Cedric R. Hutchinson v. State of Florida

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
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No. 1D17-4787
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CEDRIC R. HUTCHINSON,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Calhoun County.
Shonna Young Gay, Judge.
August 7, 2018
BILBREY, J.
Cedric R. Hutchinson challenges the dismissal of his petition
for a writ of habeas corpus. By this petition, Hutchinson
challenged his conviction for aggravated battery, a conviction
obtained in Hillsborough County. The circuit court in Calhoun
County dismissed the petition as “unauthorized.” While the
premise of Hutchinson’s petition was incorrect – that a motor
vehicle cannot be a deadly weapon under the aggravated battery
statute * – the circuit court should have transferred the petition to
Hillsborough County in the Thirteenth Circuit for its
*See Clark v. State, 783 So. 2d 967 (Fla. 2001); V.A. v. State,
819 So. 2d 847 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002).
consideration of the petition. See Torres v. State, 208 So. 3d 831(Fla. 1st DCA 2017); Baker v. State, 164 So. 3d 38 (Fla. 3d DCA
2015).
In Torres and Baker, the petitioner challenged the
sufficiency of the charging document. These cases are therefore
distinguishable from the case on which the trial court relied, Gill
v. Jones, 204 So. 3d 459 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016), which held that a
habeas petition was unauthorized and hence subject to dismissal
because the petitioner pursued post-conviction relief in the wrong
court). See also James v. Jones, -- So. 3d --, 45 Fla. L. Weekly
D815 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (holding dismissal of habeas petition
appropriate when petitioner is seeking post-conviction relief
available under rule 3.850, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure).
Accordingly, the order of dismissal is vacated, and the cause
is remanded to the circuit court with the instruction that the
petition be transferred to the circuit court for Hillsborough
County.
B.L. THOMAS, C.J., and OSTERHAUS, J., concur.
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Not final until disposition of any timely and
authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
9.331.
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Cedric R. Hutchinson, pro se, Appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Frank X. Moehrle, Jr. and
Amanda Stokes, Assistant Attorneys General, Tallahassee, for
Appellee.
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