Vincent Lenell Winchester v. State of Florida

Summary

The First District Court of Appeal of Florida affirmed Vincent Lenell Winchester’s second-degree murder conviction and fifty-year sentence for a crime committed when he was sixteen. The court held that evidence that Winchester fired three shots into an occupied vehicle during an attempted robbery was sufficient to allow the jury to find that he acted with a depraved mind and to deny his motion for judgment of acquittal.

Holdings

1. Evidence that Winchester pointed a handgun at a passenger during an attempted robbery and then fired three times into an occupied vehicle, killing the driver, was sufficient to allow the jury to determine that he committed second-degree murder with a depraved mind without regard for human life.
2. The trial court properly denied the motion for judgment of acquittal because the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the State, was capable of supporting a guilty verdict.
3. The fifty-year prison sentence was affirmed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support a finding that Winchester acted with a depraved mind, an element of second-degree murder.
2. Whether the trial court erred by denying Winchester's motion for judgment of acquittal.
3. Whether Winchester's fifty-year sentence for a crime committed when he was sixteen years old should be reversed.

Disposition

affirmed