Herman v. State, 84-750
| Decision Date | 20 June 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-750,84-750 |
| Citation | 10 Fla. L. Weekly 1538,472 So.2d 770 |
| Parties | 10 Fla. L. Weekly 1538 Bruce Roberts HERMAN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
William N. DeCarlis, of William N. DeCarlis, P.A., Gainesville, for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Belle B. Turner, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.
The appellant was charged in alternate counts with second degree murder and manslaughter. The trial court granted a judgment of acquittal on the murder count but permitted the case to go to the jury on the manslaughter charge. The jury found the appellant guilty, and he appeals the trial court's denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal. We affirm.
The victim in this case, Carol Rene Yates, died of an overdose of cocaine which had been injected into her right arm. The cocaine overdose caused the victim to violently convulse resulting in hemorrhaging in her nose and mouth which blocked the passage of air to her lungs. On the manslaughter count, the State charged that the appellant was criminally responsible for the victim's death by failing to summon emergency medical assistance for her when she started convulsing shortly after being injected with the cocaine. Although the appellant could not be found guilty of manslaughter in the instant case if he simply failed to summon proper medical assistance for the victim, Bradley v. State, 79 Fla. 651, 84 So. 677 (1920), he is criminally responsible for her death if he in some way was responsible for the condition of the victim which required medical assistance, and from which she died. See Tongay v. State, 79 So.2d 673 (Fla.1955).
A defendant, in moving for a judgment of acquittal, admits not only the facts stated and the evidence adduced, but also admits, for the purpose of the motion, every conclusion favorable to the State that a jury might reasonably infer from the evidence. The court should not grant the motion unless the evidence is such that no view which the jury may lawfully take of it favorable to the State can be sustained under the law. Lynch v. State, 293 So.2d 44 (Fla.1974). We conclude that the evidence presented by the State was sufficient to submit to the jury.
During the State's presentation of its case, evidence was adduced which showed that Yates met the appellant on the evening before her death at a party in appellant's apartment. There was testimony that marijuana was in use. There was also testimony that the appellant had been flirting with the victim at the party. Yates spent the night in the appellant's apartment in a spare bedroom. She left the next morning and returned about 1:00 P.M. that same day. Two of the State's witnesses testified that the appellant called the victim repeatedly that morning and asked her to come back to his apartment on the afternoon she died. Although the victim was addicted to cocaine there was testimony that she never injected herself. She was found with only 51 cents in her purse, and there was testimony that she did not have any money with her the evening before her death.
The defendant's version of the incident was related to the jury during the State's case through the testimony of Investigator Hudson of the Volusia County Sheriff's Department. Hudson testified that according to the defendant, the victim returned to the apartment at approximately 1:00 P.M. Defendant told the investigator that he and the victim sat and talked until approximately 4:00 P.M. when the defendant received a phone call from his father asking about the location of some sales brochures. Defendant said that he left the apartment, and was gone about 20 minutes. When he returned, he found Yates on his bed, naked from the waist up, and in severe convulsions. He claimed that he attempted to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for between one and two hours although he felt within a few minutes that she was dead. He never summoned emergency assistance. When his efforts to revive her failed, he contacted his father. Appellant's father allegedly told him that before they could even report the death, they had to learn the victim's identity because the appellant only knew the victim's first name. It supposedly took two more hours to learn the victim's last name. Although the victim died at approximately 5:00 P.M. the Sheriff's Department was not contacted until 8:00 P.M. that evening. Appellant's father did not testify.
The investigation by the Sheriff's Department revealed no evidence of cocaine or other drugs, nor was any syringe or drug paraphernalia found on the victim or her belongings in the...
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Thomas v. State
...with his innocence, and sufficiently strong to permit a jury to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Herman v. State, 472 So.2d 770 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985), review denied, 482 So.2d 348 However, we reverse those portions of the judgment appealed in this case relating to imposing co......
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State v. Rudolph, 91-205
...L.Ed.150 (1954); Tibbs v. State, 397 So.2d 1120 (Fla.1981), aff'd., 457 U.S. 31, 102 S.Ct. 2211, 72 L.Ed.2d 652 (1982); Herman v. State, 472 So.2d 770 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985), rev. denied, 482 So.2d 348 (Fla.1986); Dunn v. State, 454 So.2d 641 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); State v. Stewart, 404 So.2d 18......
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...to the state that a fact-finder might reasonably infer from the evidence. Lynch v. State, 293 So.2d 44 (Fla.1974); Herman v. State, 472 So.2d 770 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985), review denied, 482 So.2d 348 (Fla.1986); Brewer v. State, 413 So.2d 1217, 1220 n. 1 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), review denied, 426 ......
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Hoffman v. State, 97-714
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