Weeks after a jury rejected the death penalty for Jason Banegas in the murder of Hollywood Police Officer Yandy Chirino, the 23-year-old is asking a judge to vacate his guilty plea on the grounds that he was “coerced” into doing so by his trial attorneys.
Banegas, 23, pleaded guilty to shooting Chirino, 28, in the city’s Emerald Hills neighborhood on Oct. 18, 2021, as the two struggled over a gun. Banegas told investigators he was trying to shoot himself when he shot Chirino in the face.
Banegas filed a motion to vacate his guilty plea on Wednesday, asserting that he would not have confessed if he weren’t misled and pressured by his trial attorneys with the Office of Regional Counsel.
In the motion filed by attorneys Mitchell Polay and H. Dohn Williams, who did not previously represent him, Banegas argued his attorneys told him “the State would target (his) family for deportation” if he maintained he was innocent and that he would be put to death quickly given Florida’s increasing pace in executions.
Jury rejects death penalty for confessed Hollywood cop killer
The guilty plea was entered in October without any agreement on a sentence from the state, which still sought the death penalty, and meant Banegas was forgoing any argument of justifiable homicide. In December, the jury rejected the death penalty, choosing instead a life sentence.
The motion also asserts that Banegas expressed to his attorneys wanting to vacate his plea before the penalty phase began on Dec. 9 and that Banegas’s sister also asked his attorneys about the possibility of withdrawing the plea but “was told that it was too late.”
Polay told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he and co-counsel Williams were brought into the case solely to represent Banegas on the motion to vacate the plea because it alleges ineffective counsel by Banegas’s current legal team.
“They would have a conflict of interest representing him for that purpose, so we were appointed as conflict-free counsel,” he said.
Joseph Kimok, one of Banegas’s trial attorneys, could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for March 6.
At a hearing on Monday, Banegas’s trial attorneys asked to withdraw from representing him, which the judge denied, State Attorney’s Office spokesperson Paula McMahon said in an email to the Sun Sentinel. The judge also denied a motion Banegas filed himself claiming those attorneys were ineffective.
Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra has given Banegas until next week to decide if he will keep his same trial attorneys for sentencing, represent himself or if he will hire an attorney at his own expense, McMahon said.
Banegas’s sentencing hearing that was initially scheduled for February has been moved to April.