Florida has two new Circuit Court Judges, courtesy of appointments by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis named James “Jimmy” Morgan III to the 16th Judicial Circuit and John Waters to the 10th Judicial Circuit.

Both fill vacancies created by retiring Judges.

Morgan, a Marathon resident, has served as a Judge on the Monroe County Court since 2021, when DeSantis named him to the post. He kept the job unopposed in May 2024.

Prior to his time on the bench, Morgan worked for close to three years as an Assistant Public Defender in the 16th Judicial Circuit, two years as Chief of Staff and Director of Operations for Spottswood Companies, a Keys-based real estate company, and nearly nine years as a prosecutor with the United States Marine Corps, according to his LinkedIn page.

He holds a Juris Doctor, master’s degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and was admitted to the Florida Bar in September 2009.

Waters is a criminal defense lawyer in private practice in Lakeland. He previously worked as an associate at Lopez & Humphries P.A., a car accident and personal injury firm. He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida and was admitted to the Florida Bar in September 2010.

Morgan succeeds Judge Luis Garcia, who notified DeSantis of his plans to step down after 24 years on the bench on June 3, 2024.

“It has been the greatest honor and privilege of my life to serve the people of Monroe County,” he told the Governor by letter.

“I’ve been basically working for the state of Florida as a prosecutor or a judge since 1989, and it’s a long time,” Garcia, then 61, told Keys Weekly in November. “I’m ready for a new stage in life, to spend more time with my family. I have grandkids now.”

On Dec. 17, 2024, a judicial nominating commission identified three candidates — Morgan, Donald Barrett and James Bridges Jr. — as appropriate candidates to replace Garcia.

DeSantis picked Morgan on Feb. 14, writing, “Your appointment is evidence of my utmost confidence in your ability to serve with excellence and distinction.”

Waters, meanwhile, replaces Judge Wayne Durden, who informed DeSantis that he would retire at noon on New Year’s Eve. He noted in the April 18, 2024, letter to the Governor that his retirement would come “a few days prior to the end of my current term which ends on Jan. 6, 2025.”

Durden sat on the 10th Judicial Circuit bench for more than 14 years and previously served as an Assistant State Attorney since 1987, including 18 years as Polk County Felony Director for the State Attorney’s Office.

“Altogether, I have been in public service for approximately 40 years,” he wrote. “I have decided it’s my time to retire.”

Waters was one of four nominees a judicial nominating commission identified on Dec. 12. Others included G. Cory Chastang, Monica Smith and Jennifer Steimle.

DeSantis selected Waters on Feb. 10 in a letter virtually identical to the one he sent to Morgan.

“Congratulations,” the Governor wrote, “and thank you for your willingness to serve the people of Florida.”

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Punta Gorda Republican Rep. Vanessa Oliver is backing a measure (HB 1085) to transfer the operation of the Children’s Medical Services (CMS) Managed Care Plan from the Department of Health (DOH) to the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

The transfer aims to ensure high-quality, family-centered and coordinated health services for children and youth with special care needs. The bill further includes provisions for collaboration between the CMS program and AHCA to establish evaluation measures, while seeking federal approval for certain Medicaid services amendments.

All records and personnel currently involved in the CMS Managed Care Plan under DOH would be transferred to AHCA, along with any unexpended balances of appropriations, pending issues, existing contracts and administrative authority to ensure that ongoing services and agreements remain intact during the transition process.

CMS would be required to conduct clinical eligibility screening for children and youth with special health care needs who are eligible for or enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

AHCA would further seek federal approval to amend Florida’s Medicaid Model Waiver for home and community-based services to include children who receive private duty nursing services.

The amended waiver would be required to provide an array of tiered services to more broadly serve medically fragile children who receive these services to ensure that institutional care is avoided so children are able to remain at home.

Services would be required to be provided by health plans participating in the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care program. ACHA would be responsible for implementing the approved waiver subject to available funds, and any limitations provided in the General Appropriations Act, including a limitation on the number of enrollees in the revised waiver.

AHCA would establish specific measures of access, quality, and costs for providing health care services to children and youth with special health care needs. An independent evaluator would be contracted to conduct an evaluation of these services.

The bill would amend and repeal several Florida statutes to conform with the changes, with some being repealed Jan. 1, 2026, while others take effect July 1, 2025. It further states, with the exception of specified dates, the bill would come into effect upon becoming a law.

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The first good night’s sleep in years for the daughter of a murdered couple came the night Florida executed her parents’ killer earlier this month, she says in a new interview.

“There’s a weight that’s been lifted off of us,” said Maranda Malnory, 29, of Cape Coral in a phone conversation from her home. “We can move forward. We’re never going to move past it, but it’s not looming there all the time.”

Malnory, 29, was less than one month away from her 2nd birthday when James Ford murdered her parents, Greg and Kim Malnory, in rural Charlotte County in Southwest Florida. Malnory was left to the elements in a car seat in her father’s blue pickup after her parents’ murders, and police found her and her parents’ bodies the next morning.

