Canada v. State

• Decision Date: 25 October 1940
• Citation: 144 Fla. 633,198 So. 220
• Parties: CANADA v. STATE.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

198 So. 220

144 Fla. 633

CANADA v. STATE.

Florida Supreme Court, Division A.

October 25, 1940

Horace Canada was convicted of armed robbery and of being an accessory after the fact to another such robbery, and he appeals.

Reversed and remanded. Appeal from Criminal Court of Record, Dade County; Ben C. Willard, judge.

COUNSEL

George S. Okell, of Miami, for appellant.

George Couper Gibbs, Atty. Gen., and William Fisher, Jr., Asst Atty. Gen., for appellee.

OPINION

BUFORD Justice.

Appellant with others, was informed against charged with the offense commonly called armed robbery. At the same time the others were likewise informed against for the offense of another armed robbery and the appellant was in that information charged with being an accessory after the fact.

All accused being arraigned at the same time on both informations, all pleaded guilty. Appellant was adjudicated guilty under both charges and sentenced to serve rive years in state prison under each judgment, the second sentence to begin to run at the end of the first sentence.

Informations were filed immediately after arrest and arraignment, pleas and judgment occurred on the same day informations were filled.

Defendant did not have the benefit of counsel before arraignment and plea.

Pleas and judgment were entered on Friday, May 31, 1940.

On June 4, 1940, Horace Canada, having consulted and employed counsel, filed his motion to vacate the judgment and to be allowed to withdraw his plea of guilty and to enter his plea of not guilty, alleging four grounds upon which he relied viz.:

'1. The attached affidavits.

'2. That the record of the proceedings shows that the defendant was under a misapprehension as to the charges that were made against him, and that he thought he was only pleading guilty to case No. 8214 on a charge of armed robbery, in which he was charged as a principal in the robbery of what is known as the Barbarossa Distributing Company, Miami, Florida, and did not realize that he was also charged in the present case No. 8215 as an accessory after the fact, and further did not know what 'an accessory after the fact' meant.

'3. It is apparent from an examination of the record that there were so many defendants that the Court did not understand and realize that Horace Canada was charged as an accessory in case No. 8215, and apparently thought that Horace Canada was charged as the principal in both cases, and that he had participated in both robberies, and that there was only one accessory, and that was in case No. 8214, and being a negro by the name of Whitehead, who was charged as an accessory and plead guilty to the charge, the record showing that the Court, in sentencing Horace Canada sentenced him in case No. 8215 in the apparent belief that he was a principal, along with the other defendants in said cause.

'4. That the adjudication of guilt by the Court is not in the form prescribed by law and is therefore a void adjudication of guilt.'

The attached affidavits allege:

'Personally appeared before me, the undersigned authority Horace Canady, sometimes known as Horace Canada, who, having been duly sworn, deposes and says:

'That he is one and the same Horace Canady who was informed against in case No. 8214 and case No. 8215 in the Criminal Court of Record in and for Dade County, Florida, along with the following other defendants: Clifford Studivant, Frank Lee James Jackson, Howard O'Neal and Mitchell Whitehead; that on Friday, May 31st, A. D. 1940, deponent and his wife, Mattie Canady, were living at 1521 N.W. Sixth Court, Miami, Florida, and that approximately between 3:00 o'clock and 4:00 o'clock A. M. on said date, two police officers came to said house, one whose name was Simpson and the other whose name was Deas; that one of said officers came in through the front of the house and the other one came in through the rear of the house; that the one who came in through the front of the house was Simpson and that he told deponent to get up and dress, and said to deponent, 'This is a stick-up' (meaning that Horace Canady had stuck up and robbed somebody), whereupon deponent got dressed, and after he had gotten dressed, said officer Simpson hit him on the head and kicked him in the stomach and finally took him out to the car and brought him to town, where he was again told that he had robbed a place and was again beaten and threatened with further beatings if he did not admit that he was guilty of same; that finally he admitted to the officers that he had been in the robbery known as the Barbarossa Distributing Company robbery, under which he has subsequently been informed against in case No. 8214 in the Criminal Court of Record in and for Dade County, Florida, and that thereupon he was held in jail until later on the morning of the same date, when he was taken directly from said jail in and for the city of Miami, Florida, to the Court Room of the Hon. Ben C. Willard, Judge of the Criminal Court of Record in and for Dade County, Florida whereupon he was arraigned by Mr. Al Hubbard, Assistant County Solicitor, along with other defendants heretofore mentioned in this affidavit; that this defendant pled guilty to the Barbarossa Distributing Company case, No. 8214, and that this defendant here and now admits under this affidavit that he was and did participate in the Barbarossa Distributing Company robbery, and was guilty, but that the time he was arraigned he did not understand what the County Solicitor told him with regards to his being an accessory after the fact in case No. 8215, in which Frank Lee, James Jackson and Howard O'Neal were charged with being the principals in an armed robbery on one Henry Cohen, and that this deponent was charged with being an accessory after the fact, and this deponent says that he was not in any way connected with said crime alleged in said case No. 8215, and that he did not knowingly at any time receive any cash or money or other thing of value from the proceeds of said holdup. That by reason of the fact that he had been beaten and mistreated by the officers, as aforesaid, earlier in the morning, he was afraid to say much in the Court Room, not realizing that the County Solicitor and the Hon. Ben Willard would have afforded him protection, and would have permitted him, if he had so wished, to tell all of the facts concerning his case. Further deponent says that up until the time that he was brought before the...