JAMES LLOYD BYRD, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1968-01-30
No. 67-178
Before CHARLES CARROLL, C. J., and HENDRY and SWANN, JJ.
206 So. 2d 430 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1968) Caution
Cited by 9 cases

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Holding

The court held that the appellant failed to demonstrate an abuse of judicial discretion in denying his motion for severance and that any comments by the judge on the evidence did not constitute harmful error.


Facts & Procedural History

The appellant was indicted for rape, found guilty by a jury, and sentenced to life imprisonment. This case is a companion to another case with substan…

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Opinion of the Court
HENDRY, Judge.

HENDRY, Judge.

The appellant, James Lloyd Byrd, and six other defendants were indicted for the crime of rape. After trial by jury, Byrd was found guilty and so adjudicated, and, a majority of the panel having recommended him to the mercy of the court, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

This is a companion case to Woodside v. State, Fla.App.1968, 206 So.2d 426, and the facts therein reported are substantially the same.

Appellant presents two points for reversal. Appellant’s first contention is that the trial court erred in denying his motion for severance. As was stated in Reddick v. State, Fla.App.1966, 190 So.2d 340,

“An application for severance is addressed to the trial court’s sound discretion and the order thereon will not be reversed except for palpable abuse of judicial discretion.”

On appeal, the burden of showing the abuse of judicial discretion is cast upon the appel*431lant. Jackman v. State, Fla.App.1962, 140 So.2d 627. We are of the opinion that appellant has failed to carry that burden here.

The second point raised by the appellant concerns certain statements, made during the course of the trial by the trial judge, which statements, it is contended, were comments on the evidence, hence error. Assuming for the purpose of the discussion that these statements were comments on the evidence, appellant has nonetheless failed to show that these comments constituted harmful error. This being so, the contention is meritless. See § 54.23, Fla.Stat., F.S.A., and Tanner v. State, Fla.App.1967, 197 So.2d 842.

No prejudicial error has been made to appear. Accordingly, for the reasons above expressed we affirm.

Affirmed.


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Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Talavera, 243 So. 2d 595 (Fla. 1971)
    …in the discretion of a trial judge to grant a severance and it is incumbent upon an appellant, when urging error on this ground, to demonstrate an abuse of this discretion. Jackman v. State, Fla.App.1962, 140 So. 2d 627; Byrd v. State, Fla.App.1968, 206 So. 2d 430. This record fails to reveal any abuse of discretion by the trial judge at the time of the pre-trial motion for severance, which motion was not renewed during the progress of the trial.” [*597] This Court recognizes the fundamental nature of the rig…
  • Flewellyn v. State, 308 So. 2d 46 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975)
    …the following authorities: Rowe v. State, 128 Fla. 394, 174 So. 820; Worthington v. State, Fla.App. 1966, 183 So. 2d 728; Lister v. State, Fla.App.1969, 226 So. 2d 238; Woodside v. State, Fla. App. 1968, 206 So. 2d 426; Byrd v. State, Fla.App. 1968, 206 So. 2d 430; Grech v. State, Fla.App.1971, 243 So. 2d 216; United States v. Cooper, 5th Cir. 1973, 472 F. 2d 64. No point on appeal has been made on the disparity between the sentence which would have been given on the negotiated plea and that as actually give…
  • Saunders v. State, 217 So. 2d 134 (Fla. 3d DCA 1969)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Woodside v. State, Fla.App.1968, 206 So. 2d 426; Byrd v. State, Fla.App.1968, 206 So. 2d 430; and, Parks v. State, Fla.App.1978, 206 So. 2d 431. Nelson v. State, Fla.App.1968, 208 So. 2d 506; and, Murray v. State, Fla.App.1966, 191 So. 2d 292.…

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