An appeals court Friday ordered a new trial for a man convicted of first-degree murder in the 2013 shooting death of Flagler County convenience-store clerk Zuheily Rosado.
A panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that a circuit judge used an incorrect legal standard when he denied a request by Joseph Frank Bova II to represent himself.
Recommended Videos
Bova was arrested by Boca Raton police after a search of the car he was in turned up the murder weapon. He was returned to Flagler County. Bova was initially ruled incompetent to stand trial, but later convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2019 in the murder of Rosado, a clerk at a Mobil convenience store. It took the jury just 39 minutes to convict him.
Rosado was 32 years old and mother of six children -- the youngest was 1 and the oldest 16 at the time of her death. It was never disclosed what motivated the shooting.
The appeals court on Friday ruled that Circuit Judge Terence Perkins did not properly handle a request by Bova to represent himself in the case.
“In sum, appellant (Bova) made an unequivocal request to represent himself, which the trial court denied based on an incorrect application of both (U.S. Supreme Court precedent in a case known as Faretta v. California and a rule),” said the appeals-court decision, written by Judge Meredith Sasso and joined by Chief Judge Kerry Evander and Judge Mary Alice Nardella. “Consequently, we determine the trial court abused its discretion in denying appellant’s request and reverse and remand for a new trial.”