AUNDRA JOHNSON, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2009-04-29
No. 3D07-2145
Before COPE, RAMIREZ, and LAGOA, JJ., RAMIREZ, J., concurs.
10 So. 3d 680 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2009) Caution
Cited by 6 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

Aundra Johnson appeals his conviction for fleeing a police officer, arguing the trial court erred by instructing the jury that it could not request a readback of testimony. The appellate court affirmed the conviction, finding the trial court's instruction was erroneous but the error harmless given the overwhelming evidence of guilt.


Holding

The trial court erred in instructing the jury that readback of testimony was prohibited, as this violates Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.410 and misleads the jury. However, the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt given the overwhelming evidence of Johnson's guilt for fleeing a police officer.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court errs by instructing a jury that a read-back of testimony is prohibited.

[2] A trial court may deny a jury's request to read back testimony, but it cannot mislead the jury into believing such a read-back is prohibited.

Previewing 2 of 4 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

“While the trial court has the discretion to deny a jury's request to read back testimony, it may not mislead the jury into thinking that a readback is prohibited.”

Establishes the legal standard that trial courts cannot instruct juries that readback is prohibited, even though they retain discretion over whether to grant specific readback requests.

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

A Miami police officer on routine patrol heard a BOLO about a police chase involving a blue van connected to a burglary. The officer observed the van …

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
LAGOA, J.

LAGOA, J.

The appellant, Aundra Johnson (“Johnson”), appeals his conviction and sentence for fleeing a police officer.1 For the following reasons, we affirm.

On appeal, Johnson raises three issues. We find only one argument merits discussion. Johnson contends that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury that the *681law did not permit Mm to read back testimony. Specifically, the trial court instructed the jury as follows:

Now let me caution you regarding the communication, if you want to ask a question regarding the facts, let me caution you that we don’t have I[sic] simultaneous transcript of these proceedings so we don’t have a transcript and any questions regarding the facts, I will tell you that you must rely upon your own recollection of the evidence.

Additionally, prior to the jury retiring to deliberate, the trial court again instructed the jury as follows:

Ladies and gentlemen and, again, if you have a question regarding the facts I cannot reopen the facts. I cannot explain the evidence to you. The normal answer that I give you is that you must rely upon your own recollection of the evidence. If you have differences of opinion you must hash them out amongst yourselves.

Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.410, however, states as follows:

After the jurors have retired to consider their verdict, if they request additional instructions or to have any testimony read to them they shall be conducted into the courtroom by the officer who has them in charge and the court may give them the additional instructions or may order the testimony read to them. The instructions shall be given and the testimony read only after notice to the prosecuting attorney and to counsel for the defendant.

“Under this rule, the trial court has wide latitude in the area of the reading of testimony to the jury. In this respect, the trial court may provide a limited, or partial, readback of testimony specifically requested by the jury, as long as that testimony is not misleading.” Avila v. State, 781 So.2d 413, 415 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (citations omitted).

In this case, the record shows that the issue was properly preserved for appellate review as Johnson specifically objected to the trial court’s instructions to the jury. As this Court has previously held, it is error for the trial court to discourage the jury from requesting a read-back of testimony. See Davis v. State, 760 So.2d 977, 978 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000). Indeed, “[w]hile the trial court has the discretion to deny a jury’s request to read back testimony, it may not mislead the jury into thinking that a readback is prohibited.” Avila, 781 So.2d at 415.

Although the State concedes that the trial court erred in instructing the jury, the State argues that the error was harmless. Given the facts of this case, we agree that this error was harmless.2 The evidence presented at trial was overwhelming as to the charge for which Johnson was convicted — fleeing a police officer.

A City of Miami officer, while on routine patrol in his police vehicle, overheard a BOLO that the police were involved in a chase of a blue van that had been involved in a burglary. After learning of the chase, the officer saw the blue van run through a red light at a high rate of speed. The officer proceeded to turn on the patrol car’s siren and emergency lights and began to chase the van. During the chase, the officer noticed that the tires of the van had blown out and eventually an individual, whom the officer at trial identified as Johnson, jumped out of the driver’s side of the van. After Johnson jumped out of the van, the officer exited his vehicle and proceeded on foot to chase Johnson. *682Eventually, after a struggle, Johnson was arrested.

Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, we affirm Johnson’s conviction and sentence.

Affirmed.

RAMIREZ, J., concurs.

COPE, J.

(dissenting).

We should order a new trial. Defense counsel timely and correctly objected to the trial court’s instruction. Neither the State nor the majority opinion has cited any authority for the proposition that this type of error is subject to harmless error analysis. Assuming arguendo that such an analysis could be applied, it is inappropriate here, where the jury had enough reasonable doubt about the State’s case to acquit the defendant on a number of charges.

Concurrence
COPE, J.

COPE, J.

(dissenting).

We should order a new trial. Defense counsel timely and correctly objected to the trial court’s instruction. Neither the State nor the majority opinion has cited any authority for the proposition that this type of error is subject to harmless error analysis. Assuming arguendo that such an analysis could be applied, it is inappropriate here, where the jury had enough reasonable doubt about the State’s case to acquit the defendant on a number of charges.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Aundra Johnson v. State, 53 So. 3d 1003 (Fla. 2010)
    …PER CURIAM. Aundra Johnson seeks review of the decision of the Third District Court of Appeal in Johnson v. State, 10 So. 3d 680 (Fla.3d DCA 2009), on the basis that it expressly and directly conflicts with decisions of the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Biscardi v. State, 511 So. 2d 575 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987); Huhn v. State, 511 So. 2d 583 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987); and Rigdon v.…
    1 / 2
  • Hendricks v. State, 34 So. 3d 819 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010)
    …ng behind this rule is that juries should not be prospectively discouraged from requesting read-backs of other portions of the trial simply because the trial court has denied its request for a read-back of a particular portion. See Johnson v. State, 10 So. 3d 680, 681 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009). In Avila v. State, the Fourth District found the trial court’s instructions misleading where the jury requested a read-back and the trial court responded by stating that no transcripts were available and that the jury was re…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw