LaFleur v. State

Full title: Joecephus Devin LaFLEUR, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

Date published: Feb 27, 2015

159 So. 3d 247 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2015)

Opinion

No. 5D13–4343.

02-27-2015

Joecephus Devin LaFLEUR, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Kepler B. Funk, Keith F. Szachacz, and Alan S. Diamond, of Funk, Szachacz & Diamond, LLC., Melbourne, for Appellant. Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Bonnie Jean Parrish, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Kepler B. Funk, Keith F. Szachacz, and Alan S. Diamond, of Funk, Szachacz & Diamond, LLC., Melbourne, for Appellant.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Bonnie Jean Parrish, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED.¹ See Jones v. State, 449 So.2d 253, 259 (Fla.1984) (“[T]he right to appointed counsel, like the obverse right to self-representation, is not a license to abuse the dignity of the court or to frustrate orderly proceedings, and a defendant may not manipulate the proceedings by willy-nilly leaping back and forth between the choices.”).

1 Although it was error for the trial court to require LaFleur to present his request for self-representation in writing, see, e.g.,

EVANDER, BERGER and WALLIS, JJ., concur.

Combs v. State, 133 So.3d 564, 566 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014), the error was harmless where LaFleur subsequently made his request in a written motion, and the trial court held a hearing on the motion.