State v. Diaz
Annotate this CaseDefendant was charged with murder and kidnapping. Defendant was a juvenile at the time of the crime. The State moved to transfer Defendant’s case to adult court. After a hearing, the juvenile court granted the State’s motion to transfer. After a trial in adult court, the jury found Defendant guilty of first-degree murder (arson), first-degree felony murder, first-degree arson, felony murder (aggravated kidnapping), and second-degree aggravated kidnapping. Defendant was sentenced to eighty years imprisonment for the murder conviction and a concurrent fifty-year sentence for second-degree aggravated kidnapping. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the juvenile court did not err in transferring Defendant to adult court; (2) the circuit court did not fail to adequately instruct the jury on Defendant’s theory of defense; and (3) Defendant’s eighty-year-sentence was not an abuse of discretion, grossly disproportionate, or a de facto life sentence in violation of the spirit of Montgomery v. Louisiana.
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