JULIUS BLAKES
v.
STATE

Fla. | 1938-07-01
Whitfield, Brown and Chapman, J. J., concur.
133 Fla. 12 Florida Supreme Court (1938) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 182 So. 447
Cited by 12 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

Julius Blakes was convicted of manslaughter for causing a fatal automobile collision through gross carelessness and culpable negligence. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, finding sufficient circumstantial evidence of guilt and rejecting Blakes' contentions regarding witness identification reliability and the adequacy of his alibi defense.


Holding

The circumstantial evidence was sufficient to establish Blakes as the driver, and his alibi defense was inadequate to raise a reasonable doubt in the jury's mind. The court correctly instructed the jury on the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence and the burden of proof for alibi defenses, and the jury's guilty verdict was properly returned and approved.


Key Quotes

“The automobile was seen about five and a half miles east of the place where deceased was struck and killed within a very few minutes after deceased was found dead on the highway. One witness testified positively that she saw the accused just before he abandoned the automobile at the place above mentioned and at that time he was driving the automobile in an easterly direction”

Establishes the core eyewitness identification evidence placing Blakes as the driver shortly after the fatal collision

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Facts & Procedural History

The deceased was struck and killed by an automobile while on the north side of a highway. The automobile belonged to Blakes. Within minutes of the dea…

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Opinion of the Court
Buford, J.

Buford, J.

—Writ of error brings for r.eview judgment of conviction of the crime of manslaughter.

The information charged the commission of the offense by the accused by means of his gross carelessness and culpable negligence in the driving, managing, operating and controlling of a certain automobile.

We have carefully examined the record and find no reversible error appearing therein.

The State relied for conviction upon circumstantial evidence. That evidence established the fact that the deceased *13came to his death by being struck while on the north side of the highway by an automobile traveling east on that highway at a high rate of speed; that the automobile belonged to the accused; that these facts were established to the exclusion of every other reasonable hypothesis is beyond question. The plaintiff in error contends that the evidence was not sufficient to show that the accused was driving the automobile at the time deceased was struck.

The automobile was seen about five and a half miles east of the place where deceased was struck and killed within a very few minutes after deceased was found dead on the highway. One witness testified positively that she saw the accused just before he abandoned the automobile at the place above mentioned and at that time he was driving the automobile in an easterly direction and that she saw the automobile when it was stopped and saw the accused and another man get out of the automobile.

Another witness testified that he saw the accused get out of the automobile at the place where it was abandoned. Both of these witnesses positively identified the accused.

The plaintiff in error contends that the opportunity for these witnesses to see and recognize the accused was so slight as to make their identification unreliable. This was a jury question and the jury resolved it against the contention of the accused. The accused attempted to prove an alibi. His proof of alibi was not sufficient to satisfy the jury that he was not present at the time and place of the fatal collision between the automobile and the deceased. It was shown that the accused made false statements about the time at which he reported the alleged larceny of his automobile. He stated to officers that the automobile had been stolen and that he reported the theft of the automobile to the police department at Clearwater at about seven o’clock, which was about one hour, or a little more, before the de*14ceased is shown to have been struck by the automobile. But the record shows that this statement was contradicted by officers of the police department of Clearwater and that in truth and in fact that he reported to- the police about ten o’clock that his automobile had been stolen. This fixed the time of the report at between an hour and a half and two hours after the fatal collision. He attempted to account for his whereabouts between seven o’clock and nine o’clock by testimony from himself and members of his family. The testimony which he offered to support his alibi for this period was not convincing and in fact was of such a character as to warrant the jury in disregarding such testimony.

So it is that the evidence of the identity of the accused as the driver of the automobile was strengthened by proof that the accused made false statements in connection with reporting the alleged theft of the automobile and by the weakness of his attempted proof of alibi.

The accused is not required to prove an alibi beyond a reasonable doubt, but where the accused attempts to establish an alibi, proof thereof must be sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury as to whether or not it was possible for the accused to have been at the scene of the crime at the time when the crime is shown to have been committed.

We cannot say that the accused met the requirement as above stated.

The court correctly charged the jury as to the law governing the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence and also as to the law governing the sufficiency of proof of alibi. Under these correct instructions, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and the trial court approved that verdict by denying motion for a new trial.

*15So the judgment is affirmed.

Whitfield, Brown and Chapman, J. J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Flowers v. State, 152 Fla. 649 (Fla. 1943)
    …ent to raise a reasonable doubt of the accused’s guilt in the mind of the jury. See Kines v. State, 121 Fla. 866, 164 So. 517. The accused, under the law, is not required to establish proof of an alibi beyond a reasonable doubt. See Blakes v. State, 133 Fla. 12, 182 So. 447. The proof of an alibi depends on the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence and under our system the jury is the sole judge of whether the evidence raises or establishes a reasonable doubt. See Hamp v. State, 130…
  • Davis v. State, 207 So. 3d 177 (Fla. 2016)
    …e sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt in the mind[s] of the [finder of fact] as to whether or not it was possible for the accused to have been at the scene of the crime at the time when the crime is shown to have been committed.” Blakes v. State, 133 Fla. 12, 182 So. 447, 448 (1938). Davis’s alibi failed to raise a reasonable doubt in the trial court’s mind as to whether Davis was at the BP at the time of the murders. The trial court’s comment, therefore, merely reveals the deficiency of Davis’s alibi d…
  • Hudson v. State, 381 So. 2d 344 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)
    …on explains that in Florida it is not necessary for the defendant to prove the defense of alibi beyond a reasonable doubt. Watson v. State, 200 So. 2d 270 (Fla. 2d DCA 1967); Flowers v. State, 152 Fla. 649, 12 So. 2d 772 (Fla.1943); Blakes v. State, 133 Fla. 12, 182 So. 447 (1938); Long v. State, 42 Fla. 509, 28 So. 775 (1900); and Adams v. State, 28 Fla. 511, 10 So. 106 (1891). The state contends that defendant’s uncorroborated testimony is insufficient to merit an alibi instruction. This contention cont…

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