Accused of a Crime That Allegedly Happened Years Ago?

You Need Defense Counsel Who Knows How to Fight Back.

Being charged with a crime that prosecutors claim happened years or even decades ago is a disorienting and frightening experience. You may have built a life, a career, and a family since the alleged incident. Now law enforcement is at your door, and the full weight of the state or federal government is being directed at you over events that may date back 10, 20, 30, or 40 years.

This is not a standard criminal defense matter. Defending against a cold-case prosecution requires an attorney who understands the unique legal, investigative, and evidentiary challenges posed by these cases. One who knows how to challenge degraded evidence, track down witnesses, expose the weaknesses in stale investigations, and hold prosecutors to the burden they are required to meet, no matter how many years have passed.

Attorney Mitch Stone of Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. has done exactly that. He has successfully defended clients against cold-case criminal charges in both state and federal court, including a case in which his client faced serious charges for an alleged crime committed 40 years earlier. That client was exonerated. If you are facing charges for something that allegedly happened long ago, Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. is prepared to mount an aggressive, methodical defense on your behalf.

Call (904) 263-5005 or contact us online for a FREE, confidential consultation. We are serving Jacksonville and all of Florida in state and federal courts.

How Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. Defends Cold Case Criminal Charges in Jacksonville & Florida

Independent Forensic Investigation

Modern forensic capabilities can be used by the defense just as aggressively as by the prosecution. Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. works with leading independent forensic experts, including DNA analysts, criminalists, pathologists, and other specialists, to evaluate the evidence the state intends to use and identify flaws, alternative explanations, or outright contradictions.

Challenging the Science Behind Old Evidence

Forensic disciplines that were once considered settled science have come under sustained scrutiny in recent decades. Bite mark analysis, hair microscopy, certain fire investigation methods, and other techniques that were regularly admitted in court during the 1980s, '90s, and early 2000s have since been challenged or discredited. Where the prosecution's case relies on outdated forensic methods, Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. is equipped to challenge the admissibility and reliability of that evidence.

Witness Investigation & Cross-Examination Strategy

Every witness the prosecution intends to call will be thoroughly investigated. Prior statements, criminal histories, potential motives to fabricate or embellish, and the circumstances under which their accounts were obtained all factor into the cross-examination strategy. In cold cases, particularly, the gap between what a witness said close in time to the alleged event and what they say now can be critically significant.

Pretrial Motions & Evidence Suppression

Before trial, Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. files targeted motions aimed at limiting or eliminating the prosecution's most damaging evidence: 

• Motions to suppress
• Motions in limine
• Daubert challenges to expert testimony
• Motions to dismiss where procedural or constitutional violations apply

In cold-case prosecutions, pretrial litigation often shapes the case long before a jury is seated.

Trial & Sentencing

Mitch Stone has tried more than 150 criminal cases to verdict in Florida state and federal courts. He is board-certified in Criminal Trial Advocacy by the Florida Board of Legal Specialization, a distinction held by only a fraction of Florida attorneys, granted under the jurisdiction of the Florida Supreme Court. When a cold case goes to trial, the courtroom experience and preparation he brings are of a different order than what most defense attorneys can offer.

Why Florida Prosecutors Can Charge Cold Cases

Under Florida Statute § 775.15, the state has no statute of limitations on capital felonies, life felonies, or any felony that resulted in the death of another person. That means a charge for murder, sexual battery involving a child under 12, or other qualifying serious offenses can be filed at any point: five years, twenty-five years, or forty years after the alleged offense.

Florida law also expanded cold case prosecution in the area of sexual battery. Certain sexual battery offenses involving minor victims may now be prosecuted at any time, reflecting legislative changes that removed time constraints for those specific charges. Additionally, where DNA evidence is used to identify a suspect, prosecutors may have additional time beyond what the standard statute of limitations would otherwise allow.

The effect of these laws is significant: a person who believed they were beyond the reach of a decades-old allegation may find themselves arrested, charged, and facing the possibility of a life sentence. Law enforcement agencies across Florida, including dedicated cold case units, have made pursuing these prosecutions a priority. Advances in DNA technology, digital forensics, and investigative databases have given prosecutors new tools to revisit evidence that sat dormant for decades.

Knowing what you are facing is the first step. The second is hiring a defense attorney with the experience to fight it.

Why Cold Case Prosecutions Demand Specialized Defense

The Evidence Has Changed & Not Always in the State's Favor

Time affects evidence in ways that cut both ways. Prosecutors may point to newly tested DNA or a long-delayed victim disclosure as the basis for their charges. But time also degrades, destroys, and distorts. Physical evidence may have been mishandled, mislabeled, or lost. Chain-of-custody documentation from decades-old investigations is often incomplete or impossible to reconstruct. Laboratory methods used at the time may no longer be considered scientifically valid.

A defense attorney who understands forensic science and its limitations can challenge the reliability of old evidence, expose gaps in its collection and storage, and retain independent experts to scrutinize what the prosecution presents.

Witnesses Are Unreliable After Decades

Human memory is fallible under the best of circumstances. After 20 or 30 years, eyewitness identifications, victim recollections, and witness accounts are subject to significant distortion. Studies have consistently demonstrated that memory degrades over time and is vulnerable to suggestion, leading questions, and the influence of subsequent information.

Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. investigates witness histories, examines how identifications were made, and scrutinizes the circumstances under which statements were taken, particularly when those statements were given years or decades after the alleged incident.

Your Alibi & Records from That Era May Still Exist

One advantage that defendants in cold case prosecutions sometimes overlook is that contemporaneous records, such as the following: 

• Employment files
• Travel records
• Financial documents
• Phone logs
• Medical records
• Photographs

may still be recoverable and can powerfully corroborate an alibi or contradict the prosecution's timeline. Attorney Mitch Stone and his team conduct thorough, independent investigations to locate and preserve any available evidence from the relevant time period.

Statute of Limitations & Pre-Accusation Delay Defenses

Even where no statute of limitations applies, the law does not give prosecutors an unlimited license to delay. Where substantial pre-accusation delay has caused actual prejudice to the defendant (the loss of witnesses, the destruction of evidence, the fading of memory), a due process challenge may be available. Florida courts have recognized that the purpose of statutes of limitation is to protect individuals from facing prosecution after so much time has passed that mounting a meaningful defense becomes unreasonably difficult.

Additionally, for charges that do carry a limitations period, an experienced attorney can examine whether:

• The clock was properly tolled.
• The prosecution was commenced within the applicable timeframe.
• Any procedural defect in the initiation of charges provides grounds for dismissal.

A Track Record in the Courtroom That Matters

Cold case criminal defense is not a specialty that can be improvised. It demands deep familiarity with both the procedural intricacies of post-delay prosecutions and the trial skills to challenge the state's case before a jury. Mitch Stone has spent over three decades building both.

He served as the 33rd President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America and Florida Trend's Legal Elite. He has served on the faculty of continuing legal education programs, teaching other defense attorneys how to handle complex criminal matters. His prior service as a public defender gave him an inside understanding of how these cases are built and where they are vulnerable.

Most critically, he has stood in court and won for clients facing cold case charges, including a client exonerated after defending against allegations involving events from 40 years prior that carried the prospect of a life sentence.

Cold Case Charges Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. Defends in Jacksonville & Throughout Florida

Cold case prosecutions in Florida most commonly involve charges with no statute of limitations or expanded limitations periods, including murder and homicide, sexual battery and related sexual offenses, felonies involving the death of the victim, child abuse and exploitation charges, and federal offenses where parallel federal limitations rules apply. Both state court matters and federal prosecutions are within the scope of Mitchell A. Stone, P.A.'s practice. Mitch Stone is admitted before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Call (904) 263-5005 or contact Mitchell A. Stone, P.A. online to schedule your free consultation with a board-certified criminal defense attorney.