King v. State

355 So. 2d 831
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided February 21, 1978·No. 76-2093·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

355 So.2d 831 (1978)

Dale James KING, Appellant,
v.
The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 76-2093.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

February 21, 1978.
Rehearing Denied March 22, 1978.

*832 Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Thomas G. Murray, Asst. Public Defender and Larry Bessen, Legal Intern, for appellant.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen. and Arthur Joel Berger, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before HAVERFIELD, C.J., and HENDRY, J., and DREW, E. HARRIS (Ret.), Associate Judge.

DREW (Ret.), Associate Judge.

During the early morning in September, 1974, a shotgun was fired into a crowd of people on N.W. 96th Street in Miami. Two people were killed, two injured. April 1975 appellant Dale James King was apprehended in Minnesota, placed under arrest there and subsequently extradited to face trial in Dade County. King and two others, Phillip Brannon Courtney and James Randolph Jacobs, were indicted jointly by the Grand Jury on the 4th of May for the murders of the two individuals and for the attempted murder of the two who were wounded. King was tried separately, found guilty on all four charges and, upon recommendation of the jury and the concurrence of the trial judge, sentenced to life imprisonment on the murder charges and to 15 years imprisonment on the attempted murder charges. This appeal is from that sentence and judgment.

Appellant argues five points on this appeal. The first point is that the court erred in excusing the State's failure to comply with the discovery demands of the defendant with respect to two witnesses and a photograph.

Fla.R.Crim.P. Rule 3.220, provides:

"(a) Prosecutor's Obligation.

*833 (1) After the filing of the indictment or information, within fifteen days after written demand by the defendant, the prosecutor shall disclose to defense counsel and permit him to inspect, copy, test and photograph, the following information and material within the State's possession or control:
(i) The names and addresses of all persons known to the prosecutor to have information which may be relevant to the offense charged, and to any defense with respect thereto.

* * * * * *

(xi) Any tangible papers or objects which the prosecuting attorney intends to use in the hearing or trial and which were not obtained from or belonged to the accused."

The violation of this rule, for obvious reasons, does not in itself require a reversal of a conviction by an appellate court. Harm or prejudice to the defendant which results from a violation of the rule by the State, or a failure of the State to furnish the name of a witness or witnesses known by the State to have information relative to the offense charged, or to any defense of the defendant with respect thereto, which results in harm or prejudice to the defendant does require a reversal.[1]

While the trial court has discretion to make the determination of harm or prejudice, such discretion can be exercised only after it has made an adequate inquiry into all of the surrounding circumstances and this fact must appear in the record to enable the appellate court to properly assess the correctness of the trial court's ruling.[2] The Richardson case[3] sets forth the factors which the trial court must consider in exercising its discretion with respect to a violation of such rule, as follows:

"... [w]hether the [state's] violation was inadvertent or willful, whether the violation was trivial or substantial, and most importantly, what effect, if any, did it have upon the ability of the defendant to properly prepare for trial." Richardson, supra, at 775.

King, on May 10, 1976, pleaded not guilty and invoked discovery under the rule. Written demands for discovery were filed May 13th and June 1st. Five weeks later the State filed its response. The trial commenced the following October 5th. In his opening argument, the attorney for the State said it would prove that King, with two other people, drove by the location of the homicide and that King fired the fatal shot from the car. The defense, in its opening statement, said the shot was not fired by King but probably by two named individuals who, earlier in the evening, fought with and threatened to kill some of the people at the party.

The State presented two witnesses, Ms. Davis and Mr. Jorge Barragan, whose names did not appear on the list of witnesses furnished by the State. Their testimony placed King in a white car with others at or near the scene of the shooting on the evening of the homicide. After objection by the defense because of the failure of the State to furnish their names as witnesses prior to trial, and a short interruption of the trial to allow defense counsel to confer with the witnesses, such objections were overruled and they were permitted to testify. King argues here that the only "inquiry" as set forth in Richardson (supra, note 1) was the following statement when the objection to Barragan's testimony was made, viz:

"THE COURT: But I find none that I have heard about, the delay has been prejudice (sic) to you, but it doesn't do me any good to discuss outside of the presence of the reporter how we stand on witnesses, you know, and you make me think we are in good shape to go."

*834 We hold that the inquiry by the trial judge was adequate under the circumstances to meet the requirement of Richardson. Failure to comply with the rule should not result in the exclusion of relevant evidence from the jury unless no other remedy suffices.[4] Here the trial was interrupted and defense allowed to interview these witnesses. After interviewing the witnesses, defense counsel did not request any additional remedy nor did he demonstrate any prejudice from the failure to list the witnesses originally. Moreover, as to Ms. Davis, the record shows that the defense knew she was an eye witness who claimed to be able to identify King as one of the perpetrators of the crime some three months before the trial at a lineup.

"Once again the state may have violated a Rule. But when that fact was discovered, the trial judge properly denied the request to exclude the witness or to recess the trial to enable defense counsel to obtain a ballistics expert of his own. Seeking a less drastic remedy, he recessed the court to allow the defense counsel to depose the expert before he was called to the stand. Since the defense should have been aware of the state's proposed proof by reason of information already known to it, the trial judge acted within the scope of his discretion to remedy whatever prejudice might have resulted from the state's breach." Cooper v. State, supra at 1138-1139.
"The reason behind the rule requiring exchange of witness lists incident to discovery is to prevent prejudicial surprise. [citations omitted]
"Certainly the rule has a laudable purpose, and should be complied with. However, when, as here, the opposing party is fully acquainted with the witness and with his anticipated testimony, thus where there can be no surprise, and where the necessity for calling the witness occurs as a result of unforeseen circumstances which developed during the trial (or immediately preceding the trial, Bell v. State, [(Fla. 2d DCA 1974) 287 So.2d 717,] supra) and where it is apparent that no prejudice can result as a result of the failure to list the witness, then, under such circumstances, the rule should not be blindly followed.

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King v. State, 355 So. 2d 831 (Fla. Ct. App. 1978).

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Related

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477 So. 2d 17 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1985)
Lindsey v. State
432 So. 2d 635 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1983)
King v. Wainwright
489 F. Supp. 587 (S.D. Florida, 1980)
Courtney v. State
358 So. 2d 1107 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1978)
Jacobs v. State
358 So. 2d 1110 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1978)