PENALVER v. STATE (2022)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

Guillermo PENALVER, Petitioner, v. The STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. 3D21-1879

Decided: February 02, 2022

Before FERNANDEZ, C.J., and LOGUE, and BOKOR, JJ.

Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Deborah Prager, Assistant Public Defender, for petitioner. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and David Llanes, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

Guillermo Penalver seeks a writ of certiorari quashing the trial court's order denying his motion to dismiss based on stand your ground immunity filed pursuant to section 776.032, Florida Statutes (2020). The trial court, based on its conclusion that Penalver's motion below was not sworn and did not rely on record evidence, together with Penalver's failure to present any evidence or testimony to support his claim of immunity, denied the motion. For the reasons discussed herein, we grant the petition, quash the trial court's order, and remand with instructions.

While Penalver's petition was pending in this Court, we issued Casanova v. State, 335 So.3d 1231 (Fla. 3d DCA Oct. 27, 2021), holding:

[A] defendant's motion to dismiss under Florida's Stand Your Ground law can establish a prima facie claim of self-defense immunity from criminal prosecution even though the motion to dismiss is not sworn to by someone with personal knowledge or supported by evidence or testimony establishing the facts in the motion to dismiss.

We therefore grant the petition for a writ of certiorari, quash the order below, and remand for further proceedings consistent with Casanova.

Petition granted; order quashed.

PER CURIAM.

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