Wilson v. State
The Fourth DCA affirmed convictions for aggravated assault with a firearm, armed burglary of a conveyance, and resisting without violence, holding that public statements by Governor DeSantis and the Martin County Sheriff about Second Amendment rights and crime were properly excluded because they were not relevant to the defendant's subjective or objectively reasonable belief in defense-of-property justification under section 776.031. The court applied the Florida Supreme Court's Oquendo framework (distinguishing subjective and objective components of justification defenses) to hold that generalized political rhetoric about gun rights does not tend to prove a defendant's state of mind at the time of a specific confrontation. The court also remanded for correction of an illegal general sentence covering multiple counts and rejected a six-person jury constitutional challenge as foreclosed by precedent.
Key facts
- Defendant Wilson was convicted in trial court of aggravated assault with a firearm, armed burglary of a conveyance, and resisting without violence.
- Wilson appealed, arguing that the trial court improperly excluded public statements by Governor DeSantis and the Martin County Sheriff regarding Second Amendment rights and crime.
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