ROY GEORGE WHITCRAFT, III, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1988-08-02
No. 87-232
Before NESBITT, BASKIN and FERGUSON, JJ., NESBITT and BASKIN, JJ., concur.
528 So. 2d 998 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1988)

Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Roy George Whitcraft, III, challenges his conviction and sentence for second-degree murder. He maintains that 1) the trial court erred in failing to reduce the first-degree murder charge to manslaughter and 2) the trial court erred in failing to define the term “criminal agency” when requested to do so by the jury. We find no merit in Whitcraft’s contentions and affirm. Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.410, 3.420; see Spence v. State, 515 So. 2d 312 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987); Larsen v. State, 485 So. 2d 1372 (Fla. 1st DCA), aff'd, 492 So. 2d 1333 (Fla.1986); Parker v. State, 336 So. 2d 426 (Fla. 1st DCA), appeal and cert. dismissed, 341 So. 2d 292 (Fla.1976).

Affirmed.

NESBITT and BASKIN, JJ., concur.

Concurrence
FERGUSON, Judge

FERGUSON, Judge

(concurring).

There are two reasons why a failure to define criminal agency in this case was not erroneous: (1) on the evidence the jury error. could have found that the defendant was the principal in the perpetration of the brutal homicide, and (2) the defendant rejected the court’s offer to give a clear and concise definition of agency from Black’s Law Dictionary on grounds that “examples” of such agency were not included in the definition.1 Giving “examples” of agency was certain to create confusion and possibly

. Initially the court offered to give the following definition:

Agency includes every relation in which one person acts for or represents another by the latter’s authority.

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