Demetrius R. Greene v. State

220 So. 3d 454, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 17113, 2016 WL 7078854

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: November 10, 2016
• Docket: 5D16-1053
• Status: Published

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is a direct appeal from Appellant’s conviction of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The sole issue raised by Appellant concerns allegations of ineffective assistance of his trial counsel. To warrant reversal and a new trial based on that claim, Appellant must establish that his trial counsel’s actions were deficient and that the deficiency So affected the trial that confidence in the outcome is undermined. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984); Johnston v. State, 70 So.3d 472, 477 (Fla.2011). “This Court normally considers the merits of ineffective assistance of counsel claims after a postconviction motion has been filed under the applicable rule of criminal procedure and ruled upon by the trial court following the completion of any necessary evidentiary proceedings.” Robards v. State, 112 So.3d 1256, 1266 (Fla.2013). “[A]n ineffective assistance of counsel claim may be treated on the merits on direct appeal only in the rare instance where (1) the ineffectiveness is apparent on the face of the record, and (2) it would be a waste of judicial resources to require the trial court to address the issue.” Id. at 1267 (internal quotations and citations omitted). Appellant’s claims do not meet the Robarás criteria. Accordingly, we will not consider the merits of Appellant’s allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm Appellant’s judgment and sentence without prejudice to allow Appellant to timely pursue his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel by filing an appropriate postconviction motion.

AFFIRMED.

SAWAYA, BERGER, and EDWARDS, JJ., concur.