PAUL NICHOLAS GAGNON, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1971-01-19
No. 69-905
Before PEARSON, C. J., and CHARLES CARROLL and HENDRY, JJ-
243 So. 2d 219 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1971) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

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Holding

The court held that the defendant's numerous grounds for appeal, including issues with counsel, speedy trial, identification, jury selection, lesser included offenses, prosecutorial comment, confrontation rights, and charge reduction, did not constitute reversible error.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court does not err in refusing to permit withdrawal of court-appointed counsel when the defendant makes no allegations of incompetency or inadequacy and the recor…

[2] A defendant must properly raise the issue of denial of a speedy trial in motions or demands before the trial court to preserve the argument for appeal.

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Facts & Procedural History

The defendant was convicted by a jury of breaking and entering with intent to commit robbery, robbery, and aggravated assault. He appealed these convi…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant-appellant Gagnon challenges the convictions and concurrent sentences imposed pursuant to a jury verdict finding him guilty of (1) breaking and entering with intent to commit robbery, (twenty years) ; (2) robbery, (twenty years) ; and (3) aggravated assault (five years). See related case of Grech v. State, Fla.App. 1970, 243 So.2d 216 (Case No. 69-854). Grech and Gagnon were tried together.

The defendant seeks reversal of the judgment and sentences on numerous grounds. The principal grounds upon which he argues for reversal are that the court erred in that it: (1) repeatedly refused to permit withdrawal of his court-appointed counsel; (2) refused discharge for lack of a speedy trial under § 909.23, Fla.Stat., F.S.A.; (3) allowed an in-court identification where a prior line-up had been suppressed;- J4) excused a class of pérsons from jury service prior to the selection of the jury, constituting an improper jury venire; (5) refused to instruct as to the lesser included offense of trespass; (6) permitted improper comment by the prosecutor; (7) permitted reference to statements made by others not present in court both denying right to confrontation and creating prejudicial “spill-over” results; and (8) failed to reduce the charge from robbery to attempted robbery. We find no reversible error and affirm.

We rely upon the related case of Grech v. State, Fla.App.1970, 243 So.2d 216 (Case No. 69-854) and authorities therein to dispose of contentions (3) through (6) and (8).

The defendant asserts error in the court’s refusal to allow the public defender to withdraw. We find, on the basis of the record, no denial of effective representation but rather a zealous protection of defendant’s rights. In fact, defendant makes no allegations of incompetency or inadequacy.

Defendant also urges that he was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial, and in particular asserts violation of § 909.23, Fla.Stat.1967, F.S.A.1 Defendant *221was charged by an Information filed January 31, 1968, about two weeks before the end of the December Term of the Criminal Court of Record in and for Dade County, and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on February 20, 1968, one week after the February Term began. See § 32.-03(4), Fla.Stat.1967, F.S.A. He'was tried in September, 1969. We note from the record that § 909.23, Fla.Stat., F.S.A. was not properly before the >trial court, .but was only cited by the defendant when he was attempting to discharge his attorney. Defendant did not raise this argument in his motion to dismiss, motions or demands for speedy trial, or motion for new trial. Moreover, in examination of the records of this court, we have found that in State of Florida ex rel. Greenwood v. Goodman, Fla.App.1970, 234 So.2d 181, an original proceeding for a- writ of prohibition, we dismissed a similar allegation for failure to state a prima facie case.

The defendant also contends that the court erred in permitting reference to statements made by other persons at the time of the commission of the robbery but who were not then present in the court because it denied him the right to confrontation. He also says this created a prejudicial “spill-over” effect, linking him with Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy. The State had the burden of tracing all the actions of the participants to prove not only that a robbery had taken place, but that these defendants were associated with the robbery. To meet this burden, the State relied upon § 776.011, Fla.Stat.1967, F.S.A., which declares that an aider or abettor is liable as a principal in the first degree. This position became important because both Grech and Gagnon asserted that their presence in the vicinity was purely coincidental and unrelated to the robbery. In light of the need to show that Gagnon was connected with the unidentified gunmen robbing Mrs. Wofford upstairs, it was not error for the trial court to admit testimony that Mrs. Wofford heard someone yell, “Jack, Jack, Jack, the cops,” while she was being robbed. Nor was it error for the court to allow the State to refer to the other alleged participants and their actions.

Affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Grech v. State, 243 So. 2d 216 (Fla. 3d DCA 1971)
    …IAM. Defendant, Salvatore Grech, and three others were informed against for breaking and entering, robbery and assault with intent to commit murder. See related cases of State v. Grech, Fla.App.1969, 219 So. 2d 96 and Gagnon v. State, Fla.App.1970, 243 So. 2d 219. He and Paul Gagnon, one of the three others, were tried together over his objection. Defendant Grech was convicted in a trial by jury of breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony, robbery, and aggravated assault and was sentenced to a t…
  • Olsen v. State, 338 So. 2d 225 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976)
    …rden should be on the defendant to show that he required substitute counsel. See Stepp v. Estelle, 524 F. 2d 447 (5th Cir. 1975). Cf. United States v. Burkeen, 355 F. 2d 241 (6th Cir. 1966). In this case, as in Gagnon v. State, Fla.App. [*228] 1971, 243 So. 2d 219, the record does not show an allegation of incompetency or inadequacy and, indeed, it is argued only obliquely in the briefs. Appellant’s position is that the very filing of the motion for withdrawal by the public defender shows a “failure to commun…
  • …language analogous to that found in the rule which states: “Upon motion timely filed with the court having jurisdiction and served upon the prosecuting attorney (the defendant shall) be forever discharged from the crime; . . . ” In Gagnon v. State, 243 So. 2d 219 (Fla.App.1971), cert. denied 246 So. 2d 113, the court refused to give Section 909.23, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., the precursor of 907.-055, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., the effect sought by petitioner. Although the contention that a person was entitled…

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