C.T. v. State
C.T. v. State
Opinion of the Court
C.T., a juvenile, appeals from the trial court's order withholding adjudication of delinquency and placing him on probation for grand theft of a motor vehicle. Because the State failed to present sufficient evidence that C.T. knew the car he was driving was stolen, we reverse.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On August 18, 2016, the State filed a petition for delinquency charging C.T. with grand theft of a motor vehicle in violation of section 812.014(2)(c)6, Florida Statutes (2016), for an incident that occurred on July 30, 2016. An adjudicatory hearing was held on October 26, 2016.
At the adjudicatory hearing, the only issue before the trial court was whether C.T. knew that the car he was driving was stolen when stopped by the police. Because the case against C.T. was entirely circumstantial, the State relied upon the statutory inference of guilty knowledge provided by section 812.022(2), Florida Statutes (2016), which states that "proof of possession of property recently stolen, unless satisfactorily explained, gives rise to an inference that the person in possession of the property knew or should have known that the property had been stolen."
At the adjudicatory hearing, the State presented testimony from the victim, Hector Alvarez. Alvarez testified that his vehicle was stolen on the evening of July 27, 2016. At 5 a.m. on July 30, while driving his girlfriend to work, Alvarez saw his car approximately four to six miles from where it was stolen. Alvarez followed the car and called the police. The police subsequently stopped the car. Alvarez testified that when the police officers approached the car, the driver did not alter his speed or attempt to flee. One of the officers at the traffic stop, Officer Hernandez, testified that C.T. was the driver of the car. Defense counsel conceded that the car stopped by the police was Alvarez's car and that it was stolen on the night of July 27. Alvarez testified that when he retrieved *859his car, it had not been physically altered or damaged in any way.
Following the State's case, the defense moved for judgment of dismissal, which the trial court denied.
C.T. also testified at the hearing. C.T. denied stealing Alvarez's car or knowing that it was stolen. C.T. testified that on the night at issue he got the key to the car from his friend, Deandre, while at Deandre's house. Deandre had, in turn, been given the key from his friend, a person named Jacob. Jacob used to sell cars, "[s]o he told us to try it out, so we tried it out." On cross examination, C.T. testified that he had known Deandre for about three years, and that Deandre did not have a car before that night. C.T. admitted that he did not know if Jacob actually gave Deandre permission to drive the car, but that he trusted Deandre when he gave him the keys to the car and said, "I just go with what he told me." Deandre suggested that the two take the car to meet up with some girls and Deandre asked C.T. to drive because he was the better driver. Deandre was in the car with C.T. when the police stopped the car.
At the conclusion of the adjudicatory hearing, defense counsel argued that C.T. was entitled to a judgment of dismissal because C.T. gave a patently reasonable explanation for his possession of the car-he got it from his friend, Deandre, who told him a friend of his who use to sell cars wanted them to "try it out." Moreover, nothing about the car's physical condition indicated to C.T. that it had been stolen. The State argued that C.T.'s explanation was unreasonable given his testimony that Deandre never had a car before, that he did not ask Deandre why he had a car, or why Jacob, whom C.T. does not know, was letting him drive the car.
The trial court denied the motion for judgment of dismissal and found C.T. delinquent, stating that "his explanation was not reasonable, particularly in light of his testimony that he knew that his friend [Deandre] previously had no automobile." The trial court withheld adjudication of delinquency and placed C.T. on probation. This appeal ensued.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
This Court reviews de novo a trial court's denial of a motion for judgment of dismissal. W.B. v. State,
III. ANALYSIS
On appeal, C.T. argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of dismissal because the State failed to present sufficient evidence that he knew the car he was driving was stolen. We agree with C.T.
C.T. was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle.
