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Tampa Man Granted Bail After Slaying Conviction Overturned

File Photo

James Behanna looks over at his attorney Ron Cacciatore in the file photograph taken in Feb. 2006.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2007

TAMPA - Without an argument from prosecutors, a circuit judge this morning granted bail for James Behanna, whose manslaughter conviction last year was overturned by an appellate court Friday.

Judge Daniel Sleet said he had read the defense's motion for bail and all the accompanying paperwork. Behanna's case was the first heard on a busy Monday morning docket. The hearing lasted less than two minutes.

Behanna's mother, Margaret, said she was heading to the jail today to post bail.

"I'm so happy," she said after the hearing. "This has been a horrible ordeal, but it has brought our family closer together. We believe in James. Thank God for the 2nd DCA."

The 2nd District Court of Appeal granted Behanna's request for a new trial and reversed his 15-year prison sentence. He was convicted of fatally stabbing 21-year-old Robert Mears of Tampa on Dec. 7, 2005.

Prosecutors said Behanna confronted a drunk and aggressive Mears in the parking lot of his wife's law firm and asked him to leave. Mears, according to testimony, chest butted Behanna, threw him to the ground and slammed him against a post before walking away.

Behanna walked after Mears, he said, to point him out to police who had been called. Mears turned on Behanna, grabbed him by the neck and threatened to kill him.

That's when Behanna pulled a pocketknife and stabbed Mears, prosecutors said.

During the trial, evidence that Mears had beaten a woman and his roommate minutes before his first encounter with Behanna was excluded because Behanna wasn't aware of Mear's actions when he encountered him in the parking lot.

The appellate court ruled that the jury should have been presented that evidence.

"For Behanna to have a fair trial on his self-defense claim under the circumstances here, he is entitled to have the jury know that Mears had been engaged in a violent encounter with two people just minutes earlier," wrote Judge Morris Silberman on behalf of a three-judge panel.

With no criminal record, Behanna, 38, should have been allowed to introduce the entire series of events leading to his encounter with Mears, the appellate court decision states.

Defense attorney Jim Felman said after the hearing today that he had not had any discussions with prosecutors about a new trial. A status hearing is set for Feb. 5.

Felman said he plans to bring up the Stand Your Ground law, adopted by the Florida Legislature in 2005, as a defense. The legislation states that a person does not have to exhaust all avenues of retreat before using deadly force to confront a threatening individual.

"It was brought up in the first trial," Felman said. "This is a Stand Your Ground case."

A spokeswoman for the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office said after the hearing that prosecutors had not decided whether to retry the case or offer a plea deal.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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