Hall v. State

738 So. 2d 374, 1999 Fla. App. LEXIS 8273, 1999 WL 410314
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided June 22, 1999·No. No. 97-4610·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

BENTON, J.

Wendell Jermaine Hall argues that his counsel had no right to waive his presence when the state’s motion to compel him to produce hair, blood, and saliva samples was argued, and that his convictions for burglary with battery and for sexual battery should be reversed on the additional ground that a witness the state did not list was allowed to testify at trial over objection. We affirm both convictions. We agree, however, that the habitual violent felony offender sentence the trial court pronounced must be reversed for lack of qualifying predicate offenses. ' We reverse that sentence and remand for resentencing on the sexual battery conviction.

I.

When the trial court heard argument on the state’s motion to compel Mr. Hall to furnish hair, blood, and saliva samples, Mr. Hall was not in attendance. His lawyer purported to waive his right under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.180 to attend. But the right to attend “any pretrial conference,” Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.180(a)(3), is personal to the defendant and can only be waived “by the defendant in writing.” Id. It was therefore error to go forward without Mr. Hall.

We are concerned here, however, not with absence from the trial itself, cf. Jarrett v. State, 654 So.2d 973 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995), but with absence from a pretrial conference at which no evidence was put on. When the rule requiring the defendant’s attendance at pretrial conferences is violated, “it is the constitutional question of whether fundamental fairness has been thwarted which determines whether the error is reversible.” Garcia [376]*376v. State, 492 So.2d 360, 364 (Fla.1986). See Roberts v. State, 510 So.2d 885, 891 (Fla.1987).

The motion to compel could have been decided even without hearing argument of counsel. Nothing else was taken up at the pretrial conference Mr. Hall did not attend. Later, in proceedings in which Mr. Hall participated fully, many of the same points were gone over anew on a motion to suppress the samples. In these circumstances, we conclude that his absence when the motion to compel was argued does not require that the convictions be reversed.

II.

At trial, Lafe Highfill testified that some two years and three months before trial he had taken samples of hair, blood, and saliva from a man who identified himself as Mr. Hall when he presented himself at the Escambia County Jail. Not surprisingly after such a long time, Mr. Highfill could not remember what the man looked like well enough to say whether he was in fact Mr. Hall, then standing trial. Mr. Highfill also testified, however, that he had taken fingerprints from the man identifying himself as Mr. Hall, and kept them with the samples.

The state then called as a witness a 27-year Escambia County Sheriff Department’s employee, presumably a deputy sheriff, with long experience as a fingerprint examiner. Mr. Hall, who represented himself at trial,1 objected that the deputy sheriff had not been listed as a witness. Before the jury heard him, he was placed under oath and testified outside the jury’s presence. After allowing cross-examination uninhibited in any way, the trial court stated that an inadvertent violation of disclosure requirements (set out in Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220) had occurred, but that “the effect of the violation has not materially affected the ability of the defendant to prepare for trial.”

The deputy sheriffs testimony before the jury paralleled his testimony on proffer in every material respect. He testified that the fingerprints Mr. Highfill had taken when he collected the samples were impressions of Mr. Hall’s right index finger. (During a trial recess, Mr. Hall’s fingerprints had been taken at the trial court’s direction for use as exemplars.)

Initially, the state argues that no discovery violation occurred because the prosecutor did not know, until after the trial had begun, that the fingerprint examiner had — and, indeed, the fingerprint examiner did not have until then — information relevant to the offenses of which Mr. Hall was accused. Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220 provides, in part:

(b) Prosecutor’s Discovery Obligation.
(1) Within 15 days after service of the Notice of Discovery, the prosecutor shall serve a written Discovery Exhibit which shall disclose to the defendant and permit the defendant to inspect, copy, ... and photograph the following ...:
(A) a list of the names and addresses of all persons known to the prosecutor to have information that may be relevant to any offense charged or any defense thereto, or to any similar fact evidence to be presented at trial under section 90.404(2), Florida Statutes.

(Emphasis supplied.) The state’s “surprise” at a hole in its case attributable to its failure to prepare adequately cannot, however, excuse the failure to list its witnesses. To rule otherwise would seriously undermine the important purposes Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220 serves. The state is under an obligation to list every witness it calls at trial, as part of [377]*377reciprocal discovery under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220.

The rule contemplates ah exchange of witness lists and requires that every witness who is to be called by either party be listed. “If a defendant elects to participate in discovery, ... the defendant shall furnish to the prosecutor a written list of the names and addresses of all witnesses whom the defendant expects to call as witnesses at the trial or hearing.” Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.220(d)(1). See also Committee Notes to the 1989 Amendment (“The purpose of this change is to ensure reciprocity of discovery.... Under (b)(1) the prosecutor’s obligation to furnish a witness list is conditioned upon the defendant filing a ‘Notice of Discovery.’ ”). The state must list, inter alios, every witness it expects to call at trial.

“When the state calls an unlisted witness, and the defendant asserts a violation of the discovery rule, Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220(b), ... the trial court must conduct a Richardson hearing. See Richardson [v. State], 246 So.2d [771] at 775 [ (Fla.1971) ].” Sims v. State, 681 So.2d 1112, 1114 (Fla.1996). See generally McArthur v. State, 671 So.2d 867 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996).

Richardson states that although the trial court has discretion in determining whether the state’s noncompliance with the discovery rules resulted in harm or prejudice to the defendant, such discretion could be exercised only after the court made an adequate inquiry into all of the surrounding circumstances. At a minimum the scope of this inquiry should cover such questions as whether the state’s violation was inadvertent or willful, whether the violation was trivial or substantial, and, most importantly, whether the violation affected the defendant’s ability to prepare for trial.

State v. Hall, 509 So.2d 1093, 1096 (Fla.1987). The trial court conducted an adequate Richardson hearing in the present case. It found that the violation was inadvertent rather than intentional and “that the violation was of some substance.” The DNA evidence was in fact critical. While the victim identified Mr. Hall as her assailant at trial, previously she had tentatively identified three other persons as the assailant.

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Hall v. State, 738 So. 2d 374, 1999 Fla. App. LEXIS 8273, 1999 WL 410314 (Fla. Ct. App. 1999).

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