STANLEY HEADRICK, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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.
Evidence of similar extraneous crimes is admissible if relevant to a material fact and not solely to show character or propensity, even if it suggests independent crimes.
[1] Evidence of extraneous crimes is admissible if it is relevant to a material fact in issue and its sole relevance is not to prove the character or propensity of the accuse…
[2] Evidence of similar crimes is admissible to show a plan, scheme, or design, even if it suggests the commission of independent crimes.
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 intelligenceThe defendant was convicted of breaking and entering and grand larceny. The State introduced evidence of six other burglaries to show a common plan or…
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.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Williams Rule (Similar Fact Evidence) cases and more on FLexlaw
Appellant Stanley Headrick appeals to this Court from a judgment of conviction entered against him by the Hillsborough County Criminal Court of Record pursuant to a jury verdict finding him guilty of *204breaking and entering a business building with intent to commit grand larceny, and grand larceny itself.
Headrick’s guilt was abundantly proved at the trial. On December 20, 1967, a building occupied by the Bi-Rite Appliance Store on West Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa was burglarized and about twelve televisions sets stolen and removed from the premises. One Richards, accomplice in the burglary, testifying as a State witness, stated that Headrick, Headrick’s wife, and Richards drove in two cars to the Bi-Rite building and he narrated in detail concerning the burglary and theft. A Mr. and Mrs. Perry each testified that at about 3 o’clock in the morning that same night the same three people came to the Perry home on Huntley Avenue in Tampa “and unloaded” twelve colored television sets and stored them in Perry’s “utility room”; that from time to time thereafter these T.V. sets were disposed of by sale to various people for cash. A local police officer, one Cloud, testified that he conducted the investigation of the burglary and recovered several of the color T.V. sets which upon examination bore the same serial numbers as those stolen from Bi-Rite. He related his conversations with Richards, wherein Richards fully described all details of the burglary.
At this point in the presentation of the State’s case several witnesses were produced, nine in number, who gave testimony, first in the absence of the jury and then later in presence of the jury, to prove thefts of numerous color T.V. sets stolen in burglaries of six different business places in or near Tampa engaged in the business of T.V. sales. Included among these witnesses were Richards and Perry who narrated in detail their part in such burglaries, Richards aiding and abetting Head-rick in the burglaries proper, and Perry allowing his home to be used as the warehouse or “the drop”, as known in the vernacular. Testimony as to these extraneous thefts and transactions, it was contended by the State, was admissible under the so-called Williams rule (Williams v. State, Fla.1959, 110 So.2d 654). The defense argued that the evidence was not admissible under the Williams rule because it covered so many different and separate transactions that it transcended the “similar fact” criteria and made the evidence of the six extraneous burglaries “a feature instead of an incident”; i. e., “the evidence constitute]^] by its excessive volume an effort on the part of the State to point up the bad character of the accused or his criminal propensities”, and should therefore have been excluded. The trial Judge overruled such objection and the evidence went in. The jury convicted, the Court adjudicated guilt, and sentence was imposed to a term in the State Prison. Headrick appeals to this Court and argues only that the trial Court was in error in admitting the evidence of the six extraneous burglaries. We affirm.
The so-called Williams rule, to use the language of the Supreme Court, “simply is that evidence of any facts relevant to a material fact in issue except where the sole relevance is character or propensity of the accused is admissible unless precluded by some specific exception or rule of exclusion”. Gauged by this standard, the challenged evidence in the case sub judice was admissible. The evidence indicated that all the burglaries were committed by the same people; that the stolen articles were mostly, if not all, colored T.V. sets; that they were all “warehoused” at the same place; that all the burglaries occurred within a contemporary time limit (two in November, 1967; one in December, 1967; one in January, 1968; and two in March, 1968); that all the robberies were reasonably within the same accessible area geographically (four in Tampa; one in St. Petersburg; and one in Gainesville, Florida) ; and that the same general pattern or modus operandi existed in the extraneous burglaries as was present in the instant burglary. Thus, the test of relevancy was met because it tended to show “plan, scheme or design” even though suggesting *205the commission of independent crimes. In other words, to again use the language of Williams “such testimony revealed a criminal course that the defendant was following and reflected a pattern of operation corresponding to that employed in the case then at bar”. See Hawkins v. State, Fla.1968, 206 So.2d 5; Bogan v. State, Fla.App.1969, 226 So.2d 110; Saxon v. State, Fla.App.1969, 225 So.2d 925; Reed v. State, Fla.App.1969, 224 So.2d 364; Tafero v. State, Fla.App.1969, 223 So.2d 564.
