Porter v. State, 5D00-1866.
| Decision Date | 02 November 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 5D00-1866.,5D00-1866. |
| Citation | 798 So.2d 855 |
| Parties | Marceline PORTER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Anne Moorman Reeves, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Lamya A. Henry, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.
Marceline Porter appeals her conviction for possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, in violation of section 790.23, Florida Statutes. We affirm.
In December 1999, an officer watched Porter as she stood on a street corner in a high crime area frequented by prostitutes. Her hands were in the pockets of her shorts. The officer saw one vehicle slow down as it neared her, and another stop. She spoke to the occupants of the latter vehicle. The officer approached Porter and eventually asked to search her pockets. She consented, telling the officer that she had a knife in her pocket. The officer retrieved a pocketknife which was in its open position. The blade was 1¾ inches long. When closed the knife measured 2¼ inches long, and when fully extended the knife measured 4 inches long. Porter moved to dismiss the charges based on L.B. v. State, 700 So.2d 370 (Fla. 1997). L.B. held that as a matter of law a pocketknife whose blade was under four inches in length was a "common pocketknife" excluded from the statutory definition of "weapon."1 The trial court, however, ruled that whether the pocketknife was a weapon was a jury question because the pocketknife was in the open position in Porter's pocket.
The trial court based its ruling on Walls v. State, 730 So.2d 294 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999). There, the defendant was charged with possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and moved to dismiss based on L.B. In affirming the conviction, the court stated:
Here, appellant carried the knife in his pocket in an open, locked position. Moreover, the sworn motion is not specific as to the length of the blade, utilizing the term "approximately" to establish the blade's dimensions. Under these facts, we adhere to pre-L.B. case law indicating that whether the knife at issue constituted a weapon was a jury question. See Bell v. State, 673 So.2d 556 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). To the extent that L.B. establishes a per se rule for the definition of common pocketknife, the rule may be invoked only by a defendant who establishes conclusively that the knife in question has a blade...
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Bunkley v. State, SC01-297.
...for the jury where the blade exceeds four inches or the knife is carried in an open position or brandished. See Porter v. State, 798 So.2d 855, 856 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001) (holding that it was a jury question whether a pocketknife carried in an open position was a deadly weapon for purposes of ......
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Cassidy v. McNeil
...display of the knife blade and threat to poke the victim with the pocketknife in the chest made it a deadly weapon); Porter v. State, 798 So.2d 855 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001) (distinguishing per se rule that a common pocketknife is not a deadly weapon as enunciated in L.B., 700 So.2d 370; finding ......
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In re Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases—Report No. 2015–06, SC15–1872.
...not guilty. Read appropriate self-defense instruction.Give as applicable.Definitions.§ 790.001(13), Fla. Stat., and Porter v. State, 798 So.2d 855 (Fla. 5thth DCA 2001).A “weapon” is any dirk, knife, metallic knuckles, slungshot, billie, tear gas gun, chemical weapon or device, or other dea......
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In re Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases—Report No. 2012–09
...weapon except a firearm or a closed common pocketknife, plastic knife, or blunt-bladed table knife. Give if applicable. Porter v. State, 798 So.2d 855 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001). However, an open pocketknife could constitute a weapon. R.R. v. State, 826 So.2d 465 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002); Cook v. Crosb......