Owens v. State

792 So. 2d 650, 2001 WL 984777
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided August 29, 2001·No. 4D99-3992·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

792 So.2d 650 (2001)

Ray OWENS, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 4D99-3992.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

August 29, 2001.

*652 Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Marcy K. Allen, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Steven R. Parrish, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING AND CLARIFICATION

DONNER, AMY STEELE, Associate Judge.

We deny the motion for rehearing, but grant the motion for clarification withdrawing our prior opinion and substituting the following in its place.

Ray Owens, appellant, appeals his conviction in lower court case 98-4826 and his sentences in lower court cases 98-4769 and 98-4826. This court has jurisdiction. In both cases, appellant was found guilty by a jury of both the sale and possession of cocaine.

Prior to trial, the state offered appellant a plea of four years in state prison as to both cases. Appellant rejected the offer upon advice of counsel and chose to proceed to trial. In case 98-4826, the state charged appellant by amended information with the sale and possession of cocaine. At trial, the state presented four witnesses (two Drug Enforcement Agency agents, Detective Roane and Detective Caudell; a confidential informant; and a crime lab technician). The state also submitted two videotapes of appellant selling narcotics to the informant. On one videotape, the informant identified appellant by his first name. Roane compared a picture of appellant with the videotape and confirmed appellant's identification. The videotape also shows appellant approaching the informant's vehicle and placing his arm into that vehicle. The informant bought $200.00 of crack cocaine from appellant.

In case 98-4826, the trial court sentenced appellant as a habitual felony offender for both counts. As to count I, sale of cocaine, the trial court sentenced appellant to ten years in prison. As to count II, possession of cocaine, the trial court sentenced appellant to a concurrent sentence of five years.

In case 98-4769, the state charged appellant with the sale and possession of cocaine. As to count I, sale of cocaine, the trial court sentenced appellant as a habitual *653 felony offender to 30 years in prison. As to count II, possession of cocaine, the trial court sentenced appellant to a concurrent sentence of 5 years. These sentences were to run concurrent to the sentences imposed in case 98-4826.

Appellant timely filed one notice of appeal for both cases. Appellant raises as error the following: (1) ineffective assistance of counsel during plea negotiations; (2) abuse of discretion by the trial court in limiting appellant's cross-examination of the informant; and (3) error on the part of the trial court in sentencing appellant as a habitual felony offender as to count II, possession of cocaine, in case 98-4826.

This appeal is properly before this court because the conflicts in this case are apparent on the face of the record. Therefore, this appeal was properly brought on direct appeal rather than by a motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. See Blanco v. Wainwright, 507 So.2d 1377 (Fla.1987).

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

In case 98-4826, appellant contends that he did not receive effective assistance of counsel because counsel failed to properly investigate the case by not viewing a damaging videotape prior to trial. In case 98-4769, appellant contends that counsel's failure to properly investigate case 98-4826 prejudiced him so that he rejected a package plea offer which encompassed both cases. The videotape depicted appellant engaging in a drug transaction with the informant. Had defense counsel informed him of this videotape, he would have accepted the plea offer of four years as his guilt was evident from the videotape. Appellant further argues that a conflict of interest arose when defense counsel essentially admitted his ineffectiveness during the hearing on his motion for a new trial in case 98-4826. That hearing occurred prior to the two sentencing hearings. Appellant argues that once the conflict was brought to the trial court's attention, the trial court had to investigate and appoint conflict-free counsel and its failure to do so entitles him to a new sentencing hearing in both cases.

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), sets forth the two-prong test to determine whether an accused received ineffective assistance of counsel:

First, the defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable.

Id., 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.

The Supreme Court further held that the appropriate test for determining prejudice under the second prong requires that the

defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.

Id., 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. Regarding the two-prong test itself, the Court stated that a court should not treat the test as a mechanical set of rules.

See Steel v. State, 684 So.2d 290, 291 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) ("A claim that misinformation supplied by counsel induced a defendant to reject a favorable plea offer can constitute actionable ineffective assistance *654 of counsel"); Rutherford v. State, 727 So.2d 216 (Fla.1998).

At trial in case 98-4826, the state introduced the damaging videotape into evidence without objection. Prior to playing the tape for the jury, the state requested a brief recess. At that time, defense counsel, the informant, and the state, viewed the tape outside the jury's presence. Prior to publication, defense counsel did not inform the trial court that he had not seen the tape before that day. Instead, defense counsel agreed on the record that the tape depicted the day of the drug transaction. The informant then proceeded, without objection, to explain the events depicted on the tape as it played for the jury.

After the state published the tape and submitted Roane's testimony, defense counsel proffered for the record that he did not get a copy of the tape and view it prior to its publication. Defense counsel explained that he did not object to the admittance of the tape into evidence because he did not think the state committed any discovery violation. Defense counsel suspected that the error was due to either himself or his secretary, but it was also possible that the state gave his secretary the wrong tape. He stated for the record that he wished to look into the matter, but he neither requested a Richardson[1] hearing, a continuance, nor a recess.

In his written motion for a new trial, defense counsel argued that a flaw or error occurred in the discovery process which he did not discover until the day of the trial.

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Owens v. State, 792 So. 2d 650, 2001 WL 984777 (Fla. Ct. App. 2001).

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