The defense attorney for Michael David Jones, who was found guilty last month of murder in the slaying of Moorings resident and Sebastian River Medical Center nurse Diana Duve, has filed an appeal of Jones’ conviction with Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals.
The court reporter transcribing the hearings, jury selection, trial and sentencing of convicted killer Michael David Jones has estimated she will end up sending the appellate court 4,400 pages of transcripts.
On top of that, the Indian River Clerk of the Court must send the Court of Appeals copies of all of Circuit Court Judge Dan Vaughn’s rulings on motions and evidence, plus all pleadings filed by the state or the defense in preparation for the panel to consider Jones’ Dec. 3 appeal.
Jones, 37, who was sentenced to life in prison for the June 2014 death of the 26-year-old Diana Duve, is challenging decisions Vaughn made eight months before the trial with regard to evidence. He is also questioning the handling of the jury selection process, the trial and the sentencing phase, in which the jury spared him the death penalty.
In a court filing entitled, “Statement of Judicial Acts to be Reviewed,” Jones’ trial defense attorney, Assistant Public Defender Stanley Glenn, listed five bones of contention Jones has with the court.
The litany reads, “That the verdict of the jury was contrary to the law. That the verdict of the jury was contrary to the weight of the evidence. The court erred in not granting the defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the state’s case. That the court erred in not granting the defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of all the evidence. That the court erred in sentencing the defendant.”
Jones no longer awaits his appeal in the county jail, but as Inmate Number 142225 at the Florida Department of Corrections Central Florida Reception Center, just 10 miles east of the Orlando International Airport off the Beachline Expressway (State Road 528).
The Florida Corrections website says he is in “close custody,” meaning that he’s being held in high security under constant armed supervision, in an all-male facility housing 1,659 prisoners.
