HB 2000, named after Audrii Cunningham, the 11-year-old Livingston girl who was beaten to death in February 2024

Livingston, Texas (KTRK) – The fate of Audrii's law now lies with governor Greg Abbott after the legislators passed it unanimously on Friday.

HB 2000 is named in honor of Audrii Cunningham, the 11-year-old Livingston girl, who was put to death in February 2024.

The draft law aims to close a gap that made it possible to avoid Audrii's murderer to avoid a sexual offender after a previous conviction.

“She will help someone,” said Audrii's great uncle Bobby Cedars. “She will save life. She would be very happy with it.”

Cedars said he helped Audrii up to the age of five and remained close in the following years.

“I taught her a lot of things. Of course, she taught her here in the neighborhood how to drive here,” said Cedars.

He said he had an uncomfortable feeling about Steven McDougal, a friend of Audrii's father when he met him a week before Audrii's murder for the first time.

“He just seemed to be strange,” said Cedars.

If someone had checked in on McDougal, they would not have found him registering the sex offender.

This despite what McDougal did with Carissa Davis in 2007 when she was 10 years old.

“I tried to put down my pants and I jumped immediately,” Davis told Eyewitness News last year.

McDougal decreased and pleaded for no competition to seduce a child with the intention of committing a crime.

His crime would also have met the criteria for the care of children, a new crime that was not added to the Texas Criminal Code by 2023.

According to the applicable state law, none of these crimes demands that the perpetrators register as sex offenders.

“I was angry. I was really very, very angry with the 'because I said:' Is that you serious? 'You know?” Said Cedars.

The Audrii Act would add convicted children's groups to the register for sex offenders, but only for convictions after September 1, if the law came into force.

With the account of the governor's hands, Cedars hopes that it is not long before the law.

“It's great. This is amazing. Hopefully it will help someone else. Save them the pain and the anger we have gone through,” said Cedars.

Davis agrees and says Eyewitness News in an explanation: “What is done is done, but if we can lay away these monsters without gap and save another child, I am everything for it. We need the law of Audrii.”

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