ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell announced the charges being filed against a 19-year-old man accused of killing three people — a 38-year-old woman, a 9-year-old girl and a Spectrum News 13 reporter — and wounding two others in Pine Hills.
Keith Moses, 19, was arrested in connection with the deaths of Nathacha Augustin, 38; T’yonna Major, 9; and Dylan Lyons, 24, and the shootings of Brandi Major, the girl’s mother, and 29-year-old Jesse Walden, a Spectrum News 13 photographer.
The charges were officially filed Friday.
- Second-degree murder (three counts)
- Attempted first-degree murder (two counts)
- Burglary of a dwelling with an assault or battery with a firearm
- Shooting within a vehicle, shooting within a dwelling, shooting into a vehicle and shooting into a dwelling (four counts)
- Possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent
- Carrying a concealed firearm
- Resisting an officer without violence (three counts)
- Armed trespass in a structure
Worrell says the charges filed are to allow them to continue to hold Moses while a grand jury convenes.
“Florida law requires that we file first-degree murder charges or charges at all within 21 days. First-degree murder can only be filed by indictment in the state of Florida. So, first-degree murder charges will go before a grand jury at some point,” Worrell said. “But in order to continue to keep Mr. Moses detained, it is necessary for us to file these charges as holding charges at this time. This isn’t unusual, it’s something that’s actually done quite normally in the case of prosecuting first-degree murder cases. And that’s what we’re doing in this case.”
The 19-year-old entered written pleas of not guilty Wednesday to the charges of first-degree murder.
Moses has a criminal history that includes eight felonies and 11 misdemeanor cases, all but one of which happened when he was a juvenile.
The state attorney commented on an ongoing war of words between herself and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has criticized Worrell and alleged she is not doing enough to keep criminals off the street.
The governor’s office sent a letter requesting the criminal records of Moses, including copies of all reports, letters, summaries, statements and emails regarding the 19-year-old suspect or decisions made about him, and copies of all documents related to his juvenile record.
“In that letter, there were several baseless accusations that were made. In fact, there were many unfounded assertions and conclusions and I found them to be disappointing and irresponsible,” Worrell said. “... So when I am asked, ‘Why was he out on the streets,’ he was out on the streets because he did not commit an offense that would have required or even justified life imprisonment.”
Worrell detailed Moses’ history and said four felonies included vehicle burglaries where “he and other individuals broke into a vehicle, not an occupied vehicle, broke into a vehicle and wherein they stole things out of the vehicle.”
“One of those felonies was a grand theft in the third-degree where he was a passenger in a stolen vehicle. There was no evidence or information in the police report that he stole the vehicle, but he was charged with grand theft and third-degree because he was a passenger in a stolen vehicle. That’s three of the four felony offenses and Mr. Moses is juvenile history,” she said.
Worrell spoke last month about wanting juvenile justice changes in the wake of the shootings.
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