Gonzalez v. State

571 So. 2d 1346, 1990 WL 154803
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided October 16, 1990·No. 89-1823, 89-1754, 89-1748 and 89-1747·Published·Cited by 28 cases

Opinion

571 So.2d 1346 (1990)

Ramon Efrain GONZALEZ, Alexandro Estremera, Luis Felipe Gonzalez, and Rodrigo Vargas, Appellants,
v.
The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Nos. 89-1823, 89-1754, 89-1748 and 89-1747.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

October 16, 1990.
Rehearing Denied January 15, 1991.

*1347 Barry T. Shevlin, Miami, for appellant Alexandro Estremera.

Rene A. Sotorrio, Coconut Grove, for appellant Ramon Efrain Gonzalez.

Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Robert Burke, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant Rodrigo Vargas.

Musto Zaremba and Rosenthal and Anthony C. Musto, Sp. Asst. Public Defender, for appellant Luis Felipe Gonzalez.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Roberta G. Mandel, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before BASKIN, JORGENSON and GODERICH, JJ.

JORGENSON, Judge.

Appellants, in consolidated appeals, seek review of their convictions for attempted trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. We affirm.

In a reverse sting operation, Detective Carlos Zayas arranged through a confidential informant to sell five kilos of cocaine to Rodrigo Vargas. After several taped telephone conversations with Vargas, Zayas and Vargas agreed to meet at X-tra Supermarket to "make the deal." Detective Zayas arrived at X-tra wearing a body bug. Other officers videotaped the transaction.

*1348 At the supermarket, Vargas was accompanied by Ramon Gonzalez, Luis Gonzalez, and Alexandro Estremera. Zayas met Vargas near the entrance of the supermarket; they then met and spoke with Luis Gonzalez. Vargas and Luis Gonzalez took Zayas to a black BMW occupied by Estremera and Ramon Gonzalez. Zayas asked to see the money, and Ramon Gonzalez showed him a box filled with money. After some discussion between Zayas and the defendants, Ramon Gonzalez pulled out a number of twenty-dollar bills from the box to prove that the money was not counterfeit. Next, Detective Zayas asked who would test the cocaine. Estremera said that he would test it, and he and Zayas walked to the undercover vehicle. Later, they were joined by Vargas and Luis Gonzalez. In the undercover car, Estremera tested a kilo of cocaine and indicated that he liked it and would buy the full five kilos. Luis Gonzalez took possession of the kilo. The remainder of the transaction was to have been completed at an apartment. Estremera, Vargas, and Luis Gonzalez were arrested as they walked back to their car; Ramon Gonzalez had remained in the car and was arrested there.

The defendants were tried jointly for trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. Defense counsel for all defendants stipulated to the voir dire of prospective jurors in the absence of the court. Additionally, Ramon Gonzalez consented to representation during voir dire by counsel for a codefendant while his attorney was out of town.

At trial, the videotape, the audio tapes, and a transcript of the tapes translated from Spanish into English were admitted into evidence. The transcript referred to "four bad guys" and "a bad man." The trial court granted a defense motion to excise the statements; however, the transcript was admitted in its entirety. Defendants raised the defense of entrapment at trial. Over objection, the trial court gave the new standard jury instruction on entrapment[1] and informed the jury that the defendant has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that his criminal conduct occurred as a result of entrapment. The court further instructed the jury that the state bore the burden of proving all material elements of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Also, over objection, the court defined "purchase" as part of the instruction on trafficking. Finally, several objections were made to the prosecutor's closing remarks. Ultimately, all defendants were found guilty of attempted trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.

Appellants raise several issues on appeal. After a careful review of the record, however, we conclude that the convictions and sentences must be affirmed.

