Case Name: Solomon WILLIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2003-03-26
Citations: 840 So. 2d 1135
Docket Number: No. 4D02-3566
Parties: Solomon WILLIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: SHAHOOD and GROSS, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 840
Pages: 1135–1138

Head Matter:
Solomon WILLIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 4D02-3566.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
March 26, 2003.
Solomon Willis, Jasper, pro se.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, Heidi L. Bettendorf and Daniel P. Hyndman, Assistant Attorneys General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING AND MOTION FOR CERTIFICATION OF CONFLICT
PER CURIAM.
We deny appellee's Motion for Rehearing, grant appellee's motion for certification of conflict and substitute the following for our previous opinion.
Solomon Willis appeals the summary denial of his rule 3.850 motion for postconviction relief.
Willis was charged with four counts of armed kidnapping and four counts of robbery with a firearm. Following a jury trial, he was convicted of four counts of false imprisonment, a lesser-included offense, and four counts of robbery with a firearm as charged. The trial court sentenced Willis to five years in prison on each of the false imprisonment charges and to 155.25 months, with a three year mandatory minimum sentence on each of the robbery charges.
Willis alleges that his trial attorney was ineffective because he did not object when the trial court failed to instruct the jury that robbery with a weapon is a lesser-included offense of robbery with a firearm.
Robbery with a weapon is a category one lesser-included offense of robbery with a firearm. See Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, 723 So.2d 123 (Fla.1998). Failure to give a requested instruction on a category one lesser-included offense is per se reversible error, which is not subject to harmless error analysis. See State v. Abreau, 363 So.2d 1063 (Fla.1978). But, to preserve a jury instruction issue for appellate review, the defendant must object to the instructions given or request other instructions. See Leveritt v. State, 817 So.2d 891, 896 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002); Benton v. State, 650 So.2d 688 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995). Requesting the instruction on a necessarily lesser-included offense is sufficient to preserve the issue for appeal. See Rodriguez v. State, 789 So.2d 513 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001). Although Willis claimed the error in this case is fundamental, the failure to instruct on even a category one lesser-included offense in a non-capital case is not fundamental error. See Richards v. State, 809 So.2d 38 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)(citing Jones v. State, 484 So.2d 577 (Fla.1986)); Wilson v. State, 786 So.2d 632, 633 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001); Generazio v. State, 727 So.2d 333 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999); Johnson v. State, 695 So.2d 787, 788 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997). As a result, this issue could not have been raised on direct appeal.
The failure to request an instruction on a necessarily lesser-included offense is a legally sufficient ground to support an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. See Smith v. State, 807 So.2d 755 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). In addition, "[t]he failure to preserve a potentially reversible error for appeal has been found to constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, sufficient to support a rule 3.850 motion." See Daniels v. State, 806 So.2d 563, 564 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). Willis does not specifically allege counsel failed to request the instruction for the lesser-included offense. Rather he asserts that counsel was ineffective because he did not object when the trial court failed to give this instruction. Pro se motions should be given liberal construction. See Martinez v. Fraxedas, 678 So.2d 489 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996); Ferris v. State, 575 So.2d 303, 304 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991). As a result, we construe Willis' claim as alleging that counsel was ineffective for failing to preserve this issue, whether by failing to object or by failing to request the instruction.
Although the state suggests this issue could have been raised on direct appeal, the state does not allege and nothing in the record provided shows that counsel requested the instruction. The state attached a portion of the transcript, in which the trial court instructed the jury before deliberations. From the record provided it does not appear that defense counsel requested an instruction on the lesser offense or objected to the instructions given to the jury. The state did not attach the charge conference, which would show whether counsel had requested the instruction.
An evidentiary hearing may reveal that defense counsel made a tactical decision to not request this instruction. See Childers v. State, 800 So.2d 709, 710 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001). However, because Willis' claim is facially sufficient and is not refuted by the record, we reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing or record attachments conclusively refuting this claim.
Just as the first district certified conflict in Sanders v. State, — So.2d —, 28 Fla. L. Weekly D842, 2003 WL 1610878 (Fla. 1st DCA March 31, 2003) with our decision in Peffley v. State, 766 So.2d 418 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000), together with decisions from the fifth and second districts, we certify conflict with Sanders.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
SHAHOOD and GROSS, JJ., concur.
KLEIN, J., concurs specially with opinion.