Robert v. State
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DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
FOURTH DISTRICT
July Term 2008
ANTHONY ROBERTS,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
No. 4D07-1129
[September 18, 2008]
Corrected Opinion
WARNER, J.
We withdraw our previously issued opinion and substitute the
following in its place.
Appellant challenges his conviction based upon the admission of a
nurse’s inadmissible hearsay testimony relating the victim’s explanation
of how she was attacked. The victim’s statements were not statements
necessary for the purpose of medical diagnosis, and the court erred in
admitting them. Nevertheless, the admission was harmless error where
the victim herself testified to the same facts. We thus affirm appellant’s
conviction. However, we reverse his consecutive mandatory sentences,
because they arise from the same criminal episode.
The state charged the appellant Anthony Roberts with counts of
sexual battery, armed kidnapping, burglary with an assault or battery,
armed robbery, and aggravated assault, the first four of which were
charged as having been committed with a firearm. At trial, the victim
testified that she arrived home to her apartment one evening and opened
her door to turn off her alarm. She stuck her head back outside the door
to pick up a Fedex package when she was confronted by a man (Roberts)
who pointed a gun at her head and forced himself into her apartment.
Once inside, Roberts taped the victim’s wrists and mouth while going
through her wallet. Discovering that she had a checking account, he
removed the tape so she could write him a check for $1400. He then
took her into the bedroom, taped her again, and proceeded to sexually
assault her. After threatening her if she were to go for help, he left.
The victim called her mother and then the police. While the officers
were at her apartment, a check cashing company called to verify the
check that Roberts had taken to the company. The police were able to
apprehend Roberts based upon the identification and thumbprint he left
at the check cashing business.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all charges. The trial court
imposed consecutive life sentences as to the first four counts which the
jury found were committed with a firearm, and a concurrent sentence as
to the aggravated assault charge. From these convictions and sentences,
Roberts appeals.
Roberts claims his conviction should be reversed and remanded for a
new trial because the state was allowed to introduce inadmissible
hearsay testimony. At trial the state called a nurse who interviewed the
victim at the sexual assault treatment center. Defense counsel objected
to the following portion of the nurse’s testimony:
[The victim] told me that she had just gotten in and there
was a package at her door. She bent down to pick up the
package and the assailant was behind her when she stood
up. He went into the apartment with her and closed and
locked the door. He told her to kneel down and to hold her
head down. He asked her for her ATM card and then asked
her to write a check for him which she did for $1400. He
then took her into the bedroom and took her pants and
underwear off and had sexual intercourse with her. She said
he put a pillow case over her head before he had intercourse
with her.
This statement is clearly inadmissible hearsay and not within the
exception for medical treatment. An exception to the hearsay rule,
section 90.803(4), Florida Statutes, provides:
Statements made for purposes of medical diagnosis or
treatment by a person seeking the diagnosis or treatment, . .
. which statements describe medical history, past or present
symptoms, pain or sensations, or the inceptions or general
character of the cause or external source thereof, insofar as
reasonably pertinent to diagnosis or treatment.
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Statements of fault, even if uttered contemporaneously with statements
made for purposes of medical treatment, are not admissible under
section 90.803(4). Torres-Arboledo v. State, 524 So. 2d 403, 407 (Fla.
1988). While statements explicitly accusing the defendant are clearly
statements of fault, the courts have also deemed inadmissible statements
describing the assailant or the manner in which the crime occurred. See
id. (portion of doctor’s testimony that “black people tried to steal his
medallion and shot him” not covered by the exception); Conley v. State,
620 So. 2d 180, 184 (Fla. 1993) (where doctor repeated victim’s
statement to him that she was raped at gunpoint, supreme court held
that the “‘assault at gunpoint’ portion of the statement was inadmissible
because it was not reasonably pertinent to medical treatment.”); Esteban
v. State, 967 So. 2d 1095, 1099 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007) (doctor’s testimony
that victim knew her attacker “constituted hearsay and was not for the
purpose of medical diagnosis”).
Clearly, the testimony at issue does not fall within the exception
provided by section 90.803(4). The nurse did not need to know, for
example, the way in which the assailant gained access to the victim’s
apartment or the facts surrounding the theft in order to conduct the
medical examination. Thus, the court erred in admitting the testimony
at issue except for those statements directly relevant to the act of sexual
intercourse or injuries the victim may have suffered.
What makes this error egregious is the fact that the court actually
had serious doubts about the testimony’s admissibility o n this very
ground. The prosecutor assured the trial court that case law supported
its admissibility. The trial court replied, “You’ve had a lot more of these
trials than I have. If you’re telling me this is supported by the case law, I
don’t see it as being necessarily—it’s certainly not treatment. I’m not
sure if you can categorize it as a diagnosis.” As an officer of the court,
the prosecutor had the obligation not to misrepresent the law to the
court. Here, where the law is so clear, the prosecutor’s argument
violated that principle.
Nevertheless, this is not a reversible error, as the admission of the
nurse’s testimony was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
See
Esteban, 967 So. 2d 1095. We therefore affirm the conviction.
In sentencing Roberts, the court imposed four life sentences for the
counts of sexual battery, armed kidnapping, burglary with an assault or
battery, and armed robbery. Because Roberts carried a firearm when
committing these crimes, the court imposed four consecutive ten-year
mandatory minimum sentences.
Roberts argues that imposing
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consecutive sentences was illegal because all charges were part of one
criminal episode.
The trial court imposed mandatory minimum sentences pursuant to
section 775.087(2)(d), Florida Statutes, which provides:
It is the intent of the Legislature that offenders who actually
possess, carry, display, use, threaten to use, or attempt to
use firearms or destructive devices be punished to the fullest
extent of the law, and the minimum terms of imprisonment
imposed pursuant to this subsection shall be imposed for
each qualifying felony count for which the person is
convicted. The court shall impose any term of imprisonment
provided for in this subsection consecutively to any other
term of imprisonment imposed for any other felony offense.
It is now established that imposition of consecutive mandatory minimum
sentences is prohibited where the convictions arise out of a single
criminal episode during which a firearm is used but not fired. Perry v.
State, 973 So. 2d 1289, 1289-90 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008); Irizarry v. State,
946 So. 2d 555 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006). In sentencing Roberts, the trial
court relied on the supreme court’s holding in State v. Sousa, 903 So. 2d
923 (Fla. 2005). However, in Irizarry, Judge Griffin thoroughly explains
that an analysis of Sousa, Palmer v. State, 438 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1983), State
v. Thomas, 487 So. 2d 1043 (Fla. 1986), and State v. Christian, 692 So.
2d 889 (Fla. 1997), shows that consecutive mandatory minimum
sentences under the statute are not permitted where the defendant does
not fire the weapon. We agree with this analysis.
Conceding that Roberts used but did not discharge a firearm, the
state argues that the crimes which gave rise to the consecutive
mandatory minimum sentences were sufficiently separated in time and
space to constitute separate criminal episodes. “There is . . . no bright
line for determining whether a criminal episode is single for purposes of
evaluating consecutive enhancement sentences.” Wilcher v. State, 787
So. 2d 150, 152 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). “Whether the two offenses were
committed during a single criminal episode is a question of fact.”
Williams v. State, 804 So. 2d 572, 574 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). In resolving
this question of fact, the courts “generally consider[] factors such as the
nature, time, place and number of victims.” Wilcher, 787 So. 2d at 151
(quoting Smith v. State, 650 So. 2d 689, 691 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)).
In Wilcher, the defendant broke into the victim’s apartment, battered
her, moved her about the apartment, prevented her from escaping, and
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raped her. These actions resulted in charges for kidnapping, sexual
battery, and burglary with a battery. This court held that the trial court
erred in imposing three consecutive mandatory minimum sentences for
the three crimes committed in the victim’s apartment as they were not
sufficiently separated by time and space to constitute separate criminal
episodes.
The present facts are similar to the facts in Wilcher.
Roberts
committed the four crimes inside the victim’s apartment over the course
of forty-five minutes to an hour. Like the defendant in Wilcher, Roberts
entered the victim’s apartment, battered her, moved her about the
apartment while robbing her, and ultimately sexually battered her. Only
one victim was involved at one place and over a short period of time.
Under these facts, all crimes arose from a single criminal episode and
should not have resulted in consecutive mandatory sentences.
We therefore affirm the conviction but reverse the sentences imposed
consecutively a n d remand for imposition of concurrent mandatory
sentences.
STEVENSON and MAY, JJ., concur.
*
*
*
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit,
Broward County; Michael G. Kaplan, Judge; L.T. Case No. 05-17456
CF10A.
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Tom Wm. Odom, Assistant
Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, a n d Daniel P.
Hyndman, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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