{"id":1170,"date":"2024-10-29T16:32:46","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T20:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/?p=1170"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:29:15","slug":"florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Discusses Grounds for a Continuance in a Criminal Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Criminal defendants have a right to be advised of the charges filed against them with ample time to prepare for trial. If the State amends the information charging the defendant shortly before trial, therefore adding a new charge, it may deny the defendant the constitutional right to prepare a defense and may be grounds for reversing any conviction arising out of the latest charges. This was demonstrated in a recent Florida <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/florida\/second-district-court-of-appeal\/2024\/2d2023-1150.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">case<\/a> in which the defendant was charged with battery and later tampering with a witness. \u00a0If you are accused of battery or assault, it is smart to confer with a Tampa violent crime defense attorney as soon as possible to protect your rights.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>History of the Case<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is alleged that the State charged the defendant with aggravated battery on February 10, 2021. The charge stemmed from a December 26, 2020, incident where the appellant&#8217;s girlfriend informed law enforcement that, during an argument, the defendant physically assaulted her. She claimed he threw her to the ground, placed his knee on her neck, covered her nose and mouth, and punched her, resulting in a lost tooth. The girlfriend later recanted her allegations, claiming her injuries were due to a car accident. Despite a no-contact order, the defendant contacted the victim over 4,400 times while awaiting trial, allegedly instructing her on how to recant her statements.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reportedly, five days before the trial, the State amended the information to include a new charge of witness tampering based on these phone calls. The defendant requested a continuance to investigate the new charge, but the trial court denied the request. The defendant was subsequently convicted on both counts and sentenced to concurrent thirty-year sentences, with a fifteen-year mandatory minimum on the aggravated battery charge. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/#more-1170\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Criminal defendants have a right to be advised of the charges filed against them with ample time to prepare for trial. If the State amends the information charging the defendant shortly before trial, therefore adding a new charge, it may deny the defendant the constitutional right to prepare a defense and may be grounds for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aggravated-battery","category-violent-crime"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Florida Continuance: Delay a Criminal Case<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understand when a continuance is allowed, why delays happen, and how timing can affect your defense plan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Florida Continuance: Delay a Criminal Case\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Understand when a continuance is allowed, why delays happen, and how timing can affect your defense plan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/florida-criminal-case-continuance-grounds-handcuffs.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. 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minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Court Discusses Grounds for a Continuance in a Criminal Case","datePublished":"2024-10-29T20:32:46+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-08T12:29:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/"},"wordCount":524,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/florida-criminal-case-continuance-grounds-handcuffs.webp","articleSection":["Aggravated Battery","Violent Crime"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-grounds-for-a-continuance-in-a-criminal-case\/","name":"Florida Continuance: Delay a Criminal 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