STACII LEWIS, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2003-03-26
No. 3D01-2276
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and COPE and WELLS, JJ.
841 So. 2d 582 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2003) Positive Treatment
Cited by 7 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

Stacii Lewis appeals convictions for second-degree felony murder, armed robbery, armed burglary, and firearm possession. The court affirms the convictions, rejecting his claims regarding jury contact and the burglary conviction, while striking the firearm possession count as subsumed within the armed robbery and burglary charges.


Holding

The burglary conviction is affirmed because although initial entry to the public area was lawful, burglary occurred when defendants jumped over the counter into a nonpublic area with intent to commit a crime, or when they entered the manager's office. Consensual entry is an affirmative defense with the burden on the defendant to establish it. The jury contact claim is rejected for lack of objection or mistrial request. The firearm possession count is struck as subsumed within the armed robbery and armed burglary convictions.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant waives the right to claim improper contact with the jury if the defendant does not object to the trial court's actions or request a mistrial.

[2] A burglary conviction is supported by evidence that the defendant entered a non-public area of a business with the intent to commit a crime.

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Key Quotes

“consensual entry is an affirmative defense to the charge of burglary... and therefore the burden is on the defendant to establish that there was consent to enter.”

Establishes the legal framework that consensual entry is an affirmative defense with burden on defendant

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Facts & Procedural History

Lewis and a codefendant robbed a Burger King during business hours. They entered through the public customer doors, then jumped over the counter (a no…

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Opinion of the Court
COPE, J.

COPE, J.

Stacii Lewis appeals his convictions for second degree felony murder, armed robbery, armed burglary, and possession of a firearm while engaged in a criminal offense. We affirm. Defendant-appellant Lewis requests a new trial, claiming there was improper contact with the jury in answering a request for examination of an item of evidence. The trial court after an inquiry found no prejudice to the defense. There was no defense objection to the steps taken by the trial court, nor was there request for a mistrial. We therefore reject this claim on authority of Thomas v. State, 730 So. 2d 667, 668 (Fla.1998).

Second, the defendant argues that his burglary conviction must be reversed on authority of Delgado v. State, 776 So. 2d 233 (Fla.2000). We reject this argument.

The defendant and a . codefendant robbed a Burger King fast food restaurant during business hours. The witnesses testified that the defendant and codefendant jumped over the counter. The defendant ordered employees to open the cash registers at the counter and he took the money. The codefendant directed the store manager through the kitchen to the office at the back of the store, required him to open the office safe, and took the money and the manager’s watch.1

The defendant argues on appeal that the Burger King was open to the public and that the record is devoid of evidence that would support a burglary conviction. The defendant did not move for judgment of acquittal on this point in the trial court but asks us to reach the issue as a matter of fundamental error. See Vance v. State, 472 So. 2d 734, 735 (Fla.1985); Troedel v. State, 462 So. 2d 392, 398 (Fla.1984); Stanford v. State, 833 So. 2d 174, 176 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002). The defendant’s argument is incorrect.

It is true that “consensual entry is an affirmative defense to the charge of burglary. ...” Delgado, 776 So. 2d at 240 (citation omitted).2 The defendant and code-fendant initially made entry into the Burger King restaurant through the regular customer doors during business hours. So long as the defendant and codefendant remained in the public area of the restaurant, no burglary had been committed.

The situation changed when the defendant and co-defendant jumped over the counter into an area of the restaurant which was not open to the public. When an individual proceeds from the public area of a business into a nonpublic area with the intent to commit a crime therein, a burglary is committed. Thomas v. State, 742 So. 2d 326, 327 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999); Dakes v. State, 545 So. 2d 939, 940 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989).

Thus, a burglary occurred when the defendant and codefendant jumped over the counter in order to take the money from the cash registers. Even if that were not so, the entry into the manager’s office in order to take the money in the safe amounted to a burglary.

With regard to jumping over the counter, the defendant hypothesizes that possibly in this particular Burger King, the area behind the counter was open to the public. Of course if that were true, the defendant and codefendant would have had no need to jump over the counter. That aside, the short answer is that under Delgado, the issue of consensual entry is (as already stated) “an affirmative defense to the charge of burglary and therefore the burden is on the defendant to establish that there was consent to enter.” Delgado, 776 So. 2d at 240 (citation omitted; emphasis added). If the defendant wished to establish that the area behind the Burger King counter was open to the public, it was his burden to do so. The burglary conviction is amply supported by the evidence.

We strike Count VI, possession of a firearm while committing a criminal offense. The defendant was charged with committing this crime in conjunction with committing the offenses of armed burglary and armed robbery (Counts II-IV). Since Count VI is subsumed within Counts II-IV, we strike it. See § 775.021(4)(b)3., Fla. Stat. (1995).

Affirmed as modified.

. The manager thereafter shot the codefend-ant, killing him.

. The crime date was December 11, 1996.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Cueto v. State, 979 So. 2d 1113 (Fla. 3d DCA 2008)
    …there is a reasonably probability that, but for counsel’s deficient performance, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The area behind a sales counter is not an area open to the public. Lewis v. State, 841 So. 2d 582, 583 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003). To overcome this presumption, a defendant has the burden of proving that he had received permission or consent to be in the area that was not otherwise open to the public. Id. at 583-84. We agree with the trial court that M…
  • Cappello v. State, 199 So. 3d 1113 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016)
    …ee Dakes v. State, 545 So. 2d 939, 940 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989). It is only “[w]hen an individual proceeds from the public area of a business into a nonpublic area with the intent to commit a crime therein, [that] a burglary is committed.” Lewis v. State, 841 So. 2d 582, 583 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003) (citing Thomas v. State, 742 So. 2d 326, 327 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999); Dakes, 545 So. 2d at 940). This is why, for example, a defendant who robbed a pharmacy by taking money that a store clerk handed to him from the cash register c…
  • Hodges v. State, 842 So. 2d 300 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Lewis v. State, 841 So. 2d 582 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003); § 958.04(1)(c), Fla. Stat. (2000).…

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