A Sarasota County grand jury has indicted 33-year-old Kyle Stephen McMahan on capital sexual battery charges that could make him eligible for the death penalty under Florida law, according to court records. McMahan, who lives in the 12300 block of Greenleaf Lane in Port Charlotte, was already free on bond in a separate Sarasota County child sex abuse case when the new indictment was handed down on August 18. He is now held in the Sarasota County Jail, with his bond revoked following his arrest on the new charges.
The indictment includes three counts of sexual battery by a person 18 or older against a victim under 12, three counts of molestation of a victim under 12 by a person 18 or older, lewd and lascivious behavior by an offender 18 or older, lewd and lascivious behavior against a victim under 16, and distributing obscene material to a minor, according to the Charlotte Sun. The sexual battery counts are classified as capital felonies, while the molestation charges are life felonies and the remaining counts are lesser felonies. Under the Florida Constitution, a grand jury indictment is required before prosecutors can pursue a capital case.
The alleged abuse occurred in North Port, and the sexual battery was first reported on November 28, 2024, according to a probable cause affidavit cited by the newspaper. A forensic interview conducted at the North Port Child Protection Center indicates McMahan showed the victim pornography on his cellphone during a car trip in June. The victim reportedly told family members that McMahan warned them not to tell anyone or he would go to jail, and disclosed the alleged acts, which occurred over several months.
McMahan Denies Wrongdoing, Offers Alternate Explanations
In a recorded controlled phone call cited in the probable cause affidavit, McMahan denied the allegations, saying he would never touch the victim in that manner. He reportedly told investigators he may have accidentally touched the victim's buttocks during a hug or while play wrestling, and separately said he had caught the victim looking at pornography on his phone several times. McMahan has pleaded not guilty to the Sarasota County charges through the public defender's office, per the same account.
McMahan already has a criminal record tied to child abuse in Lee County. In September 2025, he pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse charges there, which involved allegations that he locked a child in a closet, sprayed an irritant into a child's eyes, and forced a child to drink urine or eat cat feces, human feces, hot sauce, raw meat, or cat food, according to court records referenced by the outlet. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on each count, ordered to run concurrently, followed by two years of state probation.
A History Dating Back to a 2012 Bomb Threat
McMahan's history with Sarasota County courts goes back more than a decade. In 2013, he pleaded no contest to making a false report about planting a bomb or explosive, a second-degree felony, after posting on a Facebook memorial page reaching roughly 4,100 users that North Port High would be officially destroyed in an explosion and that the world would end on December 21, 2012, according to a North Port Police Department probable cause affidavit reported at the time by The Daily Sun. He also pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace by interfering with school administration, a second-degree misdemeanor, and was adjudicated guilty on that count while adjudication was withheld on the false-report charge.
Court records show McMahan, then 20, was placed on community control and probation, with a sentence that included a mandatory psychological evaluation, a ban on owning or using internet-connected devices or mobile phones, and a requirement that he live and work with his father. His community control and probation terminated in 2017.
Florida's 2023 Law Opens the Door to Capital Punishment
McMahan's case is unfolding under a Florida law that did not exist a few years ago. Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1297 into law on May 1, 2023, authorizing prosecutors to seek the death penalty against adults convicted of capital sexual battery involving a child under 12, according to WUSF. The law took effect that October. Under the accompanying sentencing framework, a jury must unanimously find at least two statutory aggravating factors, and at least 8 of 12 jurors must recommend execution, a threshold lawmakers lowered from a unanimous vote, as detailed by the Florida Senate.
The law was written with an explicit challenge to federal precedent in mind. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana that the Eighth Amendment bars capital punishment for non-homicidal child rape, but Florida lawmakers declared in HB 1297 that the decision was wrongly decided, aiming to force the high court to revisit it. Other states have since followed Florida's lead, with Tennessee passing a similar statute in May 2024 and Idaho in March 2025, according to research published by the University of Idaho College of Law.
Florida prosecutors have increasingly tested the statute since a Lake County grand jury first indicted Joseph Andrew Giampa on capital child sexual battery charges in May 2024, the earliest known attempt to seek execution under the law. Hoodline has reported on this statewide push before, including a May 2026 Lake County indictment containing 12 capital counts against a Leesburg man. Even so, any death sentence obtained under the statute would still face the constitutional hurdle posed by the 2008 Supreme Court ruling, an issue that remains unresolved at the federal level.
McMahan's case will proceed through Florida's 12th Judicial Circuit Court, which covers Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties and where Public Defender Larry Eger's office handles indigent criminal defense. He remains held in the Sarasota County Jail as the case moves forward.
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