RIVERA v. STATE (2022)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

Wilson RIVERA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 4D21-2176

Decided: March 23, 2022

Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Paul Edward Petillo, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jeanine M. Germanowicz, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

CONFESSION OF ERROR

On appeal, appellant argues the trial court erred by denying his motion to withdraw a plea because the trial judge did not properly address appellant's competency. Based on the State's proper confession of error, we agree. First, appellant preserved the issue for appellate review. See State v. Dortch, 317 So. 3d 1074 (Fla. 2021). Second, we agree that the trial court erred by moving forward with trial when there were legitimate doubts regarding appellant's competency. See Finkelstein v. State, 574 So. 2d 1164, 1169 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991); Pacheco v. State, 114 So. 3d 1107, 1108 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013). Therefore, we reverse the trial court's order denying the motion to vacate the plea and remand for further proceedings on the issue of competency. See Machin v. State, 267 So. 3d 1098 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019).

Reversed and remanded with instructions.

Per Curiam.

Ciklin, Gerber, and Klingensmith, JJ., concur.

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