BLADIMIR RIOS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 2006-02-17
No. 5D04-3923
SHARP, W„ and ORFINGER, JJ., concur.
920 So. 2d 789 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2006) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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

Bladimir Rios appeals his conviction for second-degree murder in the killing of Elvin Rodriguez. The appellate court affirmed the conviction, finding no basis for reversal on any of his four raised points.


Holding

Any error in denying the motions for judgment of acquittal on the conspiracy and accessory charges was harmless because Rios was acquitted of both charges. The claim regarding untimely ruling was waived when Rios's counsel withdrew an objection. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion for a new trial.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court's error in denying a motion for judgment of acquittal on charges for which the defendant was ultimately acquitted is harmless error.

[2] A defendant waives appellate review of an issue if the objection made in the trial court is withdrawn.

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Key Quotes

“Because Rios was ultimately acquitted of both charges, any error in denying his motions for judgment of acquittal as to these charges was harmless.”

Establishes that harmless error analysis applies when defendant is acquitted on charges where the trial court denied motions for judgment of acquittal.

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Facts & Procedural History

On March 25, 2003, Marion County Sheriff's officers found Rios' Buick parked in a desolate area of the Ocala National Forest with blood dripping from …

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Opinion of the Court
LAWSON, J.

LAWSON, J.

Bladimir Rios appeals his conviction of second degree murder for the killing of Elvin Rodriguez. He raises four points on appeal. We find no basis for reversal, and affirm.

In the early morning hours of March 25, 2003, officers from the Marion County Sheriffs Office found Rios’ Buick parked in a desolate area of the Ocala National Forest with blood dripping from the trunk. Tracking into the woods with a canine unit, the officers found Rios and Edwardo Mercado near Rodriguez’ body and a freshly-dug grave.

At trial, Mercado testified as the State’s chief witness against Rios. According - to Mercado, Rios and another acquaintance, Alex Rosado, were with him at his home on the evening of March 24, 2003. After a private conversation between Rios and Ro-sado, Rios asked Mercado to accompany him to an undisclosed location for an undisclosed purpose. Before leaving, Rios placed a box of plastic gloves, a bottle of bleach and some plastic bags into the trunk of his Buick.

Rios proceeded to drive Mercado to Ro-sado’s home, where the victim was residing. Once there, according to Mercado, Rios began arguing with Rodriguez, and then stabbed him to death. Mercado testified that Rios later explained that Rodriguez had been “snitching on” Rosado, and that Rios threatened to harm Mercado or his family if he refused to help him clean up the murder scene and dispose of the body.

As his first two points on appeal, Rios argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal on the charges of conspiracy to commit first degree murder and accessory after the fact to first degree murder. Because Rios was ultimately acquitted of both charges, any error in denying his motions for judgment of acquittal as to these charges was harmless. Cf. Redondo v. State, 558 So. 2d 495 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990) (finding that error in the admission of evidence supporting charge on which defendant was acquitted was harmless); Moore v. State, 530 So. 2d 61 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988) (same).

Rios next claims that the trial court erred by failing to timely rule on his motion for judgment of acquittal on the conspiracy charge. At the close of the State’s case, Rios’ counsel objected to the court’s decision to reserve ruling on his motion. However, after further discussion, the objection was withdrawn. Rios thereby waived appellate review on this claim. E.g., Pope v. State, 646 So. 2d 827, 828 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994) (to preserve an issue for appellate review, a party must contemporaneously object in the court below on the same ground asserted on appeal). Additionally, we are convinced from our review of the record that the court’s failure to timely rule on the motion for judgment of acquittal was harmless because it is clear that Rios could or would not have proceeded differently even if a timely ruling on the motion had been entered. See Hitchcock v. State, 413 So. 2d 741, 746 (Fla.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 960, 103 S.Ct. 274, 74 L.Ed.2d 213 (1982).

In his last point on appeal, Rios claims error in the trial court’s denial of his motion for a new trial on grounds that the verdict was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence. Based on our review of the evidence presented, we find no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s denial of the motion.

AFFIRMED.

SHARP, W„ and ORFINGER, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Massey v. State, 109 So. 3d 324 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)
    …e Carratelli v. State, 832 So. 2d 850, 856 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002) (noting that “[a] plethora of Florida cases support the notion that a party must obtain a ruling from the trial court in order to preserve an issue for appellate review”); Rios v. State, 920 So. 2d 789, 790 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006). II We agree with Massey that it was error to exclude the tape recording of the jailhouse interview of the driver because, as offered by the defense, the recording was non-hearsay admissible to contradict the driver’s tria…

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