Freyre v. State, 77-1267

Decision Date19 September 1978
Docket NumberNo. 77-1267,77-1267
Citation362 So.2d 989
PartiesManuel Jose FREYRE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee. .
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Engel, Aronson, Fried & Cohn, Miami, for appellant.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Margarita G. Esquiroz, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before PEARSON, HENDRY and KEHOE, JJ.

KEHOE, Judge.

Appellant, defendant below, was charged by an information with robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm while engaged in a criminal offense. After a jury trial, verdicts of guilty were rendered on both counts. Thereafter, the trial court entered a judgment of conviction and sentenced appellant to twenty-five years in the state prison, without eligibility of parole for three years, to be followed by seven years probation. From this judgment and sentence, appellant appeals. We affirm.

We have very carefully reviewed each of the points raised by appellant on appeal and find them to be without merit. However, we feel that one of the points raised by appellant does merit some discussion.

Prior to the jury trial in this cause, appellant made a motion to suppress certain physical evidence which was denied by the trial court. One of the arguments advanced by appellant at the hearing on his motion to suppress was that there was an illegal search and seizure of certain physical evidence which ultimately led to his conviction. The pertinent facts relating to this contention may be summarized as follows: On several occasions an automobile owned by appellant's co-defendant below (not a party to this appeal) was observed by the police circling several Burger King and McDonald restaurants. Because of a pattern of robberies at these restaurants, they were under surveillance by the police. As a part of their investigatory efforts, the police had observed appellant, along with his co-defendant, as an occupant of the car. Also, they had learned the address of the co-defendant. Because of this investigation, a court order was obtained permitting the installation of an electronic transmitter on the car. Near midnight on June 15, 1976, a robbery was reported at a McDonald's restaurant located at 7208 S.W. 8th Street. At the time of the robbery, one of the officers who had been involved in the investigation and whose car was equipped with a receiver for the transmitter was driving westbound on S.W. 8th Street at about 62d Avenue. The officer, who was aware of the home address of the co-defendant, responded to the police broadcast of the robbery by proceeding toward co-defendant's address by traveling northbound on Palmetto Expressway. Shortly thereafter, the officer received a transmitter signal from co-defendant's car and within a matter of seconds sighted the car. Pursuant to a police call for assistance, a Florida Highway Patrol (F.H.P.) car started following co-defendant's car. Thereafter, the F.H.P. directed the car to pull over and stop. The car continued down the highway during which time the other officer observed the passenger in the car "throwing things out of the window." All of these "things" were thrown out of the car while it was still moving and before it finally stopped some distance down the highway. These "things" were the physical evidence which the appellant sought to have suppressed.

In response to the contention of appellant which we have chosen to discuss, we adopt the reasoning of those cases which hold that it is not a search or seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 12, Florida Constitution, for the police to seize property which a person has abandoned in an area where he has no reasonable expectation of privacy, e. g., strewn all over the highway as in the instant case. See, e. g., Abel v. United States, 362 U.S. 217, 80 S.Ct. 683, 4 L.Ed.2d 668 (1960); Hester v. United States, 265 U.S. 57, 44 S.Ct. 445, 68 L.Ed. 898 ...

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11 cases
  • Perez v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 24 Junio 1993
    ...(citations omitted). Other cases supporting this view include Curry v. State, 570 So.2d 1071 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990), and Freyre v. State, 362 So.2d 989 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978), cert. denied, 372 So.2d 468 (Fla.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 857, 100 S.Ct. 118, 62 L.Ed.2d 76 In Spann v. State, 529 So.2d ......
  • State v. Oliver
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • 13 Marzo 1979
    ...property which a defendant has voluntarily abandoned in an area where he has no reasonable expectation of privacy, Freyre v. State, 362 So.2d 989, 991 (Fla.3d DCA 1978), as where a person discards property (a) in the open fields while being pursued by the police, Hester v. United States, 26......
  • State v. Schultz
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • 8 Octubre 1980
    ...seized by the police. Mitchell v. State, 60 So.2d 726 (Fla.1952); State v. Oliver, 368 So.2d 1331 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1979); Freyre v. State, 362 So.2d 989 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1978); Smith v. State, 333 So.2d 91 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976); State v. Gallo, 279 So.2d 71 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1973); Riley v. State, 266 ......
  • Davis v. State
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • 28 Junio 2017
    ...expectation of privacy...." State v. Oliver, 368 So.2d 1331, 1335 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979) (emphasis added) (citing Freyre v. State, 362 So.2d 989, 991 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978) ). This is so because in such cases "the person has made a voluntary decision to avoid a police search by discarding evidence ......
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