Office of the State Attorney

PRESS RELEASE

May 2, 2024      

 

State of Florida v. Micayla Faith Yusko

                                                    

DOB: 09/11/1999

Case Number: 2022 300067 CFDB

 

Former Caregiver Sentenced to Prison in Murder of Elderly Ponce Inlet Woman

DAYTONA BEACH – Following a full-day hearing, defendant Micayla Yusko was sentenced to 60 years in prison. She pled last week to Second-Degree Murder (Firearm) and Burglary with a Battery (Firearm).

In the early morning hours of January 5, 2022, Yusko, who was only 22 years old at the time, and her co-defendant snuck into an elderly woman’s Ponce Inlet condominium and shot her in the head.

The victim died from her injuries at the hospital. Yusko and her co-defendant were taken into custody shortly after the murder.

Yusko confessed to Ponce Inlet Police Detectives that she and her co-defendant smoked “molly” together prior to the murder of the elderly woman, who Yusko visited twice a day as her caregiver. She told detectives that she directed the co-defendant to shoot the victim two times in the head.

They were captured on video surveillance entering the victim’s property around the time of the murder. Detectives also recovered a narcotic “bath salt” and the gun used in the murder.

“Caregiver became murderer in this sad and disturbing case,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said. “Sometimes the people we entrust with our life take it instead.”

The case was investigated by the Ponce Inlet Police Department with assistance from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office and investigators with the State Attorney’s Office. Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak successfully prosecuted the case for the state. The Honorable Karen Foxman presided over the case and pronounced sentence.

 

For more information contact: 

Haley Harrison | Multimedia Specialist/PIO | Office of State Attorney R.J. Larizza, Florida's Seventh Judicial Circuit | SAOPIO@SAO7.org