Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed September 8, 2021.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D20-1085
Lower Tribunal No. F19-1651
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Zohar Arie Yaron,
Appellant,
vs.
The State of Florida,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Richard
Hersch, Judge.
Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and James A. Odell, Assistant
Public Defender, for appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Kseniya Smychkouskaya,
Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Before EMAS, LINDSEY and GORDO, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Affirmed. See Byron v. State, 273 So. 3d 1091, 1094 (Fla. 3d DCA
2019) (“Not every manifestation of mental illness demonstrates
incompetence to stand trial; rather, the evidence must indicate a present
inability to assist counsel or understand the charges. Neither low intelligence,
mental deficiency, nor bizarre, volatile, and irrational behavior can be
equated with mental incompetence to stand trial.” (quoting Thompson v.
State, 88 So. 3d 312, 319 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012))); Blackmon v. State, 32 So.
3d 148, 150 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010) (“Generally . . . the trial court has no
independent obligation to hold a competency hearing if there is nothing to
alert the court that the defendant may lack competency.”); Campo v. State,
24 So. 3d 735, 736 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009) (“The trial court did not err when it
did not request, sua sponte, a competency hearing. . . . [A] trial court does
not err when it does not conduct an inquiry concerning the defendant’s
mental competency to stand trial where no showing of mental incompetency
was made and no request by the defendant for such an inquiry was made.”);
Chery v. State, 642 So. 2d 1161, 1162 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994) (“The trial court
did not err in failing to conduct an inquiry concerning the defendant’s mental
competency to stand trial as no showing of mental incompetency was ever
made below, and no defense request for such an inquiry was ever made
below.”).
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