WILLIAM SYKES, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Conviction for aggravated battery reversed where evidence failed to establish use of deadly weapon or great bodily harm, and victim was the physical aggressor.
Evidence was insufficient to support conviction of either aggravated battery or simple battery where the victim was the physical aggressor and no deadly weapon or great bodily harm was established.
[1] Evidence of mutual combat where victim was physical aggressor is insufficient to support conviction of simple battery where defendant did not intentionally cause bodily h…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant was convicted of aggravated battery following a jury trial arising from a mutual fight with the victim.…
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PER CURIAM.
In this appeal from a conviction of aggravated battery after a jury trial, the appellant contests the sufficiency of the evidence. The evidence fails to establish that appellant used a deadly weapon or had knowingly or intentionally caused great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement in the mutual fracas between appellant and the victim. The evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction of aggravated battery. Section 784.-045, Florida Statutes (1975).
The only other offense upon which the jury was instructed was simple battery. The evidence of the fight unequivocally establishes that the victim was the physical aggressor. The jury could not reasonably find that appellant touched or struck the victim against the victim’s will or that appellant intentionally caused bodily harm to the victim. The evidence was insufficient to support a conviction of simple battery. Section 784.03, Florida Statutes (1975).
Since all the evidence viewed in a light most favorable to the State fails to support the offenses with which appellant was charged before the jury, appellant’s convic tion must be, and is hereby, reversed and the appellant discharged.
HOBSON, Acting C. J., and McNULTY and SCHEB, JJ., concur.