T.C.E., A CHILD, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 2007-09-21
No. 5D07-702
GRIFFIN and THOMPSON, JJ., concur.
965 So. 2d 338 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2007) 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

T.C.E., a juvenile who entered a no contest plea to robbery, fleeing police, and battery, appealed arguing the robbery charge was defective because the petition named the corporate employer rather than the individual clerk as the victim, and that convicting him of both robbery and battery violated double jeopardy. The appellate court affirmed, rejecting both arguments as either waived or meritless.


Holding

The robbery conviction stands because the petition, while misstating the victim's identity, was not fundamentally defective as it contained all essential elements of robbery and T.C.E. waived the issue by failing to raise it before entering his plea. The dual convictions for robbery and battery do not violate double jeopardy because robbery and battery contain distinct elements: robbery requires proof of taking or depriving property (not required for battery), while battery requires intentional or actual touching (not necessarily required for robbery).


Headnotes

[1] A charging document is fundamentally defective only where it totally omits an essential element of the crime or is so vague, indistinct, or indefinite that the defendant…

[2] A defendant waives any double jeopardy claim by entering a guilty or no contest plea, unless the plea is general, the double jeopardy violation is apparent from the recor…

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Key Quotes

“A charging document is fundamentally defective only where it totally omits an essential element of the crime or is so vague, indistinct, or indefinite that the defendant is misled or exposed to double jeopardy.”

Establishes the legal standard for challenging a charging document's sufficiency

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Facts & Procedural History

T.C.E. entered a Kangaroo Express convenience store, gave the cashier a bag of chips and $1.00, then reached across the counter and took money from th…

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Opinion of the Court
EVANDER, J.

EVANDER, J.

T.C.E. entered a no contest plea to the charges of robbery,1 fleeing or attempting to elude an officer,2 and battery.3 The sworn police report recited that T.C.E. had entered a Kangaroo Express convenience store. He gave the cashier a bag of chips and $1.00. When the cashier opened the register drawer, T.C.E. reached across the counter and took money from the drawer. He also struck the cashier in the chest and slammed her wrist into the drawer. After taking the money, T.C.E. attempted to flee in his motor vehicle. A police officer, responding to a BOLO alert, got behind T.C.E. and activated his lights and siren. T.C.E. failed to stop for approximately one mile. The trial court accepted T.C.E.’s plea and adjudicated him guilty of all three offenses. T.C.E. raises two issues on appeal.

First, T.C.E. contends the robbery conviction must be. vacated because the petition improperly alleged that Kangaroo Express was the victim, rather than the clerk who was working the cash register. This pleading deficiency was never raised with the trial court. We reject T.C.E.’s argument.

We conclude the petition was not fundamentally defective and, therefore, T.C.E. has waived this issue. A charging document is fundamentally defective only where it totally omits an essential element of the crime or is so vague, indistinct, or indefinite that the defendant is misled or exposed to double jeopardy. Felton v. State, 919 So. 2d 557, 559 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005). In the present case, the petition did not “totally omit an essential element.” The petition simply misstated that the victim was the clerk’s corporate employer rather than the clerk herself. The petition otherwise set forth all of the required elements for a robbery offense and correctly identified the applicable criminal statute. DuBoise v. State, 520 So. 2d 260, 264 (Fla. 1988). Additionally, T.C.E. does not contend that he was misled or prejudiced, in any way, by the pleading error. The pleading deficiency should have been raised prior to T.C.E.’s plea — at which time it could have been easily cured. Ford v. State, 802 So. 2d 1121, 1130 (Fla.2001).

We also find T.C.E.’s contention that double jeopardy barred his conviction for both robbery and battery to be without merit. As a general rule, a defendant waives any double jeopardy claim by entering a guilty or no contest plea. Novaton v. State, 634 So. 2d 607, 609 (Fla.1994). However, an exception to the general rule exists when (a) the plea is a general plea, (b) the double jeopardy violation is apparent from the record, and (c) there is nothing in the record to indicate a waiver of the double jeopardy violation. In the present case, a double jeopardy violation is not apparent on the face of the record. A conviction for robbery does not necessarily preclude a battery conviction even though the battery occurred during the robbery.

Robbery requires proof of a taking or depriving of property, an element that battery does not require. In contrast, the crime of battery requires an actual and intentional touching of the victim, which is not necessarily an element of robbery. During a robbery, a robber could place the victim ‘in fear,’ thereby satisfying the force or violence element of robbery, without satisfying the intentional or actual touching element of battery.

Hamrick v. State, 648 So. 2d 274, 276 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995); see also Dunbar v. State, 879 So. 2d 98 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Phillips v. State, 834 So. 2d 272, 274 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002).

AFFIRMED.

GRIFFIN and THOMPSON, JJ., concur. . § 812.13(2), Fla. Stat. (2006).

. § 316.1935(2), Fla. Stat. (2006).

.§ 784.03, Fla. Stat. (2006).


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Citator

Cited By

  • B.O. v. State, 25 So. 3d 586 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009)
    …every essential element when charging a violation of law,” a petition fulfills this notice requirement when it “properly allege[s] every essential element of the offense.” M.F. v. State, 583 So. 2d 1383, 1385-86 (Fla.1991); see also T.C.E. v. State, 965 So. 2d 338, 340 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007) (holding that “[a] charging document is fundamentally defective only where it totally omits an essential element of the crime or is so vague, indistinct, or indefinite that the defendant is misled or exposed to double jeopar…

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