Woman Recovering After Overnight Stabbing, Inconsistent Use of Marsy's Law Questioned

SPRING HILL – A young woman is recovering from a stab wound to the chest after officials say her boyfriend's scorned ex attacked her at his home.

According to a statement from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office (HCSO), deputies were dispatched to 10322 Maderia Street just after 9:00 p.m. Wednesday, where they located 22-year-old Sydney McKelvy suffering from a stab wound to the chest.

The investigations revealed that McKelvy was spending time with Jeffrey Hildebrandt Jr. when his ex-girlfriend, 19-year-old Emily Morales knocked at the door. While Hildebrandt was notifying his mother, who also lives at the home, of Morales knocking at the door, McKelvy opened the door and invited Morales inside. That's when officials say Morales became confrontational, pulled out a pocketknife, and stabbed Mckelvy in the chest. When Hildebrandt came into the room, Morales threatened to stab him but then fled the residence.

Investigators quickly located Morales at her residence located at 13373 Twin Lake Ave and placed her into custody. During an interview, Morales admitted to stabbing McKelvy but claimed it was in self-defense because McKelvy took an aggressive stance toward her. Morales further advised that she tossed the knife on her way home.

Morales was booked into the Hernando County Jail on charges of Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon and Aggravated Assault. She is currently held without bond.

McKelvy underwent emergency surgery and is recovering at a trauma center.

Sydney's mother, Brook McKelvy contacted R News today and advised that doctors said there was no injury to vital organs and that she was removed from a ventilator. Her mother says it will take several months for her daughter to fully recover.

Brook questions why Morales was not charged with premeditated murder because she believes it was planned.

In November of last year, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Marsy's Law no longer protected the names of victims or Law Enforcement Officers. HCSO ignored that ruling until today when they revealed the victims' identities, McKelvy's date of birth, and Hildebrandt's home address. Marsy's Law continues to protect dates of birth and home addresses, so it raises the question of why, today, they began complying with one portion of the law while violating another.

Over the last year, the Sheriff's Office has repeatedly used Marsy's Law as an excuse to deny public records requests or redacted information from reports that weren't exempt under any statute. In most cases when R News was denied information from HCSO, we would simply contact the County Clerk's Office and acquire the same report without redactions.

County Clerk Doug Chorvat explained his position in an email last December, stating, "The ruling states that the names are not to be redacted. If there are no challenges to that ruling filed within 15 days, we will stop redacting names at that time. That is the advice we were given to handle this statewide. To my knowledge, no appeal has been filed and if that continues to be the case, we will stop redacting the names after the 15th day."

It is unknown why HCSO uses Marsy's Law to protect some victims and not others. HCSO refuses to respond to our numerous requests for comment on the issue.