& SC15-1612 Joshua Lee Altersberger v. State of Florida & Joshua Lee Altersberger v. Julie L. Jones, etc.

Joshua Lee Altersberger appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion to vacate his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 and petitions this Court for a writ of habe-as corpus. For the reasons that follow, we *623vacate the death sentence and remand for a new penalty phase.1

I. BACKGROUND

On direct appeal, this Court described the facts as follows:

Late in the morning of January 12, 2007, the [defendant drove to a friend’s home in Highlands County. Also at the home was Quentin Kinder, who was in Florida to avoid arrest…