A convicted child sex predator walked out of a Florida courtroom on bond – and five-year-old Missy Mogle paid for it with her life.
Now the people with the power to hold the judge accountable are doing nothing.
DeSantis just called them out in front of the entire country.
The Judge Who Freed a Monster
In April 2025, Daniel Spencer was convicted of traveling to meet a minor for sex.
The state attorney asked Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper to revoke his bond immediately.
She overruled him – because Spencer had been out of jail for a year without violations and had no violent criminal history – and sent him home to the house where five-year-old Missy Mogle lived.
What followed was documented on security cameras in Missy's bedroom.
Law enforcement recovered hours of footage showing Spencer hitting her, violently pulling her arms, shoving her face into a bed, and binding her feet and hands together.
Photos showed Missy bound at the feet and ankles with a pillow covering her face.
Another showed her swaddled tight, a mask over her face, earmuffs over her ears.
On May 19, 2025, Missy was found not breathing at the family's Tallahassee home.
https://twitter.com/bluelivesmtr/status/2047133354454085829?s=20
Her grandfather was performing CPR when police arrived.
She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The autopsy confirmed she had been asphyxiated.
She was also malnourished.
She was five years old.
DeSantis Draws a Line
Florida passed Missy's Law in response – requiring judges to immediately remand defendants convicted of dangerous crimes before sentencing.
DeSantis signed it.
Then he said signing it wasn't enough.
On Wednesday, he posted on X: "The Florida House has still not lifted a finger to bring accountability to this judge via its constitutional authority to impeach. Why won't they stand up for Missy?"
An hour later, a second post: "The clock is ticking."
Attorney General James Uthmeier had already sent a formal letter to House Speaker Daniel Perez on March 31 demanding impeachment proceedings begin immediately.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2049516248237592754?s=20
The Florida Constitution gives Perez the authority to appoint an investigative committee on his own, without waiting for a floor vote.
He hasn't done it.
Baker-Carper quietly recused herself from the murder case Monday.
Republicans hold nearly 70 percent of seats in both chambers – the votes for impeachment and conviction are there.
The will apparently isn't.
This Is What No Accountability Looks Like
The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers offered the predictable defense: Baker-Carper wasn't informed about prior abuse allegations at the Spencer home, so she couldn't have known the risk.
That framing ignores the most important fact in the courtroom that day.
The state attorney – the prosecutor who handles these cases for a living – explicitly told her Spencer needed to be locked up.
She overruled him.
You don't need undisclosed abuse allegations to justify keeping a convicted child sex predator behind bars before sentencing.
The conviction is supposed to be enough.
That's precisely the standard Missy's Law now codifies.
https://twitter.com/_Postive_Vibes/status/2042982295871852632?s=20
DeSantis didn't invent a new rule.
He's asking the Florida House to enforce consequences under a mechanism the state constitution has always provided.
The question isn't whether the power exists.
The question is why Speaker Perez is sitting on it while Missy's grandfather still wakes up every morning knowing he was the one performing CPR when the police arrived.
Perez is calculating that the pressure fades.
DeSantis is calculating it doesn't – and that every day of silence from the House is a gift to every Democrat who wants to run on Republican cowardice in 2026.
One of them is reading this moment correctly.
Sources:
- WCTV Staff and Caroline Christensen, "DeSantis Renews Call for Impeachment of Judge Who Presided Over Case That Inspired Missy's Law," WCTV, April 29, 2026.
- Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, "Attorney General James Uthmeier Proposes Missy's Law after Brutal Murder of Tallahassee Five-Year-Old," MyFloridaLegal.com, June 24, 2025.
- Yahoo News / Tallahassee Democrat, "Florida House Passes Missy's Law," February 25, 2026.
- Florida Phoenix, "DeSantis Tells Florida House to Impeach Tallahassee Judge Who Released Sex Offender on Bond," April 2026.
