MAE HELEN EARNEST, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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The court held that a conviction for armed robbery, even without personal possession of a firearm, is sufficient to trigger the mandatory minimum sentence under Section 775.087(2), Florida Statutes.
[1] A person may be convicted of a crime committed by another if they knowingly aid, abet, counsel, hire, or otherwise procure the commission of the crime, and possess the co…
[2] A jury's finding that a defendant committed armed robbery, based on evidence of aiding and abetting another who possessed a firearm, is sufficient to establish vicarious…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant was convicted of armed robbery based on her participation with an accomplice who carried a firearm. The jury was instructed on aiding and ab…
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SMITH, Judge.
Appellant’s most substantial point is that the trial court erred in holding Section 775.-087(2), Florida Statutes (1975), requires a minimum three-year sentence and in sentencing appellant accordingly. Appellant was tried and convicted on an information charging robbery in which “the said defendant carried a firearm.” There was competent evidence appellant participated with another in committing the robbery and that the other, in appellant’s presence and with her approval, carried and displayed a firearm. Appellant’s conviction of armed robbery was not predicated on her personal possession of the firearm but rather on her active and knowing aid to him who did possess it. The jury was suitably charged on the principles of Section 777.011 as embodied in Fla. Std. Jury Instr. (Crim., 2d ed.) 2.05:
“A person may commit a crime by his own personal act or through the act or acts of another person. Any person who knowingly aids, abets, counsels, hires or otherwise procures the commission of a crime is equally guilty with the one who actually performs the criminal act, whether he is or is not present at the commission of the offense. However, for one person to be guilty of a crime physically committed by another, it is necessary that he have a conscious intent that the criminal act shall be done and that, pursuant to that intent, he do some act or say some word which was intended to and which did incite, cause, encourage, assist or induce another person to actually commit the crime.”
Convicting, the jury found a nexus between appellant’s knowing conduct and her companion’s firearm. The jury finding that appellant committed armed robbery is sufficient also, as the trial court held, to demonstrate her vicarious possession of the firearm for purposes of Section 775.087(2):
“Any person who is convicted of any robbery . . . and who had in his possession a ‘firearm,’ . . . shall be sentenced to a minimum term of imprisonment of 3 years. . .
AFFIRMED.
BOYER, C. J., and MILLS, J., concur.
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Earnest v. State, 351 So. 2d 957 (Fla. 1977)…anded to the district court with instructions to remand to the trial judge for an appropriate sentence in accordance with this opinion. It is so ordered. OVERTON, C. J., SUNDBERG and HATCHETT, JJ., concur. KARL, J., dissents. . Earnest v. State, 342 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). . § 775.087(2), Fla.Stat. (1975). . We accept jurisdiction pursuant to Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla.Const. .342 So. 2d at 1025. . § 775.021(1), Fla.Stat. (1975), states: “The provisions of this code and offenses defined by other…
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Johnson v. State, 349 So. 2d 1190 (Fla. 1977)…ENGLAND, Justice. The First District Court of Appeal has certified its decision in this case1 for consideration of the same question which was posed in Earnest v. State, 342 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977), that is, whether a three year minimum jail sentence for possession of a firearm during the commission of certain crimes extends to aiders and abetters who are principals in the first degree of those crimes. We answered this ques…
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Clark v. State, 353 So. 2d 560 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977)…PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Williams v. State, 110 So. 2d 654 (Fla.1959); Wilson v. State, 304 So. 2d 119 (Fla.1974); Bunch v. State, 303 So. 2d 705 (Fla. 1 DCA 1974), cert. den., 314 So. 2d 778 (Fla.1975), and Earnest v. State, 342 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1 DCA 1977). McCORD, C. J., and RAWLS and SMITH, JJ., concur.…