{"id":695,"date":"2020-12-24T17:05:10","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T22:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=695"},"modified":"2026-01-08T04:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:39:19","slug":"florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Discusses Aggravating Factors in Homicide Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First-degree murder is one of the most serious crimes the State can charge a person with, and a conviction has the potential to result in a death sentence. Generally, the State must prove that certain aggravating factors were present during the commission of a homicide crime for a person to be sentenced to death. The State\u2019s burden in seeking the death penalty was the topic of a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/florida\/supreme-court\/2020\/sc18-2014.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Florida opinion<\/a>, in a case in which the defendant appealed his death sentences after following first-degree murder convictions. If you are charged with a violent crime, it is critical to speak to a seasoned Tampa criminal defense attorney to assess your potential defenses.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Trial and Sentencing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It is reported that the defendant and the victim, his ex-girlfriend, were estranged, and the defendant was subject to a restraining order that prohibited him from contacting the victim. He suspected that she was dating another man, and he ransacked her home while she was out. She called the police but declined to press charges. The following day, he attended a hearing on another criminal matter, then called the victim and spoke to her for several minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Allegedly, the defendant then proceeded to buy ammunition, travel to the victim\u2019s home and shot the victim and one of her friends who was in the home with her. He attempted to shoot her boyfriend and another friend as well. He was charged with and convicted of multiple first-degree murder crimes and sentenced to death for each murder. He appealed, arguing in part that the trial court erred in instructing the jury and finding the murder was committed in a calculated, cold, and premediated manner which constituted an aggravating factor and lead to his death sentences.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/#more-695\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First-degree murder is one of the most serious crimes the State can charge a person with, and a conviction has the potential to result in a death sentence. Generally, the State must prove that certain aggravating factors were present during the commission of a homicide crime for a person to be sentenced to death. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-murder","category-sentencing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Florida Homicide: Aggravating Factors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Facing a homicide case in Florida? Learn what \u201caggravating factors\u201d mean and how they can raise penalties at sentencing.\" \/>\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-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Florida Homicide: Aggravating Factors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Facing a homicide case in Florida? Learn what \u201caggravating factors\u201d mean and how they can raise penalties at sentencing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/florida-homicide-aggravating-factors-gun-behind-back.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. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Florida Homicide: Aggravating Factors","description":"Facing a homicide case in Florida? 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Learn what \u201caggravating factors\u201d mean and how they can raise penalties at sentencing.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/florida-homicide-aggravating-factors-gun-behind-back.webp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Court Discusses Aggravating Factors in Homicide Cases","datePublished":"2020-12-24T22:05:10+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-08T09:39:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/"},"wordCount":561,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/florida-homicide-aggravating-factors-gun-behind-back.webp","articleSection":["Murder","Sentencing"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/","name":"Florida Homicide: Aggravating Factors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-aggravating-factors-in-homicide-cases\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/florida-homicide-aggravating-factors-gun-behind-back.webp","datePublished":"2020-12-24T22:05:10+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-08T09:39:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"description":"Facing a homicide case in Florida? 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