Ricky Martinv.The State
A jury convicted Ricky Martin of second-degree burglary, aggravated assault, criminal attempt, and possessing a firearm during a felony after a witness saw him near a parked truck with a handgun and police found him with items taken from a nearby alterations shop. Martin challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, the failure to give a written-requested lesser-included-offense instruction, his recidivist sentence, and the handling of his ineffective-assistance claim. The Court of Appeals upheld the convictions and sentence. The jury could resolve the witness’s mixed testimony about fear, and the surrounding circumstances supported both aggravated assault and firearm possession through circumstantial evidence. An oral request did not require the trial court to give the lesser-included charge without a written request. Martin’s prior burglary convictions supported an eight-year second-degree-burglary sentence because the State gave the required notice, and the offense remained a felony whether it was a first or subsequent conviction. But the trial court failed to decide Martin’s ineffective-assistance claim after the new-trial motion. The Court therefore vacated that portion of the order and remanded for the trial court to address the claim.
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