Cotto v. State

89 So. 3d 1025, 2012 WL 1934438, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 8621
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 30, 2012
DocketNo. 3D10-3418
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 89 So. 3d 1025 (Cotto v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cotto v. State, 89 So. 3d 1025, 2012 WL 1934438, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 8621 (Fla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

ROTHENBERG, J.

Josué Cotto appeals from a denial of his motion for postconviction relief, filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for an evidentiary hearing.

The facts are undisputed. On December 1, 2002, Cotto, for no discernable reason, approached a stranger, Eric Martinez, on a South Beach street, told him he had just been ripped off while attempting to buy cocaine, took out a gun, pointed it at Mr. Martinez’s stomach, and asked Mr. Martinez whether he wanted anyone killed. When Mr. Martinez said, “No,” Cotto put the gun in his pocket and walked away. Mr. Martinez immediately called the police. Detective Motola, one of the responding officers, saw Cotto walking down the street holding a gun, ordered him to drop it, took him into custody, and recovered the gun.

On the day before trial, on June 21, 2005 (more than two-and-one-half years after Cotto’s arrest), defense counsel requested a continuance so that he could “explore” the issue of whether Cotto was legally insane at the time of the commission of the offense. When the trial court asked defense counsel why he was raising a potential insanity defense for the first time at the eleventh hour, with “a jury sitting right outside” the courtroom, defense counsel responded:

Well, frankly, Your Honor, this is an issue that the defendant raised with me and I could not answer it frankly for him as to whether he was, whether he met the legal criteria for being insane at the time he committed these offenses.
I don’t know how to explain it to the Court other than when questioned by my defendant today in the jury room on why isn’t this an issue in his defense, I don’t have a clear cut answer for him as to why it isn’t an issue.
You know, it may be an issue that I should have explored at an earlier time. I don’t have much to say about it other than it was a question that he asked me and a very pointed question that I’m unable to give him a legal answer to at this particular point in time.
At this time, I’m not prepared to present an insanity defense at trial.
It is an issue that the defendant raised with me and he may be legally correct on this. I don’t know how to answer it.
I don’t know what else to say other than it seems there may be some good cause here and I cannot tell the defendant that I have a legal answer to give him as to whether he was insane at the time of the offense.
It can only be confirmed by the doctors that examined him in the past and it probably should have been something that I should have asked them to explore when we had all the competency evaluations, but I focused on competency.

The trial court denied defense counsel’s motion for a continuance.

The next day, before trial commenced, defense counsel informed the trial court that he filed a notice of intent to rely on an insanity defense. The trial court found that the insanity issue was a delay tactic, [1028]*1028did not allow defense counsel to present an insanity defense, and proceeded to trial.

The jury found Cotto guilty of carrying a concealed firearm, aggravated assault with a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.1 The trial court sentenced Cotto: (1) as a prison releasee reoffender for the charge of aggravated assault with a firearm to a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison; and (2) and as a habitual felony offender for the charges of carrying a concealed firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon to ten years and thirty years in prison, respectively. The trial court ordered the two habitual offender sentences to run concurrently with each other, and consecutively to the prison re-leasee reoffender sentence.

Cotto then filed a pro se rule 3.850 motion for postconviction relief in which he advanced two pertinent arguments.2 First, Cotto argued his attorney was deficient for failing to timely investigate, prepare, or present an insanity defense. In support thereof, Cotto alleged: he has a long, documented history of mental illness and drug dependency; he was found legally incompetent while awaiting trial; Detective Motola testified that, at the time of the arrest, Cotto “kept talking to himself,” and “seemed somewhat bizarre in his mannerisms and speech,” making the detective wonder “what was the matter with him”; asking a stranger whether he wanted anyone killed is “obviously not something a sane person would do”; and he was “obviously out of his mind the day of these crimes.” Cotto argued that but for counsel’s failure to investigate, prepare and present an insanity defense, “a competent and compelling temporary insanity defense would have been presented at trial, resulting in an acquittal as to all counts.”

Second, Cotto argued that under Hale v. State, 630 So.2d 521 (Fla.1994), a habitual offender sentence cannot be ordered to run consecutively to a prison releasee reof-fender sentence, and thus his sentence was illegal.

The trial court denied Cotto’s claims without an evidentiary hearing. Specifically, the trial court ruled that Cot-to’s ineffectiveness claim was facially insufficient because Cotto “failed to assert that, at the time of the offense, because of a mental disease or defect, he did not know the nature or consequences of his act or that he was unable to distinguish right from wrong.”3 With respect to Cotto’s argument regarding consecutive sentencing, the trial court determined that Hale only prevented enhanced habitual offender sentences from being imposed consecutively to each other, and since a prison releas-ee reoffender sentence is not enhanced beyond the statutory maximum, it was lawful to run it consecutively to the habitual offender sentence. This appeal followed.

On appeal, Cotto advances several arguments, two of which merit discussion. First, Cotto alleges the trial court erred in summarily denying his claim that counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate, [1029]*1029prepare, or present a defense of insanity. We agree.

Florida adheres to the Strickland test as the governing standard for claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Krawczuk v. State, — So.3d -, 2012 WL 1207215 (Fla. 2012). “[F]or ineffective assistance of counsel claims to be successful, the defendant must demonstrate both deficiency and prejudice.” Id. at-. In demonstrating deficiency, “the claimant must identify particular acts or omissions of the lawyer that are shown to be outside the broad range of reasonably competent performance under prevailing professional standards.” Id. at-(quoting Bolin v. State, 41 So.3d 151, 155 (Fla.2010)). “In demonstrating prejudice, the defendant must show a reasonable probability that ‘but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.’ ” Krawczuk, — So.3d at - (quoting Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984)). “Because both prongs of the Strickland

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Knight v. State
159 So. 3d 943 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2015)
Josue Cotto v. State of Florida
139 So. 3d 283 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2014)
State v. Jean-Guilles
139 So. 3d 370 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2014)
Saldana v. State
139 So. 3d 351 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 So. 3d 1025, 2012 WL 1934438, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 8621, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cotto-v-state-fladistctapp-2012.