Coffield v. State, 4D02-2248.
| Decision Date | 12 May 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 4D02-2248.,4D02-2248. |
| Citation | 872 So.2d 430 |
| Parties | Benjamin COFFIELD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Tatjana Ostapoff, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Richard Valuntas, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Coffield was convicted on two counts of lewd and lascivious battery. The record, however, does not support adjudication on separate counts because of the manner in which each act occurred in the course of a single sexual assault. Therefore, Coffield's convictions on the two counts constituted a double jeopardy violation.
The evidence reflects that the thirteen year old victim met the twenty two year old defendant earlier in the day at a park. The two engaged in a conversation and each claimed to be sixteen. Coffield walked the victim home where, after the two conversed outside her apartment, the victim told Coffield that he should leave. Coffield agreed, so long as the victim gave him a hug. After the two engaged in hugging and kissing, Coffield brought the victim into a meter room within the apartment complex wherein, despite her telling him to stop, he both touched and inserted his penis into her vagina. The episode lasted about ten minutes. Coffield contended that he and the victim had consensual sex.
In this case, there is insufficient record support for a finding that Coffield formed a separate criminal intent as to each charged act. In deciding whether multiple acts must be charged in a single count, we consider the spatial and temporal aspects of the surrounding circumstances in order to determine whether the defendant had time to "pause, reflect, and form a new criminal intent between occurrences." Eaddy v. State, 789 So.2d 1093, 1095 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001).
In Eaddy, the state charged that the touching of the victim's breasts and her vagina during a sexual assault constituted two separate lewd acts. Id. at 1094. This court reversed a dual conviction, concluding that the appellant did not have adequate and sufficient time to pause, reflect and form a new criminal intent between touching the victim's breasts and touching the victim's vagina, so as to lawfully deem the acts distinctly separate. Id. at 1095. Similarly, in King v. State, 834 So.2d 311, 312 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003), the defendant attempted to have intercourse with the victim and fondled her breasts. On appeal, the court concluded that it was error to adjudicate the defendant of two counts of lewd and lascivious assault as the sex acts occurred in a single episode...
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Hunsicker v. State, No. 5D03-373
...criminal episode involved charges brought under the version of section 800.04 prior to its amendment in 1999.4 See Coffield v. State, 872 So.2d 430 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Pires v. State, 866 So.2d 1276 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Gisi v. State, 848 So.2d 1278 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003); Morman v. State, 811......
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Meshell v. State
...and temporally separated so that the defendant had sufficient time to reflect and form a new criminal intent); Coffield v. State, 872 So.2d 430 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (reversing lewd and lascivious battery conviction on grounds that evidence did not reflect sufficient pause between two distinc......
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Paul v. State, 4D02-657.
...and form a new criminal intent between occurrences. See Eaddy v. State, 789 So.2d 1093, 1095 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001); Coffield v. State, 872 So.2d 430 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Mijarez v. State, 889 So.2d 827 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). In each case, the sex acts in question occurred in a single episode an......
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Mijarez v. State, 4D02-3534.
...three counts, one for lewd and lascivious battery, and two counts for fondling different parts of the girl's body. In Coffield v. State, 872 So.2d 430 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004), this Court recently reversed multiple convictions and sentences for lewd and lascivious behavior during a single sexual......