State v. Stella, 83-2363
| Decision Date | 29 August 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-2363,83-2363 |
| Citation | 454 So.2d 780 |
| Parties | STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. George Joseph STELLA, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Max Rudmann, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Lawrence Duffy, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
This is an appeal of the dismissal of a criminal information. We reverse and remand.
Defendant/appellee George Joseph Stella was charged by information on December 31, 1981 with trafficking in cocaine. Stella filed a motion to dismiss the information and a hearing on the motion was held October 14, 1983. The court relied on arguments and evidence presented by codefendant Michael Lee Dorman, which had been adopted by Stella. The court dismissed the information against Stella on the ground that the state had used a convicted drug statute violator, Rene Delannoy, as a confidential informant to bring about Stella's arrest. Stella was not shown to have been Delannoy's accomplice, accessory, coconspirator or principal in the incident that had led to Delannoy's prosecution. Because of this fact, the trial court found that such use of the confidential informant to obtain more lenient treatment for Delannoy under section 893.135(3), Florida Statutes (1983), constituted unconstitutional application of that statute to Stella. The state timely appealed.
The issue is whether the trial court erred in holding that section 893.135(3), Florida Statutes, was unconstitutionally applied against a defendant who was arrested through information supplied by a confidential informant who was prosecuted for an offense in which the defendant was not involved. We conclude that it did.
Section 893.135(3) permits the prosecutor to seek reduction or suspension of the sentence of a violator of the trafficking portions of the statute who is of substantial assistance in the identification, arrest or conviction of his accomplices, accessories, co-conspirators or principals. Evidently here, Delannoy was so convicted and then obtained more lenient treatment by assisting in the obtaining of evidence against Stella and others. None of these, however, were Delannoy's accomplices, accessories, co-conspirators or principals in the incident leading to Delannoy's prosecution.
If, as defendant/appellee claims, section 893.135(3) was not intended to produce leniency for an offender like Delannoy who helped to obtain criminal process against people not involved with him in his offense, Delannoy may have obtained a bonanza to which he was not entitled. Whatever benefit Delannoy received, the trial court erred in viewing such benefit as bearing in any way upon the information against Stella. Stella was not personally affected by Delannoy's receipt of more lenient treatment; and how or why Delannoy came to be a confidential informant also has no bearing on Stella's case. If Stella could show entrapment, that would be a...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Lusby v. State, 85-1850
...Campbell v. State, 453 So.2d 525 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). However, that fact does not compel a discharge of the appellant. State v. Stella, 454 So.2d 780 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984).2 Appellant testified that Kuffer had told him he would "make him a rich man," but appellant told the confidential inform......
-
Willoughby v. State, 85-2645
...not have the ability to provide substantial assistance. See Sandstrom v. Leader, 370 So.2d 3, 4 (Fla.1979). See also State v. Stella, 454 So.2d 780 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984). ANSTEAD, GLICKSTEIN and STONE, JJ., ...
-
State v. McQueen, s. 85-1700
...to enforce the agreement, but rather those of the informant. Additionally, in addressing this very point, the court in State v. Stella, 454 So.2d 780 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984), stated the No one has a due process right not to be caught for his criminal conduct merely because the person assisting ......
-
State v. Dorman, 83-2280
...McFall, Gilbert & McGee, Fort Lauderdale for appellees Bruno and Laturell. PER CURIAM. We reverse on the authority of State v. Stella, 454 So.2d 780 (Fla. 4th DCA, 1984). DOWNEY, GLICKSTEIN and DELL, JJ., ...