Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed February 2, 2022.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D21-1879
Lower Tribunal No. F21-7542
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Guillermo Penalver,
Petitioner,
vs.
The State of Florida,
Respondent.
A Writ of Certiorari to the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Zachary
James, Judge.
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.
Before FERNANDEZ, C.J., and LOGUE, and BOKOR, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
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, 46 Fla. L. Weekly D2326 (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.
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GUILLERMO PENALVER v. THE STATE OF FLORIDA
Combined Opinion