*860(1) the knowing and unlawful obtaining or use, or the knowing and unlawful endeavor to obtain or use, (2) the motor vehicle of another, (3) with intent to either temporarily or permanently (a) deprive the owner or lawful possessor of the motor vehicle of a right to the vehicle or a benefit from it, or (b) appropriate the motor vehicle to the accused's own use or to the use of any person not entitled to it.
Jones v. State,
To establish that C.T. knew the car he was driving was stolen, the State relied solely on the inference set forth in section 812.022(2), Florida Statutes, which provides that "proof of possession of property recently stolen, unless satisfactorily explained , gives rise to an inference that the person in possession of the property knew or should have known that the property had been stolen." (emphasis added). The inference provided by section 812.022(2) is sufficient to support a theft conviction. See Smith v. State,
However, "where a reasonable explanation for possession of recently stolen property is totally unrefuted, and there is no other evidence of guilt, the court must grant a directed verdict for the defendant." Smith,
As such, this Court held in R.A.L. v. State,
the respondent's unrefuted, exculpatory, and not unreasonable explanation of his possession of a stolen moped that he bought it at a flea market rendered the state's case, which was based solely on the inference provided by Section 812.022(2), Florida Statutes (1979), without any additional incriminating circumstances, insufficient as a matter of law to establish guilt.
*861
Here, the explanation provided by C.T. for possession of the stolen vehicle was unrefuted by the State, and the State presented no other evidence of guilt. This Court's decisions in E.L.S.,
Similarly, in R.M., this Court reversed the juvenile's conviction for grand theft because the State failed to demonstrate that the juvenile knew the vehicle he was driving was stolen.
Here, as in E.L.S. and R.M., we find that C.T.'s explanation for his possession of the vehicle was unrefuted, exculpatory, and reasonable. In the present case, C.T. testified that he got the key to the car from his friend, Deandre. Deandre, in turn, had gotten the key from his friend Jacob, who used to sell cars, and who "told us to try it out, so we tried it out." Additionally, C.T. testified that he trusted Deandre when he gave him the key to the car. Contrary to the trial court's reasoning below, the fact that Deandre "previously had no automobile" does not render C.T.'s unrefuted explanation unreasonable, as that fact is not inconsistent with C.T.'s testimony that he trusted his friend of three years when he stated that Jacob gave him permission to use the car. Nor, as the State suggests, was C.T.'s explanation for possession of the stolen car rendered "unsatisfactory" by C.T.'s failure to further question Deandre as to how or why he "suddenly" had possession of a car.
Additionally, the State offered no other evidence of guilty knowledge on the part of C.T. For example, there was no physical damage to the vehicle that might have indicated to C.T. that it was stolen.
IV. CONCLUSION
Because the State failed to present sufficient evidence to establish that C.T. knew the car he was driving was stolen, we reverse the trial court's order withholding adjudication of delinquency and remand with directions to discharge C.T. from probation on this case.
Reversed and remanded with directions to discharge defendant from probation on this case.
The crime of grand theft of a motor vehicle is set forth in section 812.014(1), (2)(c)6, Florida Statutes (2016):
(1) A person commits theft if he or she knowingly obtains or uses, or endeavors to obtain or to use, the property of another with intent to, either temporarily or permanently:
(a) Deprive the other person of a right to the property or a benefit from the property.
(b) Appropriate the property to his or her own use or to the use of any person not entitled to the use of the property.
....
(2)(c) It is grand theft of the third degree and a felony of the third degree ... if the property stolen is:
....
6. A motor vehicle ....
Indeed, during cross-examination, Alvarez acknowledged that when he retrieved his vehicle nothing had been damaged and that it was in exactly the same physical condition as it had been on the night it was stolen.
The State's argument that C.T. provided multiple, contradictory versions of how he came into possession of the key is not supported by the transcript of the adjudicatory hearing. A review of the transcript in its entirety shows that C.T.'s "multiple versions" were the result of the State's failure during cross-examination to clearly state in its questions to whom it was referring-Deandre or Jacob-when asking C.T. about his "friend."
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.