Appeals Court Upholds Life Sentence For Nine Mile Road Armed Robber

February 6, 2018

Florida’s First District Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a man received a life sentence for the 2016 armed robbery of a Nine Mile Road convenience store.

Ryan Erick Cheney appeal his sentence on a grounds that the Escambia County trial court erred to follow proper procedure when he made a request to act as his own attorney. The  United State Supreme Court has held that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to refuse counsel and represent themselves in state criminal proceedings.

Cheney was charged with the armed robbery of the a Raceway Gas Station on Nine Mile Road. The robbery was captured by the store’s security cameras and the video showed Cheney pointing a handgun at the store clerk, demanding and receiving money from the register, and discharging the gun into the floor during the robbery. Cheney admitted in an interview with deputies that he committed the robbery, but he claimed that the gun discharged accidentally.

At a pre-trial hearing, Cheney made a request to represent himself. He explained that he wanted to represent himself so he could pursue an insanity defense that his court-appointed counsel had refused to raise. Cheney’s lawyer told the judge that he did not believe there was a good faith basis to raise this defense and that he was concerned that asserting the defense would allow the state to bring in evidence of another robbery committed by Cheney about a week earlier. Circuit Judge Edward P. Nickinson expressed concerns about Cheney’s ability to represent himself, but started the process and ordered an evaluation to determine whether Cheney was insane at the time of the robbery.

Cheney agreed to allow his attorney to continue representation as he explored insanity defense.

The evaluation concluded that, although Cheney’s capacity to appreciate the criminal nature of his conduct “was likely greatly impaired,” he was not insane at the time of the armed robbery in this case. The case thereafter proceeded to a nonjury trial at which Cheney was represented by his court-appointed counsel. Cheney did not at any point after the evaluation object to counsel’s continued representation, nor did he again request to represent himself.
The judge found Cheney guilty as charged. Then, after a sentencing hearing at which Cheney’s counsel relied on the insanity evaluation report for mitigation, the judge sentenced Cheney to life in prison.

During the appeal, Cheney unsuccessfully contended that he did not abandon his request to represent himself.

Cheney’s accomplice, Joseph Donald Reynolds, was sentenced to 20 years in state prison.

Comments

Comments are closed.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News