Crowley v. State, 89-1396
| Decision Date | 28 March 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-1396,89-1396 |
| Citation | 558 So.2d 529 |
| Parties | 15 Fla. L. Weekly D808 Johnnie CROWLEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Jeffrey L. Anderson, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and John Tiedemann, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Appellant, Johnnie Crowley, was found guilty of possession of cocaine and of resisting arrest without violence and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on the cocaine charge and time served upon the charge of resisting arrest.
Six points are presented on appeal, two of which we hold require reversal for a new trial.
Without reciting the facts in undue detail, suffice to say that Officer Crew, while on routine patrol in a residential area in Pompano Beach, observed various vehicles approach Crowley and some sort of transaction appeared to take place. Crowley appeared to put something into the cars and the occupants would give Crowley something in exchange. Crew stopped his police car and approached Crowley to investigate. As he neared Crowley, he noticed Crowley holding a clear plastic bag in his hand containing what appeared to be cocaine rocks. When Crowley noticed Crew approaching he dropped the bag. Crowley denied dropping the bag, but Crew placed him under arrest after some serious physical resistance from Crowley.
At trial, Crowley took the stand and testified that he was at his fiancee's house when he heard some voices outside. He went out to see who was there and found a woman and three men, one of whom was a friend of his. As they were chatting, Crowley and the others noticed the police approaching, resulting in several of the others walking away.
During the course of Crowley's direct examination, his counsel inquired if Crowley had ever been convicted of a felony, to which Crowley answered that he had been convicted twice. On cross-examination Crowley reiterated that he had two felony convictions. He was quite certain. The prosecutor asked the nature of the convictions and, over objection, the defendant was required to state that one was aggravated assault and the other was attempted burglary. When he confirmed that these were his only felony convictions, the state presented Crowley with certified copies of seven felony convictions which Crowley then conceded were accurate. After he admitted that there were seven felony convictions, the prosecutor proceeded to inquire into the nature of the crimes. Since Crowley admitted, though somewhat belatedly, his conviction of seven felonies, it was error for the prosecutor to inquire about the nature of the crimes. Goodman v. State, 336 So.2d 1264 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976).
A more serious error was committed during the prosecutor's closing argument to the jury. Since Crowley was the only witness produced by the defense, he was entitled to the opening and closing argument. In presenting his opening argument, defense counsel never made any reference to the failure of the state to call any of the other witnesses who had been present when the police approached the group and arrested Crowley. However, the prosecutor in his closing argument made a definite point of the fact that the defense failed to call any of those people present at the scene, at least one of whom was Crowley's good friend, to corroborate Crowley's story that the drugs found on the ground were not his. Paraphrased, the prosecutor stated the defense has the same subpoena power as the state. He pointed out that Crowley said he was talking to some friends outside the home of Crowley's fiancee. At this point, defense counsel...
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