THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Dependent children -- Termination of parental rights -- Due process -- Remote hearing -- Denial -- Appeals -- Final judgment terminating mother's parental rights is affirmed -- Trial court's alleged erroneous denial of mother's motion to appear and present witnesses remotely under rule 8.255(e)(1) is a procedural defect that does not affect a substantive right -- As a procedural defect, alleged error is subject to harmless error review -- Alleged error was harmless where mother's proffered testimony, which trial court credited, did not address statutory termination grounds on which the trial court relied
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Rules of Appellate Procedure -- Amendment -- Eligibility for mediation
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Criminal Law Headnotes (Jump to Civil Law Headnotes)

THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Criminal law -- Attempted murder -- Discharge of firearm -- Principal -- Judgment of acquittal -- Defendant son and his co-defendant father jointly charged for pointing their firearms at victims during an altercation at a gas station where at least one shot was fired -- Trial court erred by granting son's motion for judgment of acquittal -- Trial court correctly concluded that state did not present prima facie case that son discharged his firearm where evidence only confirmed that spent shell casing found near crime scene on the day after the incident matched the caliber of ammunition fired from the weapon recovered from son more than a week later -- To find that son discharged the firearm he possessed, jury would have to impermissibly draw an inference from an inference -- However, state provided sufficient evidence to support prima facie case that son was guilty of having committed a crime as a principal to his father's actions -- Fact that charging document did not allege that son was a principal is immaterial -- Inconsistent verdicts -- Jury did not return an inconsistent verdict when it found son guilty of a higher crime than it found the father guilty of notwithstanding the fact that the two defendants were jointly tried and the evidence demonstrated that the father discharged his firearm while the son only possessed a firearm -- Verdicts were permissible where jury could have found the son guilty as a principal to father's actions but, for whatever reason, chose to be more lenient to the father -- Because evidence only sufficiently showed that the son possessed a firearm and not that he discharged one, son cannot be guilty of the discharge enhancement as a principal -- Remand to reinstate verdict against son while striking discharge-of-firearm sentencing enhancement and adding sentencing enhancement for possession of a firearm
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Criminal law -- Juveniles -- Probation revocation -- Jurisdiction -- Trial court had jurisdiction to revoke juvenile's probation despite fact that more than a year had passed since juvenile's year-long probationary term began -- Juvenile's probationary term was extended where, after juvenile had previously admitted to violating her probation shortly after probationary period began, trial court had restored juvenile's probation “for the balance of jurisdiction” -- Section 985.0301 makes clear that trial court continues to have jurisdiction to dispose of case until juvenile turns nineteen, or until the court terminates her probation by order
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Criminal law -- Possession of controlled substance -- Driving while license suspended -- False name -- Search and seizure -- Traffic stop -- Probable cause -- No error in denying defendant's motion to suppress stop of defendant's vehicle asserting that officer lacked probable cause to believe defendant committed a traffic infraction -- There was competent substantial evidence that defendant ran a stop sign where officer testified that he saw defendant's brake lights illuminated for less than half a second when defendant approached stop sign -- Observation of brake lights is sufficient evidence to provide probable cause for a violation for running a stop sign -- Severance of charges -- Trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying motion to sever possession charges from DWLS and false name charges -- Even assuming denial was in error, any error was harmless where state met burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the error did not contribute to the verdict -- Mistrial -- Prosecutorial misconduct -- No error in denying motion for mistrial alleging prosecutorial misconduct based on state's concession that it did not have sufficient evidence to prove DWLS charge -- Record indicates that state made good faith effort to obtain defendant's out-of-state driving records and that its failure to do so was not because of its own intentional misconduct -- No error in denying motion for mistrial alleging that “evidential spillover” from the acquitted DWLS charge to the remaining charges was inherently prejudicial -- Evidence that still would have been admissible for the other charges does not result in prejudicial spillover -- Defendant's own admission that he did not have a valid license, which was only evidence for DWLS charge, was admissible as evidence of defendant's consciousness of guilt and knowledge to prove possession charges -- Furthermore, trial court's instructions to jury and overwhelming independent evidence contravene argument that jury improperly relied on evidence of defendant's admission to not having a valid driver's license in their consideration of the remaining charges
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Criminal law -- Murder -- Death penalty -- Post conviction relief -- Successive motion -- Public records -- Trial court did not err by summarily denying public records request seeking various records, checklists, and logs relating to the procedures for the use and maintenance of the chemicals used in the lethal injection protocol, which defendant alleged would support his claims for violation of his equal protection rights based on the maladministration of the lethal injection protocol -- Equal protection -- Defendant has not asserted a colorable claim for relief regarding any constitutionally redressable disparate treatment -- It would require speculative inferences to conclude from requested documents that state will fail to administer the capital punishment protocol in defendant's case -- Alleged failures in documenting the movement of drugs into and out of inventory does not give rise to a cognizable equal protection or due process injury -- Furthermore, defendant has not alleged that the state will treat him disparately from similarly situated persons in a sense that is relevant to the Fourteenth Amendment -- Due process -- Defendant is not entitled to relief on claim that denial of public records request violated his due process rights because defendant has been hindered in his ability to pursue his equal protection claim -- Newly discovered evidence -- No error in summarily denying claim that newly discovered evidence in form of correspondence from spiritual advisors and friends shows that carrying out death sentence would violate defendant's Eighth Amendment rights because he is “a man with humanity,” “his life has great value,” and “his case is not among the most aggravated and least mitigated” -- Claim is untimely, procedurally barred, and lacks merit
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