Mobley v. State

Gabriel Mobley (defendant) was eating in a restaurant when he and his friends got into a heated argument with Jason Gonzalez and Roly Carrazana, two men whom Mobley and his friends did not know. After the argument ended, the men continued to make menacing glares at Mobley and his friends. Mobley and his friends waited to leave the restaurant until they thought Gonzalez and Carrazana had left the premises. However, once in the parking lot, Gonzalez and Carrazana attacked Mobley’s friend, Chico, punching him in the face. Immediately after hitting Chico, the men turned their attention to Mobley. Mobley testified at trial: “By this time, you know, I didn’t know what they had done—I didn’t know what Chico had got hit with, and it was so much blood, I freaked, I was scared and I seen [sic] this other guy coming up from the back. And he reached up under his shirt. So, I was scared, I thought, they were going to shoot or kill us or stab us or something. So I was scared.” When Carrazana reached under his shirt, Mobley pulled out his gun and fired five shots at the men, killing both of them. The evidence at trial indicated that the attack on Mobley and Chico was unprovoked. Mobley was charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Mobley filed a motion to dismiss based on the immunity granted under Florida’s stand-your-ground law. The trial court denied the motion on the ground that Mobley never actually saw a weapon, and thus the use of deadly force was not reasonable. Mobley appealed.