RONNIE FRALEY, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1994-06-21
No. 93-357
Before BASKIN, JORGENSON and GREEN, JJ.
641 So. 2d 128 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1994) Caution
Cited by 14 cases

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.

Synopsis

Ronnie Fraley appeals his convictions and sentences arising from a crime spree involving armed robbery, aggravated battery, attempted murder, armed burglary, and attempted robbery. The appellate court affirms most convictions but reverses certain sentencing decisions, vacating consecutive minimum mandatory sentences for crimes arising from the same criminal episode.


Holding

The court affirmed most convictions but reversed sentencing on certain counts. One armed robbery conviction must be vacated because both armed robberies arose from one comprehensive transaction. Consecutive minimum mandatory sentences for the armed robbery and aggravated battery (same victim, same episode) must be vacated and made concurrent. Consecutive sentences for armed burglary and attempted first degree murder of the security guard (same location, same episode) must also be vacated and made concurrent. However, consecutive sentences for the attempted carjackings and attempted murders of law enforcement officers were properly imposed as they were sufficiently distinct in time, place, and victim.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant may not be convicted of two separate counts of armed robbery for the taking of different items from the same victim during a single, comprehensive criminal tr…

[2] Consecutive minimum mandatory sentences are improper when the offenses arise from the same criminal episode.

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Because the two acts of taking "were part of one comprehensive transaction to confiscate the sole victim's property," only one of those convictions can stand.”

Establishes the principle that multiple theft convictions from a single transaction cannot both be upheld

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Fraley committed a series of crimes beginning with an armed robbery of an adult bookstore, during which he pistol-whipped and shot at the clerk, took …

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.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant appeals from judgments of conviction and sentences that arose from offenses he committed during his one-man crime spree. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

The series of crimes began with the armed robbery of an adult book store. Defendant pistol-whipped and shot at the store clerk, took money from the register, and then took the clerk’s personal firearm. Count I of the information charged him with armed robbery for taking cash from the victim, identified as the store and/or the clerk; Count II charged him with armed robbery for taking a firearm from the victim, again identified as the store and/or the clerk. Defendant was convicted of two separate counts of armed robbery as charged in Counts I and II of the information, and of aggravated battery on the clerk, as charged in Count V, and was ordered to serve two life sentences with minimum mandatory terms, to run concurrently. Because the two acts of taking “were part of one comprehensive transaction to confiscate the sole victim’s property,” only one of those convictions can stand. Nordelo v. State, 603 So. 2d 36, 38 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992).

Accordingly, we vacate one conviction for armed robbery; we likewise vacate the sentence of life imprisonment with a three-year minimum mandatory term that accompanies that one conviction for armed robbery.

Moreover, the trial court erred in sentencing defendant to consecutive life sentences with minimum mandatory terms on the armed robbery conviction and the aggravated battery conviction charged in Count V. The convictions arose from the same criminal episode and involved the same victim; the terms should run concurrently. See Ward v. State, 630 So. 2d 217 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993).

When defendant fled the store, he shot the security guard; that offense resulted in a conviction for attempted first degree murder. Defendant then made two attempts at two different locations to commandeer different cars; both attempts failed. This portion of the crime spree resulted in one conviction for armed burglary of a conveyance, and two convictions for attempted robbery with a firearm — one for each car’s driver.

The trial court entered consecutive minimum mandatory sentences for armed burglary of the store (Count IV) and attempted first degree murder of the security guard (Count VII) — both of which were to run consecutively with the sentences for the armed robbery and aggravated battery of the clerk.

We affirm the convictions, but vacate that portion of the sentencing order that mandates consecutive sentences and direct the trial court on remand to resentence defendant to concurrent terms on these offenses. Because these offenses arose from the same criminal episode in the same location — the adult book store — the imposition of consecutive minimum mandatory sentences was error. Abreu v. State, 610 So. 2d 564 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992) (trial court erred in sentencing defendant to consecutive minimum mandatory sentences for crimes that arose from same criminal episode), rev. denied, 623 So. 2d 493 (Fla.1993).

As to the sentences that arose from the attempted carjackings, we find no error in the imposition of sentences with minimum mandatory terms to run consecutively with the sentences for armed robbery and aggravated battery. Unlike the offenses that occurred in the store, these offenses were sufficiently distinct in time, place, and victim to support the consecutive sentences.

Shortly before he was captured on a rooftop, defendant also shot at two detectives who had identified themselves to him as police officers; one officer was wounded. Defendant was convicted of two counts of attempted first degree murder of a law enforcement officer and was sentenced to two consecutive twenty-five year minimum mandatory terms. We find no error in the convictions or the sentence. Newton v. State, 603 So. 2d 558 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992) (trial court properly imposed three consecutive life sentences for attempted murder of three law enforcement officers, as defendant’s shooting of those officers during pursuit is not one criminal episode).

We find no merit in defendant’s other points on appeal.

Affirmed in part; reversed in part; sentences vacated in part and remanded for further consistent proceedings.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Cruller v. State, 808 So. 2d 201 (Fla. 2002)
    …ict court decisions, including cases from the Third District, that found double jeopardy violations from multiple convictions of armed robbery where separate property was taken from the same victim. Ward, 730 So. 2d at 730. Thus, in Fraley v. State, 641 So. 2d 128, 129 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994), a defendant appealed his convictions of two counts of armed robbery, where [defendant pistol-whipped and shot at the store clerk, took money from the register, and then took the clerk’s personal firearm. Count I of the info…
  • Smart v. State, 652 So. 2d 448 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)
    …12.133(2)(a), Florida Statutes (1993). See § 775.021, Fla. Stat. (1993). Compare Sinnons v. State, 634 So. 2d 153 (Fla.1994) (double jeopardy precludes separate convictions and sentences for armed robbery and theft of same vehicle); Fraley v. State, 641 So. 2d 128 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994) (double jeopardy precludes convictions and sentences for multiple counts of armed robbery when acts of taking were part of one comprehensive transaction to confiscate the sole victim’s property); Nordelo v. State, 603 So. 2d 36, 3…
  • Ward v. State, 730 So. 2d 728 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999)
    …d). Unlike the situation in Brown, here there was only one “forceful taking.” All of the victim’s property was taken as a part of the same criminal transaction or episode, without [*730] any temporal or geographic break. See, e.g., Fraley v. State, 641 So. 2d 128 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994) (vacating one of two convictions for armed robbery because taking money from a cash register and then taking the clerk’s gun were part of only one criminal transaction); Horne v. State, 623 So. 2d 777 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993) (vacating…

Previewing 3 of 7 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw