EMMANUEL LARA, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Emmanuel Lara appeals the summary denial of his Rule 3.850 postconviction relief motion following his no contest plea to aggravated battery and animal cruelty charges. The court affirmed the denial of four grounds but reversed the denial of grounds one and five, finding the trial court erred in summarily denying these claims without allowing amendment and in analyzing the prejudice standard for ineffective assistance of counsel.
The court affirmed the summary denial of grounds two, three, four, and six but reversed the denial of grounds one and five. On ground one, the court held the trial court erred by not allowing amendment under Spera v. State and by applying the wrong prejudice standard, which should focus on whether the defendant would have forgone the plea and proceeded to trial, not whether the suppression motion would have changed the outcome.
[1] A trial court must allow a defendant to amend a facially insufficient postconviction relief motion if the motion alleges ineffective assistance of counsel based on counse…
[2] When a defendant seeks to withdraw a plea based on ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to file a motion to suppress, the prejudice prong of the Strickland test…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the issue is not, as the trial court concluded, whether the filing of a motion to suppress in the instant case would have "changed the outcome of the proceedings." Rather, the issue is whether Lara would have elected to forego the entry of his plea, and instead proceed to trial.”
Establishes the correct legal standard for analyzing prejudice in ineffective assistance claims involving plea withdrawal
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceLara pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated battery and nine counts of cruelty to animals. He filed a postconviction motion alleging six ground…
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Emmanuel Lara appeals the summary denial of his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion for postconviction relief. Lara pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated battery and nine counts of cruelty to animals. Subsequently, he filed a motion for postconviction relief alleging six grounds. We affirm the trial court’s summary denial of grounds two, three, four, and six; we reverse its denial of grounds one and five.
In ground one, Lara complains about his trial counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress. Although the trial court was correct that ground one was facially insufficient, it should have allowed Lara to amend under Spera v. State, 971 So.2d 754, 755 (Fla.2007). Additionally, the issue is not, as the trial court concluded, whether the filing of a motion to suppress in the instant case would have “changed the outcome of the proceedings.” Rather, the issue is whether Lara would have elected to forego the entry of his plea, and instead proceed to trial. See Cordes v. State, 842 So.2d 874, 875 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003) (holding that where defendant seeks to withdraw his plea based on ineffective assistance of counsel, the prejudice prong of the Strickland test is satisfied by demonstrating “that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors [the defendant] would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial.’’ (alteration in original) (quoting Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 58, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985))). But for the admissions Lara made to the police, the case would have come down to a credibility issue involving Lara and the victim. Under these circumstances, assuming the motion to suppress was granted, it would be reasonable to conclude that Lara might have been more willing to go to trial in the hope that he could show that his testimony was more credible than the victim’s.
The State concedes error in the summary denial of ground five. See Moreland v. State, 945 So.2d 606, 606-07 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006); Montgomery v. State, 869 So.2d 27, 28 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004); Carswell v. State, 845 So.2d 263, 263 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003).
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART; and REMANDED.
COHEN, BERGER, and WALLIS, JJ., concur.
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Graham v. State, 174 So. 3d 617 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015)…ion relief, the lower court denied the motion, essentially finding that Ms. Johnson’s testimony at sentencing would not have made a difference in the outcome, that is, appellant’s sentence. This was not the issue before the court. See Lara v. State, 170 So. 3d 133, 134 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015) (“[T]he issue is not, as the trial court concluded, whether [competent performance by counsel] would have ‘changed the outcome of the proceedings.’ Rather, the issue is whether [the defendant] would have elected to forego th…
Authorities Cited
- Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52 (U.S. 1985)
- Spera v. State, 971 So. 2d 754 (Fla. 2007)
- Cordes v. State, 842 So. 2d 874 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)
- Carswell v. State, 845 So. 2d 263 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)
- Moreland v. State, 945 So. 2d 606 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
- Collie COX v. State, 869 So. 2d 27 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004)