Rafael Alfredo Montejo Luna v. State of Florida

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: March 27, 2026
• Docket: 6D2024-2441
• Status: Published

Opinion

SIXTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL STATE OF FLORIDA _____________________________

Case No. 6D2024-2441 Lower Tribunal No. 2022-CF-000016 _____________________________

RAFAEL ALFREDO MONTEJO LUNA,

Appellant,

v.

STATE OF FLORIDA,

Appellee. _____________________________

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hendry County. James D. Sloan, Judge.

March 27, 2026

MIZE, J.

Appellant, Rafael Alfredo Montejo Luna (“Luna”), appeals his final

judgment and sentence for second-degree murder. Luna argues that the trial court

erred by admitting evidence that Luna failed to appear at a previously agreed-upon

meeting with a law enforcement officer that was investigating the victim’s death.

The trial court found that such evidence was admissible as evidence of

consciousness of guilt, but Luna asserts that such evidence was not relevant to

show Luna’s consciousness of guilt where there was no evidence to establish that Luna was informed that the meeting was mandatory or that there would be any

potential adverse consequences to Luna for not attending the meeting. While Luna

did not make this argument in the trial court, he asserts that the trial court’s error

constituted fundamental error that can be raised for the first time on appeal.

Based on the arguments presented by Luna on appeal, we find no

fundamental error and affirm Luna’s judgment and sentence.

In the trial court, Luna argued that the evidence that he failed to appear at

the meeting with law enforcement was improper evidence of him exercising his

constitutional right to remain silent. As Luna did not make that argument on

appeal, we have not addressed it. Our affirmance of Luna’s judgment and sentence

is without prejudice for Luna to file a petition for ineffective assistance of appellate

counsel.

AFFIRMED.

WOZNIAK and WHITE, JJ., concur.

Blair Allen, Public Defender, and Kimberly Nolen Hopkins, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Wendy Buffington, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND DISPOSITION THEREOF IF TIMELY FILED