Fonseca v. State

Appellant, Israel Fonseca, Jr., appeals his conviction and sentence for two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle. We affirm.

Fonseca’s first claim of error is that the trial court committed per se reversible error by having an in court ex parte communication with an assistant state attorney about jury instructions, thus denying him a right to counsel at a critical stage in the proceedings. We disagree.

A charge conference is a critical stage of the proceedings to which the right to counsel attaches. See Wilson v. State, 764 So.2d 813,…