Miami Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Pursuant to the recently passed self-defense law of "stand your ground", a local circuit court judge heard a motion to dismiss filed by a well-repsected Miami criminal attorney regarding that issue. The defendant is a twenty-three year old man from New York charged with second degree murder accused in the stabbing death of homeless man outside a Miami Beach night club. According to court documents, the defendant came to Miami Beach in 2008 to party. Prior to entering a nightclub, the defendant purchased the ID belonging to the victim for $50.00. When the homeless man realized that a third party had taken his ID and sold it to the defendant, he went to retrieve the ID from the defendant. The victim allegedly threatened the defendant which caused him to flee into an alleyway. In the alley, a scuffle ensued between the parties. During the scuffle, the defendant took out a knife, stabbing the victim three times. At some point during the scuffle, the victim threw a book bag at the defendant.

After taking testimony and hearing arguments from the prosecution and the defense lawyer, the circuit court judge hearing the case denied the motion to dismiss. The judge found that the defendant was protecting the ID and not himself. He found specifically that " a reasonable person under these circumstances would have believed that if he had given the license back, it may have not been necessary to stab the victim." The lawyer representing the defendant intends on appealing the ruling as the law is still emerging and the order signed by the judge has issues to be raised at the appellate court level. Of course, the prosecution agreed with the ruling saying the judge was correct in his evaluation of the testimony and the evidence presented at the hearing.

In 2005, the Florida legislature amended Florida's self-defense laws to include "stand your ground". The law eliminated a citizen's duty to retreat if confronted with deadly force. Murder or other violent charges, such as aggravated assault and aggravated battery, can now be more easily defended with the new law. A defendant is justified in using deadly force if the defendant believed that the force was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself while resisting another's attempt to commit murder or any other enumerated violent crime against him or her. The defense can be argued in two ways. The first is through a motion to dismiss heard and ruled on by the judge. If the judge denies the motion, the attorney can argue self-defense to the jury who is the tier of fact.

Several cases have been dismissed throughout the state based on the "stand your ground" law. Last year, a Palm Beach judge dismissed a first-degree murder case involving a shooting that occurred as a result of a confrontation on a boat between the victim and the defendant. A Miami-Dade County judge dismissed a murder case that occurred outside and apartment in Hialeah. Later in the year, a Broward County judge dismissed a charges against a man accused of murdering his wife's former boyfriend. Several other cases are set to be heard at the trial level and the appellate level. The area of the law is evolving and with every case that is heard, different theories of self-defense will come to light. However the cases are ruled upon, the "stand your ground" law provides a defense to some defendants charged with violent crimes.

Miami-Dade Judge Shoots Down Self-Defense Claim in the South Beach Murder, Miami Herald.com, September 18, 2012.

Local law enforcement authorities continue to probe into the highly publicized case regarding a local juvenile who armed himself with a shotgun and shot an intruder committing a theft on his property. The unfortunate event has cost a life, and thrown a 14-year-old into the middle of a legal tussle. It began May 20, in the upscale Miami Shores community, and could prove a test of Florida's pioneering 2005 "Stand your Ground" and "Castle Doctine" statutes which allow for the justified use of lethal force in a self-defense situations, and extended civil protections to a person who used such force. Local Miami criminal defense attorneys from all over the county have been quick to throw their opinion into the mix.

According to press accounts, Reynaldo Muñoz, 20, and Carolina Lopez, 19, tried to steal a WaveRunner from the waterfront home of Jeffrey Davis, who was not home at the time of the incident. Muñoz and Lopez parked a truck at Pelican Harbor Marina, and rode a jetski to the Davis home. Muñoz entered the Davis property, and began lowering the WaveRunner into the water. Lopez headed back to the marina where she would help load the stolen craft into the truck and take it a buyer for $2,000. Muñoz, however, was confronted by Davis' 14-year-old son who had a shotgun. According to the boy and his mother, Muñoz threatened them. The teenager responded by fatally shooting Muñoz. According to Muñoz family members, Reynaldo was deaf mute and could not have threatened the teenager, at least not verbally. The only criminal charges filed so far have been against Lopez for second degree murder.

This case could become a test with national implications for the no-nonsense approach many states have taken regarding home intrusions, and self-defense. Florida 776.013 protects persons who come under attack, providing them strong criminal and civil protections. It states that, "...A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself...A person who unlawfully and by force enters or attempts to enter a person's dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle is presumed to be doing so with the intent to commit an unlawful act involving force or violence..."
The question most are pining over is whether a seawall is to be considered part of a dwelling or the "Stand Your Ground" law applies. Florida case law has long held that a defendant can commit a burglary without entering the residence. A dwelling burglary will be charged even if a person merely enters the yard if the home is surrounded by a hedge or a fence. A seawall is not a hedge or a fence. It may be considered a barrier, but is more likely to be construed a property line. If it is considered a property line and the state attorney's office holds the same opinion, the "Castle Doctine" will not apply.

The state attorney's office will then have to consider if the "Stand Your Ground" law is applicable in the this case. The vaildity of this defense will depend on the actions of both Munoz and the 14 year-old. The applicabilty of the relatively new law will turn on the actions of the deceased prior to the shooting and any wintess accounts of the same. Florida has particularly strong protections for a homeowner's use of self-defense which amounts to deadly force. In most instances homeowners have no duty to retreat in the face of an intruder and, should they invoke a valid castle law defense, are immune from civil suits. The case will raise difficult questions regarding Muñoz' capacity to articulate a viable threat, and whether or not the jet ski was within the curtilage of Davis' home.

Police Probe: Teen Shot Intruder in the Head, Miami Herald.com, May 23, 2011.