Davis v. State

459 So. 2d 1120
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided November 20, 1984·No. 82-2394·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

459 So.2d 1120 (1984)

Joe DAVIS, Appellant,
v.
The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 82-2394.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

November 20, 1984.

*1121 Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Elliot H. Scherker, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Richard E. Doran, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before HENDRY, NESBITT and DANIEL S. PEARSON, JJ.

DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

This case was previously before us when the State appealed an order granting the defendant a new trial after he was convicted of the crime of displaying a firearm during the commission of a felony. We affirmed that order in State v. Davis, 411 So.2d 1354 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982) [Davis I], and the defendant was retried and again convicted. In the present appeal, the defendant contends that the charge against him should have been dismissed rather than retried because first, the verdicts in his initial trial finding him not guilty of second-degree murder and guilty of displaying a firearm during the commission of a felony were legally inconsistent so as to bar the entry of a judgment of guilt on, and thus the reprosecution of, the firearm charge; and second, the order granting him a new trial, although ostensibly limiting his relief to that stated, effectively acquitted him of the firearm charge so as to prevent a retrial. His alternative contention is that even if his retrial on the firearm charge was legally permissible, the State was nonetheless collaterally estopped from basing that firearm charge, in whole or in part, on the felony — that is, murder — for which the defendant had been acquitted at his initial trial.

I.

The defendant's first contention comes as no surprise to us, and our rejection of it should come as no surprise to the defendant. In Davis I, the special concurrence predicted that "[b]y omitting further comment on these ostensibly inconsistent verdicts, we [would] invite the defendant's opening salvo on remand to be that under Redondo v. State, 403 So.2d 954 (Fla. 1981), the acquittal on Count One [murder] undermines the conviction on Count Two [possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony]." 411 So.2d at 1355. The defendant proved the concern to be well founded when, upon the return of the case to the trial court, he moved to dismiss the surviving firearm charge on the anticipated Redondo ground, despite the concededly non-binding warning of the special concurring opinion that the conviction on the possession count would survive any Redondo attack. See 411 So.2d at 1355. We now make that dictum come true. First, by failing to cross-appeal the denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal, the defendant waived his right to later challenge that denial by a motion to dismiss further proceedings on double jeopardy grounds. Cf. State v. One (1) 1977 Volkswagen, VIN/XXXXXXXXXX, Florida License "KTV-062," *1122 455 So.2d 434, 436 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984) (on rehearing). Clearly, the defendant, who had moved for a judgment of acquittal on the ground, inter alia, that the verdicts were inconsistent, had properly preserved the point in the trial court, see Ayrado v. State, 431 So.2d 320 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983) (post-trial motions for arrest of judgment or judgment of acquittal sufficient to preserve for appellate review contention that jury verdicts inconsistent), and clearly, he could have raised the point by cross-appeal, see State v. Williams, 444 So.2d 434 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983).

Second, even had the point not been waived, the rule of Redondo does not apply to the verdicts in Davis' first trial because the record of that trial:

"reflects that the jury, instructed on Count Two that the defendant could be found guilty of possession and display of the firearm `while committing or attempting to commit the felony of second degree murder,' was not instructed as to Count One on the offense of attempted second-degree murder. This means that the jury logically could have found that the defendant attempted to commit the felony of second-degree murder so as to support the conviction of possession and display of a firearm during the course of that felony, and still have acquitted the defendant of the crimes of second-degree murder and manslaughter, the only offenses upon which, under the court's instructions, it could have returned a verdict on Count One. Under such circumstances, the conviction on Count Two may stand."
State v. Davis, 411 So.2d at 1355 (Pearson, J., concurring) (emphasis in original; footnote omitted).

See State v. Pitts, 400 So.2d 549 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981), aff'd, 425 So.2d 542 (Fla. 1983); McCray v. State, 397 So.2d 1229 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981), aff'd, 425 So.2d 1 (Fla. 1983); Cooper v. State, 448 So.2d 6 (Fla. 3d DCA) (concurring opinion), rev. dismissed, 450 So.2d 485 (Fla. 1984).

II.

The defendant's second contention, namely, that the trial court's "new trial" order effectively acquitted him of the sole remaining charge, like his contention respecting inconsistent verdicts, is one that could have been raised on cross-appeal when the State appealed the order granting the defendant a new trial. But again, instead of asserting that he had not obtained the full relief to which he was entitled, see Williams v. State, 444 So.2d at 437, the defendant merely chose to defend the propriety of the grant of a new trial. The State again says that the defendant waived his right to assert his claimed "acquittal" as a bar to his retrial when he elected not to seek by cross-appeal our declaration that the order granting him a new trial in fact acquitted him of the firearm charge. We again agree with the State.

The contention that the trial court should have acquitted the defendant of the offense, unlike the contention that the defendant was acquitted of the offense, is one that seeks to collaterally attack an existing judgment of conviction. In order for the trial court to have granted the defendant relief in the instant case, it would have been necessary for it to revisit the order denying the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal entered in the defendant's first trial, an order which had long since become final after the defendant failed to challenge it on the initial appeal.

The defendant argues, however, that his motion to dismiss in the present case does not seek to avoid the impact of a long-since affirmed final judgment of conviction, but in reality seeks to enforce a final judgment of acquittal. He correctly says that what constitutes an "acquittal" is not controlled by the form of the trial court's action, see United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 97 S.Ct. 1349, 51 L.Ed.2d 642 (1977), and goes on to urge that the ruling of the trial court after his initial trial, although in form the grant of the lesser relief of a new trial, in substance was the entry of a judgment of acquittal. While it is true, as the defendant argues, *1123 that the trial judge's order granting a new trial states that he would have granted a judgment of acquittal were it not for the fact that to do so would have precluded the State from appealing, the order otherwise reveals that the judge's inclination to acquit the defendant stemmed from his disbelief of the testimony of the State's principal witness, a seven-year-old girl.

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