State Attorney Worrell: Bojeh was “No longer deemed a danger to themselves or others”
The man charged with killing three tourists outside the home they rented in a neighborhood off Poinciana Boulevard was also charged with attempted murder in 2021, but was released after a judge made a bench finding of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Ahmad Jihad Bojeh, 29, remains held in the Osceola County Jail without bond on three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm. Police say that on Saturday, Jan. 17, he shot and killed brothers Robert Kraft, 70, of Holland, Michigan, and Douglas Kraft, 68, of Columbus, Ohio, and their friend James John Puchan, 69, also from Columbus, outside a home on Indian Point Circle. Police said Bojeh resided in the home next door to the rental.
In May 2021, Bojeh was charged with attempted murder when police say he fired a gun at parked vehicles— at least one was occupied—in the West U.S. 192 Wawa parking lot in Kissimmee.
So, the question from the community, and a Midwestern friends and family grieving a loss, is: Why was a man charged with attempted murder not in some sort of custody?
After over a year of medical evaluations to determine if he was competent to go through a traditional jury trial, Bojeh instead was given a bench trial, decided by a judge. Using this seldom-chosen path, on Dec. 20, 2022, Circuit Judge Keith Carsten handed down a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered Bojeh to undergo outpatient mental health treatment at Park Place Behavioral Mental Health Facility in Kissimmee.
Court records show that in August 2023, a Park Place mental health specialist noted, “Mr. Ahmad has attended his psychiatric appointments and has been compliant with taking his medications.”
The note also said he’d acquired employment “and is happy with his job” and attended all his Park Place appointments, and court records show he attended six court-mandated competency status hearings from 2023-25. Another was scheduled for April of this year.
Friday, Ninth Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell gave a legal synopsis of why, and how, Bojeh was released from jail to receive outpatient mental health care—and why that care ceased.
“The court found that the individual was legally insane at the time of the offense. There are differences between competency and insanity,” she said.
Her legal stance was that the court in 2022 found Bojeh was not a danger to himself or others at the time of his sentencing, and based on that, statute prohibits the court from sentencing someone to involuntary commitment in a mental health hospital.
“The mental health provider in this case found that that individual has to remain under review, and as soon as that person is no longer deemed a danger to themselves or others, then the least restrictive conditions are required to be put in place and is released into the community,” Worrell said. She said she’s found that cost became critical to continuing medical treatment.
“My understanding is that that treatment was originally costing $7 a month, and that after a period of time, that bill went up to $150-plus a month, and that the individual was no longer in compliance with his treatment because of inability to pay for that treatment,” she said. “And now, here we are with individuals who need mental health treatment and don’t have access to that treatment.”
In social media, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has disagreed, rather publicly, with how Worrell handled the case. In separate posts on X, he noted Worrell’s 2023 suspension from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Prior to State Atty Worrell’s suspension, Ahmad Jihad Bojeh was acquitted of attempted first degree murder with a firearm and aggravated battery. It appears she didn’t put up a fight to Bojeh’s use of the insanity defense, and he was allowed to go free,” one post notes. In another: “Regardless of the spin State Attorney Worrell is selling, she knowingly stipulated to an agreement that avoided a jury trial and allowed Jihad Bojeh to receive outpatient treatment instead of being committed to a state hospital. She failed to pursue justice, and three men are dead because of her failure.”
Bojeh was also arrested in Osceola County on a 2015 felony drug possession charge and in 2020 for resisting an officer without violence but those charges were dropped or adjudication was withheld.
