Rolon v. State

VILLANTI, Judge.

After a jury convicted David Rolon of second-degree murder with a firearm, the trial court sua sponte granted him a new trial based on the ineffective assistance of his original trial counsel.1 Despite its explicit finding that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance during the direct and cross-examination of Rolon at his first trial, the trial court nevertheless allowed the State to use Rolon’s testimony from his first trial during its case-in-chief in the second trial. In these highly unusual circumstances, we conclude that the admission during the second trial of…