ALEXIS CABRERA
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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Alexis Cabrera appeals the trial court's summary denial of his Rule 3.850 motion for ineffective assistance of counsel following his guilty plea to second-degree murder. The state conceded error, and the appellate court reversed and remanded for an evidentiary hearing to address claims that trial counsel misstated DNA evidence and failed to investigate an alternative suspect.
The appellate court reversed the trial court's summary denial of the Rule 3.850 motion and remanded for an evidentiary hearing. The court found the trial court erred in relying on a DNA report that post-dated the plea and was not part of the record when the motion was filed, and determined both ineffective assistance claims required factual development at an evidentiary hearing.
[1] A postconviction court errs when it relies on documents or evidence that were not part of the record prior to a defendant's plea in ruling on a Rule 3.850 ineffective ass…
Previewing 1 of 1 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“the report post-dates appellant's motion and was not part of the record at the time of appellant's plea”
The court's explanation for why the trial court erred in relying on the DNA testing report to deny the 3.850 motion.
Appellant entered a negotiated plea to second-degree murder as a lesser-included offense of first-degree murder. In his 3.850 motion, he claimed couns…
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Alexis Cabrera (“appellant”) appeals the trial court’s summary denial of his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion, filed after appellant entered into a negotiated plea to second-degree murder as a lesser-included offense of first-degree murder. We accept the state’s concession and reverse and remand.
Appellant raised two claims in his 3.850 motion, contending counsel was ineffective for (1) advising appellant that his DNA was found on several items of evidence recovered from the crime scene when no written report supported that advice, and (2) failing to investigate another possible shooter. The trial court denied the motion, accepting the state’s position that the record refuted the claims.
The trial court rejected the first claim, because the state had furnished the trial court with a DNA testing report. However, the report post-dates appellant’s motion and was not part of the record at the time of appellant’s plea. See Surinach v. State, 111 So. 3d 186 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) (reversing denial of rule 3.850 motion where state admitted the postconviction court relied on documents which were not part of the court’s files or records until the documents were attached to the state’s response to the motion). The trial court also rejected the second claim, looking in part to those DNA testing results.
Consequently, we accept the state’s concession that an evidentiary hearing is necessary to address appellant’s claims. Jackson v. State, 287 So. 3d 635, 636 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020) (citing Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52 (1985)).
Reversed and remanded.
WARNER, CIKLIN and ARTAU, JJ., concur. * * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52 (U.S. 1985)
- Raphael Gilbert Surinach v. State, 111 So. 3d 186 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)