Moye v. State
Moye v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellant, Harron Moye, was charged by information and tried on five separate counts involving possession and sale of marijuana and cocaine.
The March 5 possession of cocaine charge (count I) arose out of the alleged sale of cocaine by appellant to a confidential informant in an area near apartments located at 291 and 293 Southwest First Street in Deerfield Beach. This operation
We find that the trial court erred in failing to sever the March 5 possession of cocaine with intent to sell charge from the March 8 sale of marijuana and the March 14 possession of marijuana and cocaine charges. Since these crimes were not “related” within the meaning of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.150, we conclude that the March 5 incident was improperly charged in the same information along with the March 8 and March 14 incidents.
We note that a single trial for the March 8 sale of marijuana and March 14 possession of marijuana and cocaine charges would have been proper. In Solomon v. State, 596 So.2d 789 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992), the court concluded that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a motion to sever a sale of cocaine charge from a subsequent possession charge arising out of the search of the defendant’s apartment five days after the sale. The court reasoned that the crimes occurred during the course of an ongoing investigation and were episodically connected, in that, in both instances, the apartment was used as a storage place for drugs and the defendant’s sale of drugs led the officer to obtain a search warrant, which resulted in the seizure of drugs. See id. at 791. Here, as in Solomon, the evidence suggested the apartment was used as a storage place for the drugs which were sold on March 8, which led the officers to obtain a warrant, resulting in the seizure of the. drugs on March ■ 14. Except for geographical proximity, there was no such connection between the March 5 incident and the March 8 and March 14 incidents. There was little testimony that the March 5 and March 8 drug buys were
In conclusion, because we have found an abuse of discretion in the trial court’s failure to sever some of the charges for trial, we must reverse and order a new trial on all of the charges “to promote a fair determination of the defendant’s guilt or innocence of each offense.” Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.152(a)(2)(A).
REVERSED and REMANDED.
. The charges were as follows: count I — possession of cocaine with intent to sell on March 5, 2002; count II — delivery of marijuana on March 8, 2002; count III — possession of marijuana with intent to sell on March 14, 2002; and counts IV and V — possession of cocaine on March 14, 2002. Appellant was convicted of all charges except possession of cocaine — count V.
. Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.150(a) provides:
(a) Joinder of Offenses. Two or more offenses that are triable in the same court may be charged in the same indictment or information in a separate count for each offense, when the offenses, whether felonies or misdemeanors, or both, are based on the same act or transaction or on 2 or more connected acts or transactions.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.