This is not to say that by our holding here we mean to lay down an abstract concept that in all cases similar fact evidence is admissible, merely because it has some degree of relevancy, however slight, to the facts in issue being tried. If the asserted relevance is illusory, fancied, sup-posititious, or unsubstantial, the extraneous evidence should not be admitted because the inherent danger to the defendant on trial before a jury is too acute to allow his fate to rest upon such a slender thread of admissibility. What this 2nd District Court has said in Green v. State, Fla.App.1966, 190 So.2d 42; Dixon v. State, Fla.App.1966, 191 So.2d 94; and Farnell v. State, Fla.App.1968, 214 So.2d 753, in line with this philosophy, is reiterated here.
The relevance to the case being tried must be clear and substantial. When it passes this test, the evidence must be permitted, even though it tends to show the commission of another or other criminal offenses. Other appellate Courts follow this view. Franklin v. State, Fla.App.1969, 229 So.2d 892; Parnell v. State, Fla.App.1969, 218 So.2d 535; James Williams v. State, Fla.1962, 143 So.2d 484; Licht v. State, Fla.App.1963, 148 So.2d 295; San Fratello v. State, Fla.App.1963, 154 So.2d 327; Norris v. State, Fla.App.1963, 158 So.2d 803.
Appellant Headrick not having clearly demonstrated error here in the admission of evidence as to the extraneous burglaries, and that being the only question urged before this Court, the judgment appealed must be and is—
Affirmed.
LILES, A. C. J., and McNULTY, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Snowden v. State, 537 So. 2d 1383 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)…vidence because it had been given cautionary instructions no less than twelve times and, despite the quantity of evidence pertaining to the collateral crimes, had acquitted the defendant of one of the charged murders. Likewise, in Headrick v. State, 240 So. 2d 203 (Fla. 2d DCA 1970), the court affirmed the defendant’s convictions of the burglary and grand larceny crimes charged—rejecting the defendant’s argument that the State’s evidence covered so many different and separate transactions that it “transcended…
-
Whiteman v. State, 343 So. 2d 1340 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977)…t find that the asserted relevance of the so-called “independent crimes” (the handling-fondling, pornography reading, bathing and sexual by-play) is “illusory, fancied, supposititious or unsubstantial” as claimed by appellant. See Headrick v. State, 240 So. 2d 203, 205 (Fla.2d DCA 1970). Rather, there was an obvious similarity between the offenses charged in the informations and the independent crimes testified to by the victim. With specific reference to the caveat in the second Williams case, we are cogniz…
-
Headrick v. State, 268 So. 2d 390 (Fla. 2d DCA 1972)…that the trial Judge unduly restricted the voir dire examination of the prospective jurors by the defendants’ counsel”, which question was resolved by this Court adverse to Headrick, as had the trial Court. [*391] Thereafter, on October 9, 1970, in 240 So. 2d 203, this Court again reviewed judgment of conviction upon direct appeal, and again, in an opinion written by the author hereof, concurred in by Judges Liles and McNulty, once more affirmed the judgment of conviction on the merits. The principal point t…1 / 2
Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited (15 total)
- Williams v. State, 110 So. 2d 654 (Fla. 1959)
- Williams v. State, 143 So. 2d 484 (Fla. 1962)
- Green v. State, 190 So. 2d 42 (Fla. 2d DCA 1966)
- Peel v. State, 229 So. 2d 892 (Fla. 2d DCA 1970)
- Farnell v. State, 214 So. 2d 753 (Fla. 2d DCA 1968)
- Tafero v. State, 223 So. 2d 564 (Fla. 3d DCA 1969)
- Effie L. Norris v. State, 158 So. 2d 803 (Fla. 1st DCA 1963)
- Hiram Cazes Parnell v. State, 218 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 3d DCA 1969)
- Fratello v. State, 154 So. 2d 327 (Fla. 2d DCA 1963)
- Hawkins v. State, 206 So. 2d 5 (Fla. 1968)