Ricard v. State
| Citation | 181 So.2d 677 |
| Decision Date | 18 January 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 65-310,65-310 |
| Parties | Robert RICARD, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Florida (US) |
Robert L. Koeppel, Public Defender and Phillip A. Hubbart, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
Earl Faircloth, Atty. Gen., and James T. Carlisle, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Before HENDRY, C. J., and TILLMAN PEARSON and CARROLL, JJ.
The appellant was charged with grand larceny (violation of section 811.021(1)(b), Florida Statutes, F.S.A.), and tried before a jury in the Criminal Court of Record of Dade County. At the close of the State's case, the appellant moved for a directed verdict of acquittal, and renewed his motion at the close of all the evidence. Each motion was denied by the court, and appellant was found guilty by the jury. He moved for a new trial upon the ground that the evidence was insufficient. The motion was denied, and he was sentenced to serve two years in the State penitentiary. This appeal followed.
The State presented the evidence of the complaining witness, Mrs. Amalia Iglesias. She testified that, in the Miami office of a corporation known as the Personal Service Bureau, she gave the appellant the sum of $203 which he agreed to deposit in a bank in Jamaica. The purpose of the deposit was to aid her Cuban husband in his attempt to obtain a visa to that island. Later, she discovered that the money was not needed, and she demanded its return. The money had not been deposited in the bank in Jamaica, but the defendant did not tell Mrs. Iglesias of this fact. He told her that he had made the deposit, and that he would get it back for her. For several weeks, she visited him each week and asked for the money. He informed Mrs. Iglesias that it might take three months, six months or a year to get the money. Later, under pressure from her, he stated that he would send a cable to the Jamaica bank and withdraw the money. The cable was prepared in her presence for transmission from his office. Defendant admitted that he did not send the cable, and the State produced evidence that the equipment for sending cables from defendant's office had been removed for more than a month. Defendant repeatedly promised to return the money, and when his promises were not fulfilled, the complaining witness secured the institution of the criminal proceeding.
In response to the testimony offered by the State, the defendant testified that, at the time of the deposit with him, it was impossible to send money directly from the United States to Jamaica. He testified that he had a correspondent in Mexico City, and that he sent the money to this correspondent so that it might be transmitted from Mexico to Jamaica. Further, he responded that the reason he did not send the cable to Jamaica was because he could not contact his correspondent in Mexico City.
The State proved that Mrs. Iglesias gave the appellant the money to open the account for her husband in the Royal Bank of Canada in Kingston, Jamaica. The State also proved that no bank account of any type was ever opened in the Royal Bank of Canada in the name of Mrs. Iglesias' husband.
The appellant urges that it was the duty of the State, in order to make a prima facie case, to show that the money was not transmitted to the agent in Mexico. The State urges that it established a prima facie case, and that the jury simply did not believe defendant's uncorroborated excuse. A great deal of argument on the appeal is taken up with charges as to whether the State or the defendant could have more easily produced witnesses to either substantiate or disprove the defendant's claims.
As in all criminal cases, the State had the burden of proving the accused guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Eizenman v. State, Fla.App.1961, 132 So.2d 763. In order to convict the accused of the charge, the State was required to prove that the defendant appropriated the money to his own use, or that of another person other than the true owner. 1 The...
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