LORENZO ARDS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1984-11-01
No. 83-934
SHARP, J., concurs., COWART, J., dissents with opinion.
458 So. 2d 379 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1984) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Synopsis

Lorenzo Ards appeals his convictions for grand theft and resisting arrest without violence, challenging the trial court's exclusion of hearsay testimony that another person had committed the theft. The court affirmed, holding that while the statements qualified as declarations against interest by an unavailable declarant, the corroborating circumstances were insufficiently trustworthy.


Holding

The court affirmed the exclusion of the hearsay statements. Although the statements qualified as declarations against interest under Florida Statutes § 90.804(2)(c) and the declarants were unavailable, the corroborating circumstances surrounding the statements were ambiguous, unreliable, and not sufficiently trustworthy to permit admission of statements tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability when offered to exculpate the accused.


Headnotes

[1] A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate the accused is inadmissible unless corroborating circumstances show the trustwo…

[2] A statement against interest hearsay exception requires the declarant to be unavailable.

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Key Quotes

“A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate the accused is inadmissible, unless corroborating circumstances show the trustworthiness of the statement.”

The statutory requirement for admission of declarations against interest in criminal cases where the accused seeks exculpation.

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Facts & Procedural History

A person disguised as a woman, identified at trial as Ards, pointed a gun at a hitchhiker and took over $900 from him. Before trial, Ards sought to in…

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Opinion of the Court
FRANK D. UPCHURCH, Jr., Judge.

FRANK D. UPCHURCH, Jr., Judge.

Ards appeals his convictions for grand theft and resisting arrest without violence. The evidence at trial revealed that a person disguised as a woman and identified at trial as Ards, pointed a gun at a man who had picked him up while hitchhiking and took over $900 from the victim.

Ards contends that the trial court erred in excluding certain defense testimony. In particular, Ards sought to introduce his own testimony that one Blaine Schuller had told him that Anthony Ray Hicks had told him that he had stolen $900. Ards also sought to introduce the testimony of Wilbur Vareen that Hicks had told him he had “clipped a trick” for $900. Prior to trial, defense counsel attempted to depose Hicks and Schuller but they failed to appear. Ca-piases were issued for their arrest, but neither one was located.

Section 90.804(2)(c), Florida Statutes (1983) pertains to the declaration against interest hearsay exception and renders admissible the following statements if the declarant is unavailable:

A statement which, at the time of its making, was so far contrary to the declarant’s pecuniary or proprietary interest or tended to subject him to liability or to render invalid a claim by him against another, so that a person in the declarant’s position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true. A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate the accused is inadmissible, unless corroborating circumstances show the trustworthiness of the statement. A statement or confession which is offered against the accused in a criminal action, and which is made by a eodefendant or other person implicating both himself and the accused, is not within this exception.

There is no doubt that Hicks’ purported statements were declarations against interest and that both Hicks and Schuller were unavailable. We agree with the trial judge, however, who concluded after meticulous consideration that the corroborating circumstances surrounding the statements were ambiguous, unreliable and not trustworthy. Compare Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 95 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973); United States v. Katsougrakis, 715 F. 2d 769 (2d Cir.1983), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 704, 79 L.Ed.2d 169 (1984). See generally United States v. MacDonald, 688 F. 2d 224 (4th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1103, 103 S.Ct. 726, 74 L.Ed.2d 951 (1983); United States v. Bagley, 537 F. 2d 162 (5th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1075, 97 S.Ct. 816, 50 L.Ed.2d 794 (1977).

The other points raised by Ards have no merit.

AFFIRMED. SHARP, J., concurs.

COWART, J., dissents with opinion.

Dissent
COWART, Judge,

COWART, Judge,

dissenting:

Tried on an information charging only the minimal facts alleging a robbery (§ 812.13, Fla.Stat.), Ards was convicted of the supposed lesser included offense of grand theft, a violation of section 812.-014(2)(a), Florida Statutes. The grand theft offense was apparently assumed to be, and treated as, a lesser included offense of the charged robbery offense because the schedule of lesser included offenses adopted by the Supreme Court1 shows grand theft as a Category Two lesser included offense of robbery. Note that the schedule shows only petit theft (§ 812.-014(2)(c), Fla.Stat.), to be a Category one (necessarily) lesser included offense of robbery. The charging document in this case did not allege any of the eight facts or set of facts set forth in section 812.014(2)(b), Florida Statutes, the allegation of one of which is absolutely essential to allege a violation of section 812.014(2)(b), Florida Statutes.

I dissent because I continue to believe (1) that grand theft is not a necessarily lesser included offense of robbery (see the dissent in Rodriquez v. State, 443 So. 2d 236 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983), rev. granted, No. 64,775 (State v. Rodriquez)-, (2) that it is a violation of constitutional due process to convict a defendant of a crime not charged; and (3) that such a violation constitutes a fundamental error not subject to implied waiver as a result of the failure of defense counsel to effectively assert the constitutional right or object to its violation before the trial court. See the dissent in Torrence v. State, 440 So. 2d 392 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983), and in W.J. W. v. State, 446 So. 2d 248 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). As to the problem with the schedule of permissible lesser included offenses, see note 39 to the dissent in Baker v. State, 425 So. 2d 36, at 57 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), and note 3 to Harrielson v. State, 441 So. 2d 691 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983), and the dissenting opinion to State v. Baker, Baker v. State, 456 So. 2d 419 (Fla.1984).

. See In re Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, 403 So. 2d 979 (Fla.1981); In re Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, 431 So. 2d 599 (Fla.1981); In re Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, 431 So. 2d 594 (Fla.1981).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Sims v. State, 754 So. 2d 657 (Fla. 2000)
    …ommitting crime of which Jackson was accused because de [*662] fense did not proffer “corroborating circumstances [to] show the trustworthiness of the statement” as is required to justify admissibility under section 90.804(2)(c)); cf. Ards v. State, 458 So. 2d 379, 380 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984) (holding that evidence that another person admitted to committing the crime for which Ards was charged was inadmissible under section 90.804(2)(c) because the corroborating circumstances “were ambiguous, unreliable and not t…
  • Bing v. State, 492 So. 2d 833 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986)
    …n Gotthardt v. State, 475 So. 2d 281 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985), the writer no longer argues for application of the original Blockburger comparison of all elements of the statutory offenses (as argued in the dissents in Rodriquez, supra, and Ards v. State, 458 So. 2d 379 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)), and now urges a comparison of only nuclear or core elements. Applying this modified Blockburger test to the nuclear or core elements of robbery and grand theft results in a conclusion that both statutory offenses are the same s…
  • Woodard v. State, 579 So. 2d 875 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)
    …id not establish trustworthiness. Cf. Walker v. State, 483 So. 2d 791 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986), review denied, 492 So. 2d 1336 (Fla.1986); Maugeri v. State, 460 So. 2d 975 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984), cause dismissed, 469 So. 2d 749 (Fla.1985); and Ards v. State, 458 So. 2d 379 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). During closing argument, the prosecutor stated: “[Woodard] has more of an interest in the outcome of this case than anyone else and he’s had 4 and a half months to think about it and to think of a good story.” The prosecutor la…

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