Case Name: Gloria Elizabeth WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1977-06-30
Citations: 347 So. 2d 472
Docket Number: No. CC-457
Parties: Gloria Elizabeth WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: SMITH, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 347
Pages: 472–474

Head Matter:
Gloria Elizabeth WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. CC-457.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
June 30, 1977.
Richard W. Ervin, III, Public Defender, and Theodore E. