Defontes v. State
Defontes v. State
Opinion of the Court
Steven Defontes appeals the trial court order summarily denying his motion for post-conviction relief in which he claimed that his guilty pleas to robbery and violation of probation from an earlier case were involuntary. Defontes made four interrelated claims of involuntary pleas in his motion. The trial court order denied the first three but did not address the fourth claim.
The State has conceded the need for an evidentiary hearing on the first three, interrelated claims in the context of a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel resulting in involuntary plea. See Mourra v. State, 884 So.2d 316 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004); Barnhill v. State, 828 So.2d 405 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). The State also concedes the need to remand for the trial court to consider appellant’s fourth claim which the trial court did not expressly address. We agree with this disposition and therefore reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing on claims one through three as an ineffective assistance of counsel claim resulting in involuntary plea, and for the trial court to address claim four.
Reversed and Remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.