penalty against 41-year-old Schubert Macarat of Leesburg, who was charged with 12 counts of sexual battery in the alleged sexual abuse of a young girl. The abuse began when she was younger than\u00a010 and lasted several years, prosecutors said. Records indicate the girl and Macarat lived together.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez and Macarat, if convicted, each have the potential to become the first person in the United States sentenced to death for a crime other than murder since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1976, experts say. Prosecutors in Hernando and Putnam counties are also pursing death penalties against accused child sex abusers.<\/p>\n

The new law\u00a0flies in the face of a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Kennedy v. Louisiana, that barred the death penalty for child rapists in cases where the child wasn\u2019t killed, thus reserving capital punishment for murderers.<\/p>\n

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But it was a narrow 5-4 decision, and the ideological makeup of the top court has changed since then. The top prosecutor in Lake County said last month it was time to challenge that ruling.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Florida was the first state to pass such a law, but has since been joined by six other states. No state has sentenced anyone to death under these laws as of the end of May, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Under the law, prosecutors would have to prove two aggravating factors to a jury in order to have Rodriguez sentenced to death. One factor prosecutors are using against him is that his victim was particularly vulnerable due to age or disability, or because he stood in a position of familial or custodial authority over the victim, court records show.<\/p>\n

The Seminole County Sheriff\u2019s Office began investigating Rodriguez after the Sanford Police Department received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that included two digital video files showing child pornography, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Investigators connected those videos \u2014 plus nearly 300 other photos and videos depicting child sexual abuse that had moved over the internet \u2014 to a Verizon account with a mobile phone number assigned to Rodriguez, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Other photos recovered through Rodriguez\u2019s account show different children, mostly girls between the ages of 2 and 10, engaged in sex with men or being directed to put on lewd performances, sometimes in costume, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

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Rodriguez\u2019s arraignment is scheduled for July 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prosecutors in Seminole County are seeking the death penalty against Daniel Emilio Rodriguez, a Sanford man accused of twice raping his 6-year-old relative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nProsecutors seek death penalty against Sanford man accused of raping child relative - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=4723\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prosecutors seek death penalty against Sanford man accused of raping child relative - 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