About four hours later, when he heard a helicopter hovering above, Ryce ran to the door and tried to open it only to be shot in the back by Chavez, who held the child until he took his last breath.

Around the time of Ryce's disappearance, Susan Scheinhaus reported several items missing from her home including a handgun and jewelry.

On May 23, 2007, Chavez appealed the denial to the Florida Supreme Court, filing a petition for habeas corpus at the same time.

On April 17, 2012, Chavez filed a successor motion for post-conviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850.

[5] Chavez made no final statement but issued a written message in which he wished "unfailing love be upon us, upon me, upon those who today take the life out of this body, as well as those who in their blindness or in their pain desire my death.

The Jimmy Ryce Act (Jimmy Ryce Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators' Treatment And Care Act) was passed unanimously by the Florida legislature and was signed by Governor Lawton Chiles on May 19, 1998, becoming effective on January 1, 1999.

That treatment center, located in Arcadia, was criticized because treatment is lacking (less than 5 hours per week), it lacks security (several incidents of murder on site, riots requiring hundreds of officers to quell) there is no method of restoring civil liberties (the program has no release stage) being underfunded, understaffed and located in an old condemned correctional facility.

[citation needed] After running the center for 7 years, Liberty Healthcare was released by the state as the vendor, and GEO Group was retained.

Plaintiffs were all involuntarily civilly confined at FCCC pursuant to the Sexually Violent Predator Act §§ 394.910, et seq.

DCF and the new contractor, GEO Group, implemented significant changes in the sex offender and psychiatric treatment provided to residents.

In the Fall of 2009, plaintiffs and defendants, through their respective attorneys, filed a joint motion to dismiss the suit in favor of a settlement agreement.

Federal Court Justice Steele accepted the joint submission and dismissed the class action suit, with prejudice, in November 2009, the same year that Jimmy Ryce's mother died.