Jacksonville Criminal Defense Attorney Blog
A 16-year-old St. Johns County juvenile inmate likely made his stay significantly longer after he was caught about 200 miles away the same day. Syllas McMillan was caught after he took a cab from St. Johns County to Inverness and then skipped out on the $275 cab fare, according to a report from First Coast News. The cab driver called police who, thinking it was likely McMillan, searched the area, the television station reported. McMillan was found by a police dog on a wooded area.
McMillan now faces a Florida escape charge, on top of the non-violent theft and burglary charges that landed him under juvenile supervision in the first place. McMillan was on an approved field trip to a local horse ranch when he allegedly kicked out a bathroom window and took off on foot, the television station reported. And, in this St. Johns County Juvenile Crimes case, McMillan just made his life a lot more difficult.
In St. Johns County Juvenile Crimes cases, there are a wide-range of punishments and supervision requirements. The most severe, obviously, is being housed in a juvenile detention center – essentially a prison for teens. But there are other options where teens can have some degree of freedom, including field trips and other activities like the one McMillan was on last week. The Florida juvenile system is supposed to be designed toward rehabilitating the teens and making them productive members of society, so there are certain freedoms and responsibilities given. But running away on a field trip is a good way to have any and all of those freedoms taken away. It will be interesting to see if the state decides to charge McMillan as a juvenile or as an adult on the escape charge. Deputies poured plenty of resources into trying to find him, setting up searches along Interstate 95, S.R. 16 and all throughout World Gold Village. He was wearing street clothes, so it’s not like the cab driver would have automatically known by looking at McMillan that he had escaped.
In Florida, escaping from a juvenile detention facility or any juvenile supervision is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. More importantly in instances like this St. Johns County Juvenile Crimes case, it puts the prosecutors and the judge on notice that a person is a flight risk. That means if there’s a question between probation or incarceration, they likely bet is incarceration. The same goes for setting a bond – it’ll likely be much higher for someone with an escape on his or her record – even at 16.
If you or a loved one needs a criminal defense attorney in St. Augustine or the surrounding area, call The Mussallem Law Firm at (904) 365-5200 for a FREE CONSULTATION. Our St. Johns County Juvenile Crimes Attorney, Victoria “Tori” Mussallem, is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.