Case ID: so2d_641/html/0130-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PARIENTE, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Mickey SAUNDERS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
    No. 93-1303.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
    June 22, 1994.
    Motion for Rehearing and Certification of Conflict Denied Aug. 17, 1994.
    Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Cherry Grant, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant. .
    Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Patricia Ann Ash, Asst. Atty., Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
   PARIENTE, Judge.

Appellant (defendant) appeals his conviction for armed burglary, aggravated assault with a firearm and grand theft. The state concedes that defendant’s conviction and sentence of ten years for aggravated assault with a firearm must be vacated because the trial court lacked authority to reduce defendant’s charge from armed robbery with a firearm to aggravated assault. We agree.

At the close of the state’s case, the court granted a directed verdict on the charge of armed robbery. Based on the state’s suggestion, the trial court substituted the charge of aggravated assault with a firearm for the armed robbery charge. Subsequent to defendant’s conviction and sentence, the supreme court in Taylor v. State, 608 So.2d 804 (Fla.1992) held that aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is not a category-one necessarily included offense to armed robbery, but a category-two permissibly lesser included offense. As a result, the trial court lacked authority to substitute the charge of aggravated assault with a firearm in lieu of armed robbery. See also Salas v. State, 591 So.2d 257 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991).

Accordingly the judgment and sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is vacated. We reject defendant’s other points on appeal; therefore, the remaining convictions and sentences are affirmed.

AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART.

STONE and POLEN, JJ., concur.