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OATS v. STATE (2018)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

Daunte OATS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 1D15-5169

Decided: October 03, 2018

Candice Kaye Brower, Criminal Conflict & Civil Regional Counsel, Gainesville, and Michael Jerome Titus, Assistant Conflict Counsel, Tallahassee, for Appellant. Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Steven Edward Woods, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

Daunte Oats raises two issues on appeal: whether the trial court failed to conduct a competency hearing and whether Florida's 10-20-Life statute is unconstitutional as applied to juveniles. We affirm as to the second issue, but reverse and remand as to the first because it appears no competency hearing occurred. As the State concedes, a determination was made that reasonable grounds existed that Oats was not competent to proceed, but that no competency hearing occurred. We therefore reverse and remand for the trial court to conduct a nunc pro tunc competency evaluation; if one cannot be done, Oats is entitled to a new trial. See, e.g., Brooks v. State, 180 So.3d 1094, 1096 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015).

Per Curiam.

Makar, Winokur, and Winsor, JJ., concur.

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OATS v. STATE (2018)

Docket No: No. 1D15-5169

Decided: October 03, 2018

Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

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