BENJAMIN COFFIELD, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Coffield was convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious battery against a 13-year-old victim. The court reversed one conviction, finding that the two sexual acts occurred in a single continuous episode without temporal or spatial separation, violating double jeopardy principles by requiring separate criminal intents for multiple counts.
The court reversed one of the two convictions, holding that the sexual acts did not constitute separate offenses because they occurred almost simultaneously at the same location within an uninterrupted ten-minute span, leaving insufficient time for the defendant to pause, reflect, and form a separate criminal intent between acts.
[1] A conviction on multiple counts for lewd and lascivious battery violates double jeopardy when the acts occur in the course of a single sexual assault without sufficient t…
[2] When determining whether multiple sexual acts constitute separate offenses, courts consider the spatial and temporal aspects of the surrounding circumstances to assess if…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“In deciding whether multiple acts must be charged in a single count, we consider the spatial and temporal aspects of the surrounding circumstances in order to determine whether the defendant had time to "pause, reflect, and form a new criminal intent between occurrences."”
Establishes the legal standard for determining whether multiple sexual acts constitute separate counts or a single offense.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceA 22-year-old defendant met a 13-year-old victim at a park where both claimed to be 16 years old. Coffield walked the victim home, and after hugging a…
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STONE, J.
Coffield was convicted on two counts of lewd and lascivious battery. The record, however, does not support adjudication on separate counts because of the manner in which each act occurred in the course of a single sexual assáult. .. Therefore, Cof-field’s convictions on the two counts constituted a double jeopardy violation.
The evidence reflects that the thirteen year old victim met the twenty two year old defendant earlier in the day at a park. The two engaged in a conversation and each claimed to be sixteen. Coffield walked the victim home where, after the two conversed outside her apartment, the victim told Coffield that he should leave. Coffield agreed, so long as the victim gave him a hug. After the two engaged in hugging and kissing, Coffield brought the victim into a meter room within the apartment complex wherein, despite her telling him to stop, he both touched and inserted his penis into her vagina. The episode lasted about ten minutes. Coffield contended that he and the victim had consensual sex.
In this case, there is insufficient record support for a finding that Coffield formed a separate criminal intent as to each charged act. In deciding whether multiple acts must be charged in a single count, we consider the spatial and temporal aspects of the surrounding circumstances in order to determine whether the defendant had time to “pause, reflect, and form a new criminal intent between occurrences.” Eaddy v. State, 789 So. 2d 1093, 1095 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001).
In Eaddy, the state charged that the touching of the victim’s breasts and her vagina during a sexual assault constituted two separate lewd acts. Id. at 1094. This court reversed a dual conviction, concluding that the appellant did not have adequate and sufficient time to pause, reflect and form a new criminal intent between touching the victim’s breasts and touching the victim’s vagina, so as to lawfully deem the acts distinctly separate. Id. at 1095. Similarly, in King v. State, 884 So. 2d 311, 312 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003), the defendant attempted to have intercourse with the victim and fondled her breasts. On appeal, the court concluded that it was error to adjudicate the defendant of two counts of lewd and lascivious assault as the sex acts occurred in a single episode and location, with one act immediately following the other. Id. at 313.
Here, as in Eaddy and King, the sexual acts occurred almost simultaneously, with no temporal breaks, and without the requisite time for Coffield to pause and reflect in order to form a second criminal intent. Further, both sexual acts occurred at the same location and within an uninterrupted span of approximately ten minutes.
The circumstances here are clearly distinguishable from those in Saavedra v. State, 576 So. 2d 953, 955 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991), where the defendant kidnaped the victim and engaged in three separate incidents of intercourse, all within the same night, but occurring at three distinct times and locations. There, the First District concluded that, whilfe the acts were of the same type, they were sufficiently separate because they occurred in different locations and at different times. Id. at 958. Therefore, the Saavedra perpetrators had enough time in between each sexual encounter to reflect on the last act and form a new criminal intent to commit the next sexual act. Id.
As to the other issues raised, we find no reversible error. We, therefore, reverse and remand with directions to vacate and set aside one of the convictions for lewd and lascivious battery.
KLEIN and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Mijarez v. State, 889 So. 2d 827 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)…. Mijarez fondled her, helped her disrobe, and had intercourse with her. The State separated this incident into three counts, one for lewd and lascivious battery, and two counts for fondling different parts of the girl’s body. In Coffield v. State, 872 So. 2d 430 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004), this Court recently reversed multiple convictions and sentences for lewd and lascivious behavior during a single sexual assault. Relying on Eaddy v. State, 789 So. 2d 1093 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001), we considered the spatial and tempo…
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Meshell v. State, 980 So. 2d 1169 (Fla. 5th DCA 2008)…and lascivious battery over double jeopardy challenge based upon finding that the acts were both distinct in character and temporally separated so that the defendant had sufficient time to reflect and form a new criminal intent); Coffield v. State, 872 So. 2d 430 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (reversing lewd and lascivious battery conviction on grounds that evidence did not reflect sufficient pause between two distinct sex acts to avoid double jeopardy violation); Cabanela v. State, 871 So. 2d 279 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004) (…
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Hunsicker v. State, 881 So. 2d 1166 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004)…dy arguments directed to multiple convictions arising from lewd and lascivious acts allegedly committed in a single criminal episode involved charges brought under the version of section 800.04 prior to its amendment in 1999.4 See Coffield v. State, 872 So. 2d 430 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Pires v. State, 866 So. 2d 1276 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Gisi v. State, 848 So. 2d 1278 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003); Morman v. State, 811 So. 2d 714 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002); Baddy v. State, 789 So. 2d 1093 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). These cases general…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Saavedra v. State, 576 So. 2d 953 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)
- Eaddy v. State, 789 So. 2d 1093 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)