PORFIRO RIVERA, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
Porfiro Rivera appealed the summary denial of his Rule 3.850 motion claiming ineffective assistance of counsel. The court reversed and remanded ground one regarding trial counsel's failure to fully advise him about the plea offer and potential trial sentences, but affirmed grounds two and three without comment.
The court held that Rivera made a facially sufficient claim under Rule 3.850 regarding counsel's failure to advise him of possible trial sentences. The postconviction court erred by summarily denying the claim without addressing this specific allegation or providing record portions that conclusively refuted it.
[1] A defendant may be entitled to postconviction relief when trial counsel fails to fully advise the defendant of the benefits and consequences of accepting or rejecting a p…
[2] A postconviction court must address all grounds raised in a motion for postconviction relief.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Defense counsel shall advise defendant of ... all pertinent matters bearing on the choice of which plea to enter and the particulars attendant upon each plea and the likely results thereof, as well as any possible alternatives that may be open to the defendant.”
Establishes the legal standard for counsel's duty to advise defendants about plea offers and potential consequences
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceOn September 24, 2008, Rivera's counsel informed him of the State's plea offer of twenty years' imprisonment, which he rejected to continue investigat…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Motion For Postconviction Relief cases and more on FLexlaw
Porfiro Rivera appeals the summary denial of his motion filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, in which he raised three grounds for relief. We reverse and remand for further proceedings on ground one and affirm without comment on grounds two and three.
On September 24, 2008, Mr. Rivera’s counsel informed him of the State’s plea offer of twenty years’ imprisonment. Mr. Rivera rejected the offer because he wanted to continue investigating his case. Mr. Rivera then appeared before the trial judge, who also informed him of the plea offer. The trial judge told Mr. Rivera that he could either accept the State’s offer or reject it and proceed to trial that day. Mr. Rivera rejected the offer and proceeded to trial.
On September 25, 2008, Mr. Rivera was convicted of shooting into an occupied vehicle (count one) and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (counts two, three, and four). Mr. Rivera was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment on count one and to twenty years’ imprisonment with a three-year minimum mandatory on each of counts two, three, and four. Count one was ordered to run concurrent to count four, and count two was ordered to run concurrent with count three. Counts one and four were ordered to run consecutive to counts two and three, for a total of forty years’ imprisonment.
In ground one, Mr. Rivera claimed that his trial counsel failed to discuss with him the benefits of accepting the plea offer as well as the potential consequences of rejecting the State’s plea offer of twenty years’ imprisonment. Mr. Rivera claimed that he was prejudiced by counsel’s failure to fully advise him because he is now serving a sentence twice the length of the State’s offer. Mr. Rivera further asserted that he would have accepted the State’s plea offer had counsel fully advised him of the possible sentences he could have received at trial. Mr. Rivera has made a facially sufficient claim. See Rentschler v. State, 838 So.2d 1212, 1212 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003); see also Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.171(c)(2)(B) (“Defense counsel shall advise defendant of ... all pertinent matters bearing on the choice of which plea to enter and the particulars attendant upon each plea and the likely results thereof, as well as any possible alternatives that may be open to the defendant.”). The postcon-viction court’s order failed to address Mr. Rivera’s claim that counsel did not advise *878him of the possible sentence he could receive if convicted at trial, and the portions of the trial record attached to the order do not refute Mr. Rivera’s claim. Therefore, we reverse the postconviction court’s order denying Mr. Rivera’s claim in ground one of his rule 3.850 motion and remand for the court to either attach portions of the record that conclusively refute the claim or to hold an evidentiary hearing on the claim.
Affirmed in part; reversed in part; remanded.
VTLLANTI, BLACK, and SLEET, JJ., Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Ogden v. State, 273 So. 3d 162 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019)
-
Eraldo Perez Perez v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2019)
Authorities Cited
- Rentschler v. State, 838 So. 2d 1212 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)