SUFFICIENCY OF CONSPIRACY EVIDENCE

Appellants contend that the evidence was insufficient to support a conspiracy conviction. We disagree. "[D]irect proof of an agreement is not necessary to establish a conspiracy; the jury is free to infer from all the circumstances surrounding and accompanying the act that the common purpose to commit the crime existed." Horner v. State, 558 So.2d 138, 139 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990), citing Herrera v. State, 532 So.2d 54, 58 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988). The jury is also free to consider the defendants' presence at the place of the sale in determining their guilt. Herrera, 532 So.2d at 58. We conclude that Zayas's testimony, the videotape, and the body bug tape were sufficient evidence from which the jury could infer both a common purpose to commit the crime of trafficking and an intention to do so. See Herrera (where three individuals were present at scene of prearranged drug sale and where all participated in testing of cocaine for sale, evidence was sufficient to support conspiracy). We further conclude that there was independent evidence of a conspiracy involving all four defendants apart from the statements made by codefendants Vargas, Estremera, *1349 and Ramon Gonzalez. Therefore, Luis Gonzalez's contention that these statements were improperly considered against him is without merit. Romani v. State, 542 So.2d 984 (Fla. 1989).

ENTRAPMENT

The second point on appeal is whether the standard jury instruction on entrapment that tracks the language of Florida's newly enacted entrapment statute unconstitutionally relieves the state of its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt all of the elements of the offenses charged. This is an issue of first impression.

Florida's entrapment statute provides that:

(1) A law enforcement officer, a person engaged in cooperation with a law enforcement officer, or a person acting as an agent of a law enforcement officer perpetrates an entrapment if, for the purpose of obtaining evidence of the commission of a crime, he induces or encourages and, as a direct result, causes another person to engage in conduct constituting such crime by employing methods of persuasion or inducement which create a substantial risk that such crime will be committed by a person other than one who is ready to commit it.
(2) A person prosecuted for a crime shall be acquitted if he proves by a preponderance of the evidence that his criminal conduct occurred as a result of an entrapment. The issue of entrapment shall be tried by the trier of fact.

§ 777.201, Fla. Stat. (1987).

Before section 777.201 was enacted, the judicially created defense of entrapment consisted of two independent, coexisting elements. The first element, the "traditional" or "subjective" standard, defined entrapment as "law enforcement conduct which implants in the mind of an innocent person the disposition to commit the alleged crime, and hence induces its commission... . Under this traditional formulation, the defense of entrapment is limited to those defendants who were not predisposed to commit the crime induced by government actions." Cruz v. State, 465 So.2d 516, 521 (Fla.), cert. denied, 473 U.S. 905, 105 S.Ct. 3527, 87 L.Ed.2d 652 (1985). The second, independent, "objective" standard for assessing entrapment recognized that "when official conduct inducing crime is so egregious as to impugn the integrity of a court tha

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Gonzalez v. State, 571 So. 2d 1346, 1990 WL 154803 (Fla. Ct. App. 1990).

571 So. 2d 1346 (Gonzalez v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

STATE OF FLORIDA v. JEROD HARPER
254 So. 3d 479 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2018)
Jimenez v. State
715 So. 2d 1038 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1998)
Vazquez v. State
700 So. 2d 5 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1997)
Newman v. State
676 So. 2d 40 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1996)
Smith v. State
634 So. 2d 205 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
Daniels v. State
634 So. 2d 187 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
State v. Sargent
617 So. 2d 1115 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1993)
Gonzalez v. State
599 So. 2d 778 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)
Lewis v. State
597 So. 2d 842 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)
Ramirez v. State
593 So. 2d 1236 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)
Herrera v. State
594 So. 2d 275 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1992)
State v. Thinh Thien Pham
595 So. 2d 85 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)
Simmons v. State
590 So. 2d 442 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Wilson v. State
589 So. 2d 1036 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Strickland v. State
588 So. 2d 269 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
State v. Munoz
586 So. 2d 515 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Rouse v. State
583 So. 2d 1111 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Garcia v. State
582 So. 2d 88 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Herrera v. State
580 So. 2d 653 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)