Dygart v. State
Dygart v. State
Opinion of the Court
In the fall of 2011, Nathan Dygart exchanged messages with someone he thought was a fourteen-year-old girl named Amber. The two discussed sports, television, and parents. They also discussed sex, Dygart becoming increasingly explicit. The discussions escalated, and Dygart eventually drove to Tallahassee's Killearn subdivision, where he planned to have sex with fourteen-year-old "Amber."
When he arrived in Killearn, Dygart learned there was no "Amber"; he had been corresponding with a police detective involved in a sting operation. Officers arrested Dygart, and the State charged him with two crimes: one violation of section 847.0135(4)(a), which prohibits traveling for sex with a child (or someone thought to be a child) after using a computer to solicit *657a child for sex; and one violation of section 847.0135(3)(a), which prohibits using a computer to solicit a child (or someone thought to be a child) for sex, whether the perpetrator travels or not.
A jury convicted Dygart on both counts, and the trial judge sentenced him to twenty-four months in prison, plus sex-offender probation. Dygart appealed, arguing insufficient evidence, entrapment, and double jeopardy, among others. This court affirmed with a short opinion that addressed only the double-jeopardy issue. Dygart v. State ,
In State v. Shelley , the supreme court held that separate convictions for solicitation and traveling after solicitation cannot stand if they are "based upon the same conduct."
After Shelley , the law is clear that a single solicitation cannot support a conviction for solicitation and a separate conviction for traveling after solicitation.
Dygart bears the burden to show that the record demonstrates a double-jeopardy violation. Lee ,
We do not disagree with the concurring opinion's observation that we should look *658to what the State charged. And nothing in Lee requires otherwise. Here, the State charged Dygart with one count of traveling (which includes as an element an act of solicitation), along with one count of solicitation (which likewise includes as an element an act of solicitation). We have no reason to assume that both counts are based on a single act of solicitation, particularly when the record shows Dygart committed multiple acts of solicitation. Nor can we accept the argument that an individual act of solicitation is not "charged" unless it is charged as a standalone solicitation, unconnected to any traveling violation. When the State charges traveling after solicitation, it is necessarily accusing the defendant of solicitation because solicitation is an element of the offense. See § 847.0135(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2011) (prohibiting traveling for the purpose of engaging in unlawful sexual conduct "after using a computer online service [or other electronic means] to: (a) Seduce, solicit, lure, or entice" a person believed to be a child to engage in unlawful sexual conduct).
Consider an example. Suppose a defendant solicits a minor over the Internet two separate times. No one would dispute that the defendant could be charged with two counts of solicitation; after all, he committed two separate offenses. Now suppose that after one of the two solicitations the same defendant travels to meet the minor for sex. Has he not still committed two separate offenses? Of course he has: one for the crime of solicitation (for the first solicitation, after which he did not travel) and one for traveling to meet the minor after the second solicitation. In this situation, the first offense turned on one solicitation, and the second offense turned on a second, independent solicitation. Shelley would not require us to presume there was only one solicitation when the record showed more. Instead, Shelley applies only when multiple convictions turn on the same solicitation. Shelley ,
Last, the concurring opinion notes that Dygart's jury was not instructed that it could convict on both counts only if it found two separate solicitations. But Dygart does not make that argument himself, and he did not preserve any challenge to the jury instructions. Nor has Dygart challenged the adequacy of the verdict form or the specificity of the charging document. He could have proposed different jury instructions below, objected to the verdict form, or filed a motion for a bill of particulars.
AFFIRMED .
Winokur, J., concurs; Makar, J., concurs in result dubitante with opinion.
Makar, J., concurring in result dubitante.
Our en banc decision in Lee v. State ,
Under these circumstances, Shelley holds that dual convictions for these two offenses violates double jeopardy because the charged solicitation count is subsumed in the charged traveling after solicitation count. If Dygart had pled guilty to the two counts, as Shelley did, he would be entitled to relief; that he went to trial and was convicted on the two charged counts shouldn't change that result. Either way, the State is constrained by what it charged, not what it could have charged. As the Second District in Shelley said:
The State asserts that because Shelley's three separate uses of computer devices on the date charged in the information would have supported three separate soliciting charges, the soliciting charge is not subsumed by the traveling charge. We are not persuaded by this argument. The State only charged one use of computer devices to solicit, and that charge was based on a solicitation occurring on the same date as the traveling offense. We find no legal basis to deny a double jeopardy challenge based on uncharged conduct simply because it could have been charged. But we acknowledge that convictions for both soliciting and traveling may be legally imposed in cases in which the State has charged and proven separate uses of computer devices to solicit.
Shelley v. State ,
But Lee holds differently. Rather than looking at what the State actually charged to determine whether separate and distinct solicitations were alleged and proven, Lee undertakes de novo appellate review of the trial record in search of evidence of two separate and distinct solicitations, despite only one act of solicitation having been charged. If the appellate court on its own can glean two acts of solicitation from the record on appeal-one charged and one uncharged- Shelley doesn't apply and the double jeopardy violation vanishes. That's why Lee 's holding is in apparent conflict with what the Second District held in Shelley (and what other districts hold as well, *660see Stapler , Pamblanco ), which is to draw the line at only charged conduct.
Moreover, the jury in this case-as in Lee -was not instructed that it must find two separate and distinct acts of solicitation to convict the defendant on both the solicitation and "traveling after solicitation" counts (one solicitation would be subsumed in the "traveling after solicitation" count and the other would have to be separate and distinct from the first to avoid a double jeopardy violation). Like those in Lee , the jury instructions in this case did not make this distinction, made no reference to the dates in the information, and did not limit the jury's consideration of uncharged solicitations. The verdict form was equally barren, asking only two questions, i.e., whether they found defendant "guilty as charged of Unlawful Use of Computer Service" and "guilty as charged of Traveling To Meet a Minor."
Under these circumstances, because it can't be demonstrated that the jury's verdict was based on separate and distinct acts, it is impossible to conclude that a double jeopardy violation didn't occur. Lee ,
But Lee has left the runway, its dissenters' views mere contrails. While I concur in the result in this case, because adherence to Lee is required, it is not without continuing doubt as to Lee 's correctness and its shelf life due to its conflict with the Shelley decision and those from other districts.
Had Dygart successfully challenged his convictions based on the jury instructions or verdict forms, his remedy would have been a new trial-not our permanently vacating one of his two convictions. See, e.g. , Ramroop v. State ,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.