Jose A Torres Sr v. State of Florida ( 2017 )

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA
JOSE A. TORRES SR., NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO
FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND
Appellant, DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED
v. CASE NO. 1D16-1602
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
_____________________________/
Opinion filed January 23, 2017.
An appeal from the Circuit Court for Wakulla County.
Dawn Caloca-Johnson, Judge.
Jose A. Torres Sr., pro se, Appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Julian E. Markham, Assistant Attorney General,
for Appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Appellant, Jose A. Torres, Sr., appeals an order transferring his petition for
writ of habeas corpus from the Second Judicial Circuit to the Sixth Judicial Circuit.
The trial court properly determined that it lacked jurisdiction to consider Appellant’s
petition wherein he challenged the sufficiency of the charging instrument that was
filed in his case. See Baker v. State, 164 So. 3d 38, 39 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015) (“[T]he
court of conviction has jurisdiction over Baker’s habeas petition because the petition
challenges the sufficiency of the charging document which amounts to a collateral
attack on Baker’s 1996 conviction.”); Stokes v. State, 3 So. 3d 425, 425 (Fla. 3d
DCA 2009) (noting that a circuit court of the county in which a defendant is
incarcerated has jurisdiction to consider a petition for writ of habeas corpus when
the claims raised in the petition concern issues regarding his incarceration but not
when the claims attack the validity of the judgment and sentence); see also Price v.
State, 995 So. 2d 401, 404 (Fla. 2008) (noting that generally the test for granting
relief based on a defect in the information is actual prejudice to the fairness of the
trial (emphasis added)). On appeal, the State argues that although transfer was
appropriate, the trial court should have transferred the case to the Twelfth Judicial
Circuit given that Appellant’s judgment was entered there. While the State is
correct, it included within its appendix an Order Transferring Jurisdiction that was
entered by the Sixth Judicial Circuit and that transferred Appellant’s petition to the
Twelfth Judicial Circuit. As such, we decline the State’s request to order the transfer
of Appellant’s petition to that circuit.
AFFIRMED.
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LEWIS, BILBREY, and WINOKUR, JJ., CONCUR.
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