Florida | Leesburg man faces death penalty in child sex battery case

A 41-year-old Leesburg man could face the death penalty after a grand jury indicted him on 47 felony charges, including 12 counts of sexual battery on a child younger than 12.

Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Gladson announced the indictment of Schubert Navarroza Macarat on May 27 and confirmed his office has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty should Macarat be found guilty.

The charges stem from an investigation that began on the evening of March 22. Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call regarding a past sexual offense, where a caller reported that a child had just disclosed long-term, ongoing sexual abuse.

According to the state attorney's office, the child confirmed the abuse during a subsequent forensic interview, which led detectives to additional evidence.

During the investigation, authorities recovered a 4-terabyte hard drive containing at least 3,000 videos. Detectives have confirmed that 700 of those videos consist of child sexual abuse material.

Following the presentation of evidence, a grand jury returned an indictment for Macarat on May 26. He was arrested and is being held without bail at the Lake County Detention Facility.

According to the Death Penalty Institute, prosecutors across the nation have begun to seek the death penalty in capital sexual battery cases under these new statutes.

In Florida, the death penalty for the sexual battery of a child younger than 12 is governed primarily by two statutes, which were updated or created by legislation passed in 2023: Florida Statutes 921.1425 and 794.011.

Lake County was the first in the state to have a death penalty case for sexual abuse.

In the Daily Commercial, Frank Stanfield wrote about Joseph A. Giampa, 36, of Leesburg, who was arrested on Nov. 2, 2023, and charged with six counts of sexual battery of a person younger than 12 and three counts of promoting the sexual performance of a child.

In February 2024, Giampa pleaded guilty in return for a life prison sentence without parole.

Despite established federal precedent, several states, including Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Idaho and Tennessee, have passed or advanced laws authorizing the death penalty for child sexual abuse. These measures are intended to serve as direct legal challenges to force the Supreme Court to reconsider its Kennedy v. Louisiana ruling, which decided that the death penalty for any crime besides murder is unconstitutional.

"This kind of criminal depravity demands only one response from the state," Gladson said in a prepared statement about the Macarat case.

"We are seeking to prematurely end this defendant's life because the crimes he committed are so heinous that no other punishment is fitting."

No one in the United States has been executed for a non-homicidal sexual offense since 1964. The Macarat case is being prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Shannon Schlarf.

Source: dailycommercial.com, Julie Garisto, May 28, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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