JONATHAN E. RIVERA-ENRIQUEZ
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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Trial courts have discretion to give instructions on lesser-included offenses when the charging document and evidence support such instructions, and mid-trial amendments to informational documents do not prejudice substantial rights when viewed in totality of circumstances.
[1] Trial courts have discretion to instruct the jury on lesser-included offenses when both the charging document and trial evidence support such instruction, and instruction…
[2] A prosecutor may substantively amend an information during trial without prejudicing the defendant's substantial rights if the totality of circumstances at the time of am…
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“Discretion is abused when the judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable, which is another way of saying that discretion is abused only where no reasonable man would take the view adopted by the trial court.”
Standard for evaluating whether trial court abused discretion in evidentiary and procedural rulings
Rivera-Enriquez appealed from a conviction in Monroe County Circuit Court involving questions about lesser-included offense instructions, mid-trial am…
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Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida
Opinion filed May 6, 2026. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
No. 3D24-2154 Lower Tribunal No. 23-CF-135-A-P
Jonathan E. Rivera-Enriquez, Appellant,
vs.
State of Florida, Appellee.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Monroe County, James W. Morgan, III, and Luis Garcia, Judges.
The Law Office of Robert David Malove, P.A., and Hani Demetrious (Fort Lauderdale), for appellant.
James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and Kayla Heather McNab, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Before FERNANDEZ, LOGUE and BOKOR, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Affirmed. See State v. Espinosa, 686 So. 2d 1345, 1347 (Fla. 1996) ("Under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.510(b) the giving of an instruction on a lesser offense is a matter of discretion for the trial judge, who must determine whether the charging document and evidence at trial support the giving of the instruction on the lesser offense as a permissive lesserincluded offense. . . . An instruction on a permissive lesser included offense should be precluded only where there is a total lack of evidence of the lesser offense." (quotations omitted)); Thach v. State, 342 So. 3d 620, 623–24 (Fla. 2022) ("The state may substantively amend an information midtrial unless it prejudices the defendant's substantial rights. . . . Prejudice, in this context, depends not on any one factor, but on the totality of the circumstances at the time of the amendment.” (citation modified)); Perez v. State, 536 So. 2d 206, 210 (Fla. 1988) (“Absent a showing of an abuse of discretion . . . the trial judge's determination that the out-of-court statements bear sufficient indicia of reliability will be upheld."); Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So. 2d 1197, 1203 (Fla. 1980) (“Discretion . . . is abused when the judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable, which is another way of saying that discretion is abused only where no reasonable man would take the view adopted by the trial court." (quotation omitted)).
2
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So. 2d 1197 (Fla. 1980)
- Perez v. State, 536 So. 2d 206 (Fla. 1988)
- State v. Espinosa, 686 So. 2d 1345 (Fla. 1996)
- Cordovi v. State, 342 So. 3d 620 (Fla. 3d DCA 2024)