Sebastiano v. State

14 So. 3d 1160, 2009 Fla. App. LEXIS 8790, 2009 WL 1675706
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 17, 2009
Docket4D07-1614
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 14 So. 3d 1160 (Sebastiano v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sebastiano v. State, 14 So. 3d 1160, 2009 Fla. App. LEXIS 8790, 2009 WL 1675706 (Fla. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

WARNER, J.

In appealing his conviction for grand theft, the appellant raises multiple issues of error. Only three issues merit discussion. The appellant claims that he could not be convicted of the crime of grand theft in excess of $100,000 because the theft consisted of two separate transactions each of which was less than $100,000, and the information did not allege that they were part of a scheme or course of conduct. We hold that he waived the defect in the information by not raising it to the trial court. Second, he contends that the state did not prove an intent to steal, but we conclude that the state presented sufficient evidence to support a felonious intent. Finally, he maintains that the *1162 court ordered restitution in excess of the victim’s loss. However, not only did he agree to the restitution amount, but the evidence did not show that the victim received excessive compensation. Therefore, there is no error. We affirm.

The appellant, Sebastiano, convinced the victim, Sclafani, to purchase six lots in a subdivision for $90,000. Sebastiano’s company, Three Golden Holdings, together with Leo Cueto and Joan Rogers, owned lots in the subdivision. Sclafani wrote a check to Sebastiano for $90,000, and Se-bastiano told him that he would receive warranty deeds to the lots within two weeks. When the deeds did not arrive, Sebastiano gave Sclafani various excuses. Sebastiano then interested Sclafani in a seventh lot, for which Sclafani gave Se-bastiano a check for $37,000, with a notation of the lot and block number. He told Sclafani that the lot could be “flipped” for $75,000 immediately. Nine months later, and after multiple excuses, Sebastiano gave Sclafani seven quit-claim deeds to the lots, even though he had promised warranty deeds.

Sclafani discovered that of the original six lots owned by Three Golden Holdings, five had been transferred to Cueto several days after Sclafani had given the $90,000 check to Sebastiano. However, Sebastiano received all of the money himself, Sclafa-ni’s check having been made out to Sebast-iano personally. Sclafani called Sebasti-ano, who promised to correct the situation, but he never did. Nearly a year after he had given Sebastiano the first check, Scla-fani contacted law enforcement which led to Sebastiano’s arrest for grand theft and organized fraud.

As part of its case, the state showed that another individual actually owned the lot for which Sclafani paid $37,000. Sebasti-ano had tried to purchase the lot for $15,000 around the time that Sclafani gave him the check for the same lot. Sebasti-ano could not complete the purchase and a real estate friend of Sebastiano’s actually purchased the lot. Sebastiano did not own the lot when he transferred it to Sclafani.

On the defense side, Leo Cueto, Sebasti-ano’s partner in the subdivision, testified. He and Sebastiano owned many lots together. The lots for which Sclafani paid $90,000 were transferred to Cueto to protect them from a potential judgment against Three Golden Holdings. He and Sebastiano agreed that they both continued to own 50% each of the lots, but from the recorded deeds it appeared that Cueto owned them.

Sebastiano testified that he had found the subdivision lots which were owned by TransAmerica Corporation. He discovered that a judgment had been recorded against the lots but it would expire, if not renewed in September 2005. He purchased the lots from TransAmerica and the next day sold them to Sclafani. He intended to give Sclafani a quitclaim deed to the lots when the judgment expired, some eleven months later. As to the lot Sclafani purchased for $37,000, Sebastiano claimed that Sclafani had written down the wrong lot on the check. When he discovered the mistake, he tried to offer a corrective deed or a refund to Sclafani, but he refused.

The trial judge heard the evidence in a non-jury trial. Based upon the evidence presented, he found Sebastiano guilty on both charges. At sentencing, Sebastiano agreed to a restitution of $133,101.69, which represented the $127,000 that Scla-fani paid plus his attorney’s fees. The court sentenced Sebastiano to fifteen years in prison on the organized fraud count and ten years of probation on the grand theft count. When the state suggested that sentencing on both charges could violate double jeopardy, the state chose to pro *1163 ceed on the grand theft charge, and the court sentenced Sebastiano to fifteen years’ imprisonment followed by ten years’ probation.

Sebastiano moved to mitigate his sentence shortly after sentencing. He also moved to correct an illegal sentence. As to mitigation, Sebastiano argued for a lesser sentence, because he had already paid the restitution in full. As to the illegal sentence, he argued that Sclafani had received one lot, for which Sebastiano should have been given credit on'restitution. At the hearing Sclafani agreed to transfer the lot back to Sebastiano. The trial court denied the motion to correct, concluding that Sebastiano had not shown the value of the lot such that it could be deducted from the restitution amount. However, the court did mitigate his sentence to ten years in prison followed by probation. Se-bastiano appeals.

Sebastiano argues for the first time in his initial brief that the court could not adjudicate him guilty of grand theft of property in excess of $100,000, because the evidence at trial proved that the theft consisted of two separate transactions, neither of which exceeded $100,000. The state, on the other hand, notes that the conduct constituted a continuing “scheme or course of conduct,” as is evident from the trial court’s finding him guilty of organized fraud, which also requires an ongoing scheme. Sebastiano responds that the information did not charge a “scheme or course of conduct.” See State v. Davis, 890 So.2d 1242 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005). We hold that the issue was not properly preserved, because it involves a technical defect in the information, which could have been corrected had it been properly raised at trial. Further, the evidence showed that Sebastiano engaged in a scheme or course of conduct in which he managed to take more than $100,000 from Sclafani.

The theft statute provides in section 812.012(10)(c), Florida Statutes (2005), that the value of separate properties involved in thefts committed in “one scheme or course of conduct” may be aggregated in determining the grade of the offense. Sebasti-ano was charged with both organized fraud and grand theft. Count I, the organized fraud count, charged:

Organized Fraud-$50,000 or More
October 20, 2004 through August 17, 2005, James Sebastiano did engage in a systematic, ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud one or more persons ....

Count II, the first-degree grand theft count, charged:

October 20, 2004, through August 17, 2005, James Sebastiano did unlawfully and knowingly obtain or use or endeavor to obtain or use the property of another, to wit: U.S. Currency, the property of Joseph Sclafani as owner or custodian, of the value of $100,000 or more.

Sebastiano was charged and tried on both counts, and the trial court returned a guilty verdict on both, but later determined that Sebastiano could not be convicted of both because it would be a double jeopardy violation. Pizzo v. State,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
14 So. 3d 1160, 2009 Fla. App. LEXIS 8790, 2009 WL 1675706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sebastiano-v-state-fladistctapp-2009.