Knox v. State
| Decision Date | 04 August 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. II-126,II-126 |
| Citation | 361 So.2d 799 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
| Parties | R. C. KNOX, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
Michael J. Minerva, Public Defender, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Wallace E. Allbritton, and Carolyn Snurkowski, Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellee.
Appellant, convicted below of a violation of Section 800.04, Florida Statutes (1975), appeals his judgment and sentence on the basis of a "Williams rule" violation and on grounds that the State failed to prove the necessary intent to convict him of the crime charged. We find merit in the first point and reverse.
The record reveals that appellant was charged by information with "handling, fondling, or making an assault upon his step-daughter, Barbara Jean Daughtery, a child under the age of 14 years in a lewd, lascivious and indecent manner without the intent to commit involuntary sexual battery, on May 21, 1977." The bill of particulars requested by appellant specified that the offense took place "between 4 o'clock p. m. on May 21, 1977, and 3 o'clock a. m. on May 22, 1977." At trial, however, the prosecutor in his opening comments outlined an offense which took place late on the night of May 22. Appellant's wife then testified for the State that she had witnessed an incident between her husband and her daughter on the night of May 22. The daughter then testified to two incidents, one on the night of May 22, which her mother testified that she had witnessed, and another one on the previous night (within the time specified in the bill of particulars) which according to her testimony had occurred outside of the presence of her mother. The State also introduced evidence of a statement made by appellant in which he had admitted having various sexual relations with his step-daughter over an 18-month period. Appellant was convicted by the jury of the offense which had allegedly occurred on the night of May 21 out of the presence of the mother.
Appellant claims first that it was a violation of the "Williams rule" 1 for the State to present evidence of the May 22 incident throughout his trial on the May 21 incident. We agree. It is obvious on this record that the State's confusion about the date of the incident witnessed by the mother led to the admission of the evidence on the subsequent incident, which was highly prejudicial to the appellant in defending against the charge on the May 21 offense. We believe that the prejudicial effect of this evidence outweighed any possible relevance it may have had. The evidence here of the subsequent incident was not relevant to prove appellant's intent, motive, absence of mistake, modus operandi, or any other element of the crime charged. Its only relevance was to show ap...
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Cotita v. State, II-224
...has been properly disallowed where its probative value was slight or where its effect was unduly prejudicial. In Knox v. State, 361 So.2d 799 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), this court correctly reversed a conviction under Florida Statute § 800.04. In that case the defendant was charged with a specifi......
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Lanier v. State
...sexual battery." Matava v. State, 358 So.2d 1116 (Fla. 3d DCA), cert. denied, 364 So.2d 888 (Fla.1978). See also Knox v. State, 361 So.2d 799 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), cert. denied, 368 So.2d 1373 (Fla.1979); Dunson v. State, 194 So.2d 68 (Fla. 1st DCA 1967). This holding is in complete accord w......
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Snowden v. State
...sanctioned such trials since the era of the Star Chamber." See also Matthews v. State, 366 So.2d 170 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979); Knox v. State, 361 So.2d 799 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978). It is well settled, then, that the rule "that the State should not be permitted to make the evidence of other crimes the......
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Padgett v. State, 88-1786
...on the date of the alleged offenses." Gibbs at 232.4 See also State v. Rush, 399 So.2d 527 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981); Knox v. State, 361 So.2d 799 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), cert. denied, 368 So.2d 1373 (Fla.1979); Banks v. State, 298 So.2d 543 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974), cert. denied, 308 So.2d 538 (Fla.1975)......