Steppe v. State, 66--190
| Decision Date | 17 January 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 66--190,66--190 |
| Citation | 193 So.2d 617 |
| Parties | Bernard STEPPE, Jr., Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert L. Koeppel, Public Defender and Phillip A. Hubbart, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
Earl Faircloth, Atty. Gen., and Arden M. Siegendorf and Herbert P. Benn, Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellee.
Before PEARSON and CARROLL, JJ., and LOPEZ, AQUILINO, Jr., Associate Judge.
The appellant, defendant below, was charged in Dade County Criminal Court of Record in a two-count information with (1) unlawfully threatening to throw, place or discharge deadly explosives, and (2) extortion. The defendant was tried by a jury and found guilty as charged. The trial judge sentenced him to 20 years in the State Penitentiary on Count 1 and 10 years in the State Penitentiary on Count 2, the sentences to run consecutively. Motion for a new trial was denied, hence this appeal.
Appellant's assignments of error present three points of law for disposition: (1) Did the prosecuting attorney in his final argument to the jury comment on the defendant's failure to testify in his own behalf in violation of Section 918.09 Florida Statutes, F.S.A.? (2) Was the evidence inadmissible establishing the commission of over 20 separate crimes at trial because it constituted a general assault on the defendant's character? (3) Was the identification of the defendant as the extortionist in the instant case inadmissible in evidence?
As to the second point, the record shows that the State spent a considerable portion of the trial proving, over repeated objections, that the defendant allegedly committed 7 extortions, 6 burglaries, 6 larcenies one arson and one auto theft. Many witnesses and exhibits were produced by the State to establish in detail the commission of each of these offenses.
The law is well settled that evidence of other crimes separate from the crime for which the defendant is charged is inadmissible if its sole relevancy is to show bad character of the accused. Williams v. State, Fla., 110 So.2d 654. Evidence of other crimes is admissible only if it is relevant to prove the case on trial by establishing a common scheme or plan, identity, motive, intent or absence of mistake. Talley v. State, 160 Fla. 593, 36 So.2d 201.
The admissibility of evidence alleging similar crimes turns in the similarity between the method or modus operandi by which other crimes and...
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Anthony v. State, 70--457
...246 So.2d 605, opinion filed April 7, 1971, but not yet published. And our sister appellate Courts have likewise held. Steppe v. State, Fla.App.1967, 193 So.2d 617; Hooper v. State, Fla.App.1959, 115 So.2d 769; Jones v. State, Fla.App.1967, 194 So.2d 24; Horner v. State, Fla.App.1963, 149 S......
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Wingate v. State, 69--563
...Williams, supra, and does not bear a crucial resemblance to the facts in Harris v. State, Fla.App.1966, 183 So.2d 291, or Steppe v. State, Fla.App.1967, 193 So.2d 617, both cases having required reversals because of irrelevant evidence which tended to assail the character of the accused. Se......