Reid v. State

799 So. 2d 394, 2001 WL 1414529
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided November 14, 2001·No. 4D99-3189·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

799 So.2d 394 (2001)

Richard REID, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 4D99-3189.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

November 14, 2001.

*395 A. Randall Haas and Alisa Smith, South Orange, NJ, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jeanine M. Germanowicz, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

DELL, J.

Richard Reid appeals his convictions for two counts of attempted second degree murder and one count of carrying a concealed firearm. He also appeals his sentence of nineteen years in prison with a three-year minimum mandatory sentence. We affirm appellant's convictions, but reverse his sentences on the attempted second degree murder convictions and remand for resentencing.

On April 30, 1997, appellant and his wife,[1] Ingrid Abraham, went to a Sears store in the Broward Mall. After observing his suspicious behavior through a surveillance video camera, security officers began to monitor appellant's movements in the store. Security guards Windes and Woods became concerned that appellant had stolen an item from the store and decided to *396 approach him. The surveillance videotape showed the guards following appellant outside to the parking lot as he and Ms. Abraham walked to their car. As the distance closed between appellant and the security guards, appellant appeared to turn around fully to face the two guards, and to stumble as one guard reached out for him. Appellant dropped to the ground, drew a firearm and shot Windes three times at point blank range, striking him in the throat/jaw area and the abdomen. Appellant then crouched on one knee, aimed directly at the fleeing Woods and fired twice, missing him. According to Windes, as the two guards had first approached appellant, and as appellant was turning around, Windes had identified himself as "Sears security." After the shooting, appellant and Ms. Abraham ran to a car driven by Roosevelt Reid (no relation to appellant), entered the car and left the scene. Appellant and Ms. Abraham then fled to Philadelphia and New York. Appellant was apprehended months later in New York.

The State charged appellant with two counts of attempted first degree murder, one count of felony causing bodily injury, and one count of carrying a concealed firearm. At trial, appellant presented a "selfdefense by mistake" defense. He maintained that he was a concert promoter from Jamaica who believed that he was defending himself against rival concert promoters with whom he had previous altercations.

Appellant testified that prior to the date of the shooting, his wife told him that she had discovered two men breaking into their apartment. She believed that they were part of the rival promotion group because they took promotional materials and were looking for appellant. According to appellant, his wife told him that she had heard three shots fired after the men left. Appellant also testified that his wife had been crying and hysterical. The incident was not reported by appellant's wife, but instead was reported by a neighbor who called 911 after hearing shots. According to the police officer who responded to the call, appellant's wife was very calm when he spoke with her about the incident and wanted to know why the police were there. The officer further testified that Ms. Abraham explained the reported loud noise as coming from a broken plate in the kitchen area.

Appellant raises five points on appeal. He contends first, that attempted second degree murder is not a crime in Florida; second, the trial court abused its discretion when it permitted the State to cross-examine him regarding his wife's unavailability as a witness and to comment on same; third, the trial court abused its discretion when it overruled his objections and motion for mistrial based on the State's questions to certain witnesses and its closing remarks; fourth, the guilty verdicts in counts one and two (attempted second degree murder) and the not guilty verdict on count three (felony causing bodily injury) are "truly inconsistent" and, therefore, counts one and two must be dismissed or reduced; finally, the attempted second degree murder convictions were improperly scored as level ten offenses.

Appellant's first argument that the crime of second degree murder does not exist in Florida is without merit. See Brown v. State, 790 So.2d 389 (Fla.2000). We note that Brown had not issued at the time appellant filed his Initial Brief on Appeal.

In his second point, appellant contends that the trial court erred when it allowed the State to cross-examine him regarding his failure to call his wife, Ingrid Abraham, as a witness at trial, and to argue this point to the jury in closing *397 argument. He argues that Ms. Abraham was equally unavailable to the defense as she was to the State, because she was somewhere in Jamaica and he did not know where she was.

In Jackson v. State, 575 So.2d 181 (Fla. 1991), the supreme court explained:

It is well settled that due process requires the state to prove every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and that a defendant has no obligation to present witnesses. Accordingly, the state cannot comment on a defendant's failure to produce evidence to refute an element of the crime, because doing so could erroneously lead the jury to believe that the defendant carried the burden of introducing evidence. However, this Court has applied a narrow exception to allow comment when the defendant voluntarily assumes some burden of proof by asserting the defenses of alibi, self-defense, and defense of others, relying on facts that could be elicited only from a witness who is not equally available to the state. A witness is not equally available when there is a special relationship between the defendant and the witness.

Id. at 188 (footnote and citations omitted) (emphasis supplied).

Later, in Lawyer v. State, 627 So.2d 564 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993), this court based on Jackson held that:

[T]he prosecution can comment on a defendant's failure to produce a witness only if: (1) the defendant puts on evidence of defenses such as alibi or self defense which reflects the existence of a witness who could give relevant testimony and, (2) that witness has a special relationship with the defendant.

Lawyer, 627 So.2d at 567 (emphasis supplied).

In Hall v. State, 470 So.2d 796 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), this court explained that the term "available" as used in this context

does not refer either to geographical proximity or to the physical or mental capacity of the witness to testify. It has reference, rather, to one party's superior knowledge of the existence and identity and the expected testimony of the witness.... [T]he wife, girlfriend or longtime acquaintance of a party ordinarily will be considered to be available as a witness for that party.

Id. at 798 (emphasis supplied).

Here, appellant relied on self-defense as the justification for his shooting of the two unarmed security guards and, unquestionably, he has a special relationship with Ms. Abraham. In addition to appellant referring to Ms. Abraham as his wife, the record shows that they have a child together. When considered in conjunction with other evidence that Ms. Abraham was present for the entire incident at Sears, accompanied appellant to Philadelphia and New York, returned with him to South Florida and

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Reid v. State, 799 So. 2d 394, 2001 WL 1414529 (Fla. Ct. App. 2001).

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