What happens right after an arrest? For a minor Lafayette charge, a deputy may issue a notice to appear, a slip naming your court day. When it’s a jail booking, Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.130 gives a Lafayette judge one day to see you. The judge reads the charge and decides on pretrial release, meaning freedom to leave jail while the charge is still pending. A uniform bond schedule, issued by Florida’s Supreme Court for 2026, sets the smallest bond amounts the jail can take before that hearing. A few charges, though, mean you must wait for the judge. Families often use a bail bond agent, who charges a nonrefundable premium, usually 10% of the bond.

How serious can a misdemeanor get? First degree: a maximum of 12 months in jail, plus fines reaching $1,000. And for second degree, sixty days and $500 at the most. Many people instead get probation, a class, or community service hours. The prosecutor is the elected Third Circuit State Attorney. Lafayette defendants unable to pay a lawyer can seek the Third Circuit Public Defender. If there’s a conflict, the Regional Counsel for that part of Florida (full name: Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel) can step in for Lafayette defendants. Florida law, Fla. Stat. 938.29, lets the judge assess a public defender fee, and it can become a lien if it isn’t paid.

First-time offenders sometimes qualify for pretrial diversion. Finish the program, and the State Attorney may drop the charge. A trial in County Court is in front of six jurors. Under the speedy trial rule, a Lafayette misdemeanor must be tried within 90 days of formal charging, except when the defense agrees to wait.

Teens in Lafayette: Children under 18 aren’t tried in County Court. Instead, juvenile judges in Circuit Court decide their misdemeanor cases. Florida’s civil citation law, Fla. Stat. 985.12, allows officers to skip arrest for many first-time minor offenses. Instead, the teen agrees to things like an apology letter or service hours. Doing them keeps an arrest off their record.

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In Lafayette, as statewide, a felony can bring over a year, served in a Florida state prison. After first appearance, the State Attorney looks over the reports and chooses whether to file the official charging paper, called an information. Then comes arraignment. That’s when you enter a plea in Circuit Court. For felonies, the speedy trial clock runs 175 days after formal charges are filed, unless the time is waived.

How long can a sentence be? A third-degree felony can mean 5 years. Second degree, as many as 15. First degree, as many as 30. A life felony can mean life. To set the minimum, the judge uses a Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet. It works like a point total: the charge, injuries to a victim and earlier convictions all add points. Florida inmates serve no less than 85% of a prison term. When a gun is part of certain felonies, the 10-20-Life law kicks in, with mandatory minimum terms of 10, 20, or 25-to-life years depending on whether the gun was carried, fired, or hurt someone badly.

Mayo felony trials have six jurors, and they must all agree. Most felony cases, though, end in a plea agreement worked out between the lawyers.

Teens in Lafayette: When police pick up a child on a felony, the child can be locked up at a Department of Juvenile Justice detention center. Lafayette has no youth center, so children go to a regional one, such as Tallahassee or Gainesville. Within 24 hours, at a detention hearing, the judge rules on whether the child may go home. Prosecutors can “direct file” adult charges against many 16- and 17-year-olds accused of felonies. For 14- and 15-year-olds, that’s limited to a set list of very serious crimes in Fla. Stat. 985.557.

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Violent Lafayette charges follow those same steps, with much more at stake. Bond can be denied completely in cases punishable by life or death if the proof is strong. When the state wants to charge a capital crime, it must go through a grand jury, a panel of Lafayette County residents who listen to evidence privately. If they agree there’s enough, they return an indictment.

First-degree murder is Florida’s top crime, a capital felony. A Lafayette conviction for it brings execution or a whole-life term. In those trials, 12 jurors hear the case. A 2023 change means a death sentence now needs a recommendation from only 8 of the 12, not all of them. Executions happen at Florida State Prison near Starke. Most death-row men in Florida sit at Union Correctional Institution in the town of Raiford; Lowell Correctional Institution holds the few women. Robbery with a gun or sexual battery on a child can bring decades or life.

Victims and their families in Lafayette have rights too, thanks to Marsy’s Law (Article I, Section 16 of Florida’s constitution). They can learn about each hearing, attend it, and be heard by the judge, including at sentencing.

Teens in Lafayette: Some Lafayette crimes carry a possible death or life sentence. For those, a grand jury may indict even a very young child, as Fla. Stat. 985.56 allows. Once indicted, that child is handled as an adult. Still, no one can be executed for something done before turning 18.

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Sheriff's Office deputies keep and serve warrants issued by Third Circuit judges, and the agency answers at (386) 294-1222; its warrants staff will check a name. Mayo dockets live on the shared court records portal, capias entries included. Counsel can phone the Crawford Street detention center and pick the day of surrender. West Main Street is home to the clerk for new dates, and Day and the riverside fish camps are part of the same court. For a statewide check, FDLE has a wanted persons search built from agencies' releases.

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