Residents of Charlotte County heard details of her parents’ 1997 deaths far before she did.

“It wasn’t a secret that my parents had passed away, because it was always talked about,” she said, “but it was kind of secretive in the fact that I didn’t know the facts of what happened until I was 13.”

“It was shocking,” she said, “because to a 13-year-old, you don’t expect to be able to just Google your name and be like, ‘Oh no, here’s an entire five-page article about how your parents were murdered in front of you in a horrific way, and then, oh, you were the lone survivor.’”

After her parents died, Malnory’s maternal grandmother, Linda Griffin, took her in.

“She kind of overcompensated a little bit for my parents not being around,” Malnory said. “She felt, as my mom’s mom, she should have protected my mom as my mom protected me, but I had a happy childhood.”

Malnory said she has a handful of secondhand stories about her parents passed down from their friends and family, but she doesn’t have any memories of her own.

“There’s a missing piece,” she said. “I never got to experience the traditional family things of having a mom and dad, celebrating Mother’s Day and Father’s Day with them.”

Despite growing up without her parents, Malnory said she learns more about them as time passes from the people around her.

“The way that I get to know my mom and dad is by talking about them,” she said. “I’m still getting Facebook messages from people that went to school with my parents, or detectives, because I went to school with some of the detectives’ kids. … To me, it’s getting to know who they were as people, not just this idea of them, by talking to people that knew them.”

Some of the stories Malnory has heard about her parents come from her coworkers at East Elementary in Punta Gorda, where she works as a special education paraprofessional.

“For the longest time, I wanted to be a lawyer, and having stayed in contact with most of the attorneys on my parents’ case. … I think my heart would be too invested in it,” she said. “At least in education, I can give back that way. I call it heart work. You don’t just do it because you want to. It comes from the heart.”

The first person Malnory spoke with when the death warrant was signed was a school employee who knew her mother in high school. Malnory said the Friday morning phone call from the Governor’s Office “completely came out of the blue.”

“I had mixed emotions because it was something that, in December, I had talked about … and I felt like, in a sense, I kind of talked it into existence, almost,” she said. “It was also very stressful for me. It was a lot of almost re-victimizing. … Everyone seemed to focus on Ford instead of my parents, so every time seeing a picture of him, it felt like it re-victimized me in a sense.”

Less than two weeks before the execution, Malnory visited her parents’ graves for the first time in six years.

“It’s my aunt that’s there, my mom’s sister, my maternal grandmother that passed away and then my parents. For me, that’s just an area of heartache, because it’s four people that meant the world to me all in a line,” she said. “It wasn’t as anxiety-inducing as I thought it would be. … I wasn’t there by myself, and we were there to clean. It was more of a, ‘Hey, we’re trying to do this good thing for them so when people take pictures of their graves, it actually is clean.’”

“At the same time, I was kind of sad,” she said. “This isn’t how I want to spend my Saturday. I’d rather spend my Saturday with them.”

As the execution approached, Malnory had to decide whether she would attend — or even witness Ford dying by injection.

She said she wanted answers from Ford when she was younger.

“He’s a coward,” Malnory said. “He still, up until his last breath, was like, ‘I hope they find out who murdered Kim and Greg.’ Well, you did. We were all there. When I was younger, I wanted to talk to him, but the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized, he’s never going to say.”

Malnory ultimately decided not to attend the Feb. 13 execution with her family members.

“I actually went back and forth, and nobody in my family knows this, but I was even thinking about going probably up until it happened,” she said. “I wanted to go, but at the same time, that could be triggering for me. Seeing his face personally, up close after all those years, that could bring up some sort of thing that had been locked away for 27 years.”

Malnory said she called family members who did attend the execution the moment the press conference was over.

“It was justice. Peace, not closure, but for them, it was that final closing of the chapter,” she said. “I feel the peace from it, but I grieve what I could have had, and they were actually grieving the loss of them as people.”

Malnory said she initially had mixed emotions about Ford’s execution, but she feels a sense of closure now.

“We’re going into the 28th year not going, ‘Oh, he’s lived 28 years longer than they had, or he’s taken 28 years of Mother’s Days and Father’s Days and Christmases.’”

The end of Ford’s life doesn’t signal the end of his crimes’ impact on Malnorys.

“It impacted (my life) in a huge way,” she said. “When it comes to relationships, I seek out men older than I am, because it’s like I’m trying to fill that void that my dad would have. I don’t want to say I have daddy issues, but I do. … It also makes me afraid to have kids, because I don’t want my kids to ever have to grow up without me.”

Malnory said the people around her, especially those who knew her parents, carry her through her hardest days.

“No one has forgotten us in the 27 years that it took,” she said. “No one in Charlotte County has ever forgotten us. It’s home to me.”

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.

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