Jones v. State
| Decision Date | 11 October 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 77-1770,77-1770 |
| Citation | 363 So.2d 1123 |
| Parties | Wiley JONES, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Jack O. Johnson, Public Defender, Bartow, and Wayne Chalu, Asst. Public Defender, Tampa, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Robert J. Landry, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.
Appellant was charged, tried and convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He now appeals alleging, Inter alia, that the trial judge erred in failing to instruct the jury as to the essential elements of the crime of robbery during an instruction on homicide committed during the perpetration of a felony. The offense allegedly occurred on November 13, 1974.
In Florida under Section 782.04, Florida Statutes (1973), the unlawful killing of a human being shall be murder in the first degree and punishable by death in either of two circumstances: (1) "When perpetrated from a premeditated design to effect the death of the person killed or any human being . . .," or (2) "When committed in the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate, any . . . robbery, . . . ." The latter circumstance is commonly referred to as the felony-murder rule.
Section 813.011, Florida Statutes (1973), the statute then in force, defines robbery when one, by force, violence, or assault, or putting in fear feloniously robs, steals and takes away from the person or custody of another, money or other property which may be the subject of larceny.
Upon review of the record in this case, the facts and evidence developed during the trial make the application of the felony-murder rule most appropriate, and there is ample evidence from which it could be found by a jury that appellant committed a homicide in the perpetration of the felony of robbery.
The trial court gave the jury an instruction on the felony-murder rule and named the felony of robbery, but did not define robbery. At the conclusion of instructions to the jury by the trial court, the state attorney and the defense attorney approached the bench at the request of the trial judge who asked the state attorney and defense attorney whether or not any further instructions should be given to the jury. Out of the hearing of the jury, the prosecuting attorney indicated to the court that although it had instructed on the felony-murder rule, it had omitted defining the essential...
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State v. Jones
...Tampa, for respondent. ALDERMAN, Justice. We accept jurisdiction to review the decision of the district court in Jones v. State, 363 So.2d 1123 (Fla.2d DCA 1978), because of its apparent conflict with Zuberi v. State, 343 So.2d 664 (Fla.3d DCA 1977). We approve the decision of the district ......