Photos of Holliday and Buncome
Octavius Holliday and Melina Buncome will head to a runoff Nov. 3 for Duval County Court Group 13 Judge.

A prosecutor and public defender vying for Duval County Court Group 13’s judicial seat will head to a November runoff election after a three-candidate race for the bench.

Octavius Holliday, the director of the human rights division with the State Attorney’s Office under Melissa Nelson, garnered the most votes, with 37% of the vote, while Melina Buncome, a longtime public defender, earned 33% during Tuesday’s primary.

Marquita Green, a magistrate in Duval County, will not move forward to the November general election.

The bench was vacated after Judge Mose Floyd retired.

County courts, known as the “people’s courts,” are limited jurisdiction courts responsible for both criminal and civil matters, including handling citizen disputes, misdemeanor criminal cases, civil contract issues, traffic violations, and family and probate court.

Holliday has worked as a prosecutor and in criminal defense, family law, civil work, and in a private practice, he said in an interview. He’s active with 100 Black Men of America and serves as president of the local Theta Phi chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. 

At the State Attorney’s Office, his cases mostly involve elder abuse or exploitation, while also serving on both grand jury and officer-involved shooting review panels.

Buncome, a public defender since 1997, currently serves as the director of the Problem Solving Courts in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, overseeing mental health, veterans treatment court, and adult drug cases in Nassau, Clay, and Duval counties. 

Buncome said she’s handled cases from homicide to misdemeanor juvenile, and previously had a private practice doing civil law. She has also won the Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award.

“She worked tirelessly, listened to the people of our community, and never took a single vote for granted,” a spokesperson for Buncome said in an email Tuesday night. “But the work is not finished. Melina will take that same energy, commitment, and perseverance into November 4.”

Molly Farrar is a Report for America corps member and The Florida Trib’s Jacksonville municipal watchdog reporter. She can be reached at molly.farrar@floridatrib.org.

Molly Farrar covers accountability and policy in the consolidated city-county government of Jacksonville for The Florida Trib. Before joining us as a Report for America corps member, Farrar worked as a staff writer for Boston.com with the Boston Globe, WHDH Channel 7, and as a freelance reporter in the Greater Boston area covering local politics. Her news and transportation reporting won regional awards, and Farrar was selected as a First Amendment Institute Fellow with the New England First Amendment Coalition. Her investigative work on criminal justice and prisons was published in GBH News and The Intercept. Her stories have also appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Boston Globe. Farrar graduated from Boston University with a degree in journalism and cello performance, where she also served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Free Press, the independent student newspaper. You can reach Molly at molly.farrar@floridatrib.org.