JOSE ALCAZAR v. THE STATE OF FLORIDA

CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 8, 2023
Docket23-0083
StatusPublished

This text of JOSE ALCAZAR v. THE STATE OF FLORIDA (JOSE ALCAZAR v. THE STATE OF FLORIDA) 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
JOSE ALCAZAR v. THE STATE OF FLORIDA, (Fla. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed March 8, 2023. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D23-0083 Lower Tribunal No. F22-6632 ________________

Jose Alcazar, Petitioner,

vs.

The State of Florida, Respondent.

A Case of Original Jurisdiction – Habeas Corpus.

Law Offices of Jason T. Forman, PA, and Jason T. Forman and Dalianett Corrales (Fort Lauderdale), for petitioner.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General and Katryna Santa Cruz, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

Before EMAS, GORDO and BOKOR, JJ.

BOKOR, J. Jose Alcazar stands accused, via an amended information, of

attempted first-degree murder after allegedly hiring an undercover officer to

kill his ex-girlfriend’s then-husband. Alcazar petitions for habeas relief from

pretrial detention, contending in pertinent part, that the acts allegedly

committed amount to, at most, preparatory acts in a solicitation scheme, but

fail to rise to the level of an overt act sufficient to ground a charge of

attempted first-degree murder. The State argues that Alcazar’s alleged acts

cross the line from mere preparation to an overt act well on the way to

consummation of the crime of attempted first-degree murder. As explained

below, we agree with the State and deny the petition.

Our sister court highlights the elements of a criminal attempt:

Under Florida law, criminal attempt occurs when a defendant commits “any act toward the commission of [an offense prohibited by law], but fails in the perpetration or is intercepted or prevented in the execution thereof . . . .” § 777.04(1), Fla. Stat. (2009). To establish the crime of attempt, the State must prove the defendant intended to commit a crime, committed an overt act towards its commission, and failed to successfully complete the crime. See Bist v. State, 35 So. 3d 936, 941 (Fla. 5th DCA 2010). The overt act element differentiates criminal attempt from solicitation, the latter of which is completed when a person asks another to commit a crime with the intent that the other commit the crime. See State v. Johnson, 561 So. 2d 1321, 1323 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); see also § 777.04(2), Fla. Stat. (2009). “An overt act is one that manifests the pursuance of a criminal intent, going beyond mere preparation to the actual commencement of the crime.” Bist, 35 So. 3d at 941; see also Groneau v. State, 201 So. 2d 599, 603 (Fla. 4th DCA 1967) (explaining for the overt act element to be established, “[t]here must be some appreciable

2 fragment of the crime committed and it must be in such progress that it would be consummated unless interrupted by circumstances independent of the will of the attempter.”). “Drawing the distinction between a preparatory act and an overt act is often difficult and depends on the facts of each case.” Bist, 35 So. 3d at 941.

Carlton v. State, 103 So. 3d 937, 939 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012). In Carlton, the

defendant’s actions constituted an overt act sufficient to satisfy this test for

attempted first-degree murder where the defendant approached the hitman

(undercover officer) with the intent to murder the victim, hired the undercover

officer, provided photographs, addresses, and personal information, made a

down payment, and discussed an alibi. See id. at 941.

The State presented testimony (or relied on testimony presented at a

prior hearing) that Alcazar solicited a hitman (undercover officer), provided

the hitman with the victim’s personal information, including a driver’s license,

credit card number, and photograph, contacted and met with the hitman,

provided $100 for surveillance, identified a location for the crime (the victim’s

driveway), asked for the murder to be staged as a robbery gone wrong, and

provided $400 as a down payment for the crime. Alcazar contends that the

act wouldn’t be consummated without additional discussion and plans, and

points us to Arias v. State, 593 So. 2d 260, 263 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992), in which

this court reversed a conviction of attempted first-degree murder and

3 concluded that the defendant’s actions constituted mere preparation and

lacked “overt acts nearing consummation of the crime.”

In Arias, the defendant discussed a murder plot with co-defendants

and gave one of them a bottle of Hycomine to give to the infant victim. See

id. However, the court explained that “[t]he plot to kill the child went no

further,” the co-defendant hadn’t committed to doing anything, and neither

the defendant or co-defendants took any additional steps toward planning or

completing the crime. Id. Arias provides no succor for Alcazar. 1 The

1 The dissent notes that “[i]t does not matter whether this panel agrees with the holdings of Robinson or Arias.” We agree. While the dissent implies (or maybe explicitly claims) that the panel is overruling Arias sub silento, the reality is less dramatic. We disagree on the application of Arias to the facts of this case. The dissent encourages us to apply precedent to the facts of this case in the way it chooses, while ignoring that "[d]rawing the distinction between a preparatory act and an overt act is often difficult and depends on the facts of each case." Bist, 35 So. 3d at 941 (emphasis added). We find that the facts of this case differ from the facts of Arias. The acts here rise to the level of overt acts nearing consummation of the crime, therefore mandating denial of the petition. The dissent’s conclusory statement that Arias compels our granting of the petition because the scheme in Arias “comes much closer to the requisite overt act” lacks support in the record (but may be an inadvertent admission by the dissent that Arias should be revisited and clarified). That the scheme here involved greater detail and more overt acts on the way to commission of the crime should be obvious on its face. Here, we have multiple meetings or calls, first with an informant and then with the undercover officer “hitman,” an exchange of money (including both payment of money for surveillance and a down payment for the murder), formulation of a plan, provision of personal information, and even a directive that the hitman murder the victim in his own driveway and make it look like a robbery.

4 provision of the drug and request to murder the child in Arias is chilling, but

other than the recipient taking possession of the poison before contacting

the authorities, Arias lacks the amount and character of overt acts leading to

consummation present here. To apply Arias to these facts would all but

prevent any charge of attempted murder in a solicitation context, outside of

cases where the hitman pulls the trigger but misses the victim.

Arias involved an initial meeting, the handing of the drug to be used to

kill the infant, and nothing else in the way of planning or consummating the

crime. Arias provides the standard for mere preparation without sufficient,

overt acts.2 The evidence against Alcazar, on the other hand, mirrors almost

Similarly, Robinson v. State, 263 So. 2d 595 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972), offers no support for Alcazar.

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Related

Arias v. State
593 So. 2d 260 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)
Hutchinson v. State
315 So. 2d 546 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1975)
State v. Rios
409 So. 2d 241 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1982)
Bist v. State
35 So. 3d 936 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2010)
Gaskin v. State
869 So. 2d 646 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2004)
In Re Rule 9.331, Etc.
416 So. 2d 1127 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1982)
Groneau v. State
201 So. 2d 599 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1967)
King v. State
104 So. 2d 730 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1958)
Robinson v. State
263 So. 2d 595 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1972)
State v. Sykes
434 So. 2d 325 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1983)
State v. Johnson
561 So. 2d 1321 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1990)
Bean v. University of Miami
252 So. 3d 810 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2018)
Carlton v. State
103 So. 3d 937 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2012)
State v. Washington
114 So. 3d 182 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2012)
Harriman v. State
174 So. 3d 1044 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2015)
Gustine v. State
97 So. 207 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1923)

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