FIFTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL

STATE OF FLORIDA

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Case No. 5D2023-0850 

LT Case No. 2022-CA-00529

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ROBERT JONES a/k/a OBADYAH 

BARAQ YISRAEL, 

Appellant, 

v.

STATE OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT 

OF CORRECTIONS and FLORIDA 

COMMISSION ON OFFENDER 

REVIEW, 

Appellees. 

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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Sumter County. 

Michelle T. Morley, Judge. 

Robert Jones, a/k/a Obadyah Baraq Yisrael, Bushnell, pro se. 

Alex Arthur Christiano, Assistant General Counsel, Florida 

Commission on Offender Review, Tallahassee, for Appellee. 

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Sheron Wells, Assistant 

Attorney General, Tallahassee, for State of Florida Department of 

Corrections, Appellee. 

July 26, 2024 
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PER CURIAM.

Appellant, Robert Jones a/k/a Obadyah Baraq Yisrael, 

challenges the lower court’s summary denial of his petition for writ 

of habeas corpus, filed under oath, and the dismissal of his motion 

for rehearing of same. 

Appellant is serving a forty-year sentence. In June 1994, he 

entered a plea of guilty to three counts of second-degree murder 

and one count of attempted first-degree murder, all life felonies. 

He was sentenced to forty years for each of the second-degree 

murder charges and five years for the attempted first-degree 

murder charge, all sentences to run concurrently. 

Appellant was released from custody in February 2019, after 

serving approximately twenty-six years of his forty-year sentence. 

Fifteen months later, in May 2020, Appellant was arrested 

during a routine traffic stop and charged with possession of a 

firearm by a convicted felon and unlicensed carrying of a concealed 

firearm. The arresting officer noted Appellant’s convictions in the 

arrest report and that he was “on probation for 2nd Degree 

Murder.” Appellant was returned to state prison. 

In October 2022, Appellant filed a sworn Petition for Writ of 

Habeas Corpus in the lower court, claiming he was being illegally 

detained after wrongfully being found a conditional release 

violator (the “Petition”). He claimed he had been subject to a fortyyear sentence and was released after completing “the overall 40 

years negotiated expired sentence with basic and incentive gain 

time with other credits,” and was not subject to conditional release. 

Appellant attached as exhibits to the Petition copies of the 1994 

judgments and sentences; a calculation of time served, including 

gain time; the May 2020 traffic citation and arrest report; the 

Information filed by the State for the May 2020 arrest; and the 

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Inmate Charge Summary showing he 

was charged with (1) possession of a weapon, and (2) violation of 

probation or community control. 

The lower court summarily dismissed the Petition, finding 

that Appellant failed to demonstrate that he was being illegally 
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detained and failed to attach documents associated with his 

conditional release. Appellant’s motion for rehearing was denied. 

If a complaint—or, as in this case, a petition—for a writ of 

habeas corpus states prima facie grounds for relief, the trial court 

must issue the writ, requiring a response from the detaining 

authority. § 79.01, Fla. Stat. (2022); Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.630(d)(4) and 

(e). 

To show a prima facie case for a writ of habeas corpus, the 

petitioner must allege (1) that the petitioner is currently detained 

in custody; and show (2) “by affidavit or evidence probable cause to 

believe that he or she is detained without lawful authority.” § 

79.01, Fla. Stat. See also Quarles v. State, 56 So. 3d 857, 858 (Fla. 

1st DCA 2011). 

Here, both prongs of the test are met. Appellant alleged facts 

to establish that he is currently detained by the Department of 

Corrections and alleged by his petition—which was under oath—

that he completed his sentence with basic and incentive gain time 

and was not subject to conditional release. 

Because the petition was facially sufficient to state a prima 

facie case for relief, the order of dismissal is REVERSED and the 

cause REMANDED for the entry of an order requiring the 

Department of Corrections to “certify to the cause of the 

detention,” as described by section 79.04, Florida Statutes, and for 

further proceedings by the trial court. 

REVERSED and REMANDED with instructions. 

EISNAUGLE, KILBANE, and MACIVER, JJ., concur. 

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Not final until disposition of any timely and 

authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 

9.331. 

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