Menu
Menu
A jury convicted Michael Todd Ronna of soliciting sexual conduct involving a child through online communication with an undercover officer.
The case was handled by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office ICAC division and prosecuted by ASA Sarah Barickman.
Sentencing is scheduled for May 22, 2025, before Judge William Stone.
An Okaloosa County jury convicted Michael Todd Ronna on April 10, 2025, of two counts of using a computer to facilitate or solicit a parent, legal guardian, or custodian to consent to the sexual conduct of a child.
According to court records, Ronna communicated over several months with an undercover officer who was posing as the father of a 10-year-old girl on a social media platform. During those communications, Ronna asked to rent the child for sexual contact. Investigators obtained search warrants confirming that the social media account used in the conversations belonged to Ronna.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case through its Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) division. Assistant State Attorney Sarah Barickman prosecuted the case on behalf of State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden of the First Judicial Circuit.
Ronna is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22, 2025, before Circuit Judge William Stone.
For more information, readers can contact Assistant State Attorney Barickman at the Children’s Advocacy Center at (850) 400-3488.
Has this story made a difference for you? Consider making a monthly supporting donation to Mid Bay News so that we can continue to create meaningful local journalism for our community.
Emery Hagan has plenty of accolades: She’s the class vice president, a two-sport athlete, and she’s put in more than 200 volunteer hours.
But in her own words – the most compelling case for her candidacy for the Taylor Haugen Trophy comes from the bottom of the fifth page of her application. Under her dad’s name, she leaves the field for a second parent blank.
Hagan was born to a family of all boys. “My mom had always wanted a little girl. She tragically lost her mother when she was a few years old, causing her to forever yearn for a baby girl of her own to heal from her childhood lacking a mother figure,” she wrote in her application.
Her mother was a teacher who she credits with teaching her how to treat everyone with “the utmost kindness – as I may never know what they go home to each day.”
Hagan had to lean on those lessons being taught to others when she was in fith grade and unexpectedly lost her mother. Hours after learning of her mother’s death, she says her fifth grade teacher showed up to her house to console her – letting Hagan see firsthand how important her mom’s credo could be when others did it for her in her life.
Because of role models like Mrs. Moore, Hagan learned to use the tools her mother had to help others and her own experiences to be a light to others.
“Almost half of my childhood has been spent lacking a mother figure, but I am forever grateful to have shared the time we did,” Hagan concluded in her application, “I pray that I never stray from what she has instilled in me. As she always said, you may never know what a person may be going through. Always be the good in their day. Sometimes their life, their sanity, their safety depends on it. May her love and kindness forever live through me.”
