Case ID: so2d_615/html/0803-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM. FERGUSON, Judge", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

William BAIN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee.
    No. 92-1225.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
    March 16, 1993.
    
      Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Julie M. Levitt, Sp. Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
    Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Joan L. Greenberg, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
    Before BASKIN, FERGUSON and COPE, JJ.
   PER CURIAM.

The question presented is whether a minimum mandatory three-year sentence may be imposed where it is established that an accused took a firearm during the burglary of an unoccupied dwelling. On the authority of Williams v. State, 517 So.2d 681 (Fla.1988), and Jones v. State, 599 So.2d 741 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992), the conviction and sentence are

Affirmed.

BASKIN and COPE, JJ. concur.

FERGUSON, Judge

(dissenting).

In affirming the conviction for armed burglary on the facts of this case, the court impermissibly extends the holding of Williams v. State, 517 So.2d 681 (Fla.1988), and Jones v. State, 599 So.2d 741 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992). The issue, as rephrased, is: Whether the burglar of an unoccupied dwelling, whose identity is learned days later by fingerprints, is guilty of the greater offense of armed burglary simply because a firearm is among the items that were stolen.

I disagree with the implicit holding that one necessarily “arms himself” as an element of armed burglary according to section 810.02, Florida Statutes (1991), where a firearm is an item stolen during the burglary of an unoccupied building. The reason for my disagreement was expressed in Jones, (Ferguson, J., dissenting).