RAFAEL FERNANDEZ, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
Appellant's conviction for conspiracy to commit a felony and grand larceny through staged automobile accident fraud was affirmed; no Bruton error resulted from joinder, and admission of accident report was proper or harmless.
A defendant's conviction for conspiracy and grand larceny in a staged accident scheme is affirmed where no prejudicial Bruton error resulted from joinder and any evidentiary error was harmless.
[1] A staged automobile collision is not an 'accident' within the meaning of Fla. …
Previewing 1 of 1 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant was convicted by jury of conspiracy to commit a felony and grand larceny after staging an automobile accident and making fraudulent insuranc…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Conspiracy To Commit A Felony cases and more on FLexlaw
PER CURIAM.
Appellant was found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to commit a felony and grand larceny by staging an automobile accident after which the participants made planned and fraudulent claims. On this appeal, appellant’s main thrust is that the court should have granted his motion for severance because of the holding of the Supreme Court of the United States in Bruton v. U. S., 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968). Our review of the record in the light of this argument shows that no prejudice resulted to the appellant. See Johnson v. State, 355 So. 2d 143 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978); and Ballard v. State, 323 So. 2d 297 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975).
Appellant’s point directed to the introduction of the accident report was not error inasmuch as Section 316.066(4), Florida Statutes (1977), is not applicable to a staged collision which was not, under any consideration, an accident. Even if the report should be determined to have been inadmissible, we would hold that such an error was harmless in the present instance where there was no prejudice to the appellant and there was overwhelming evidence of guilt. Cf. McKissack v. State, 243 So. 2d 14 (Fla. 3d DCA 1971).
The other points presented by the appellant have been examined in the light of the briefs and oral argument and have been found not to present reversible error. Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Dixon v. State, 812 So. 2d 595 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002)…that the Legislature did not exclude defective traffic citations from admission in trial. Therefore, the trial court was correct when it ruled that the Legislature did not intend the exclusion of the forged traffic citation. Cf. Fernandez v. State, 370 So. 2d 818 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)(holding that the accident report privilege statute did not apply because a staged collision should not be considered as an accident). Accordingly, I would affirm the trial court’s ruling to admit the forged traffic citation as ev…
Authorities Cited
- Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (U.S. 1968)
- Ballard v. State, 323 So. 2d 297 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975)
- Carey v. State, 355 So. 2d 143 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978)
- McKISSACK v. State, 243 So. 2d 14 (Fla. 3d DCA 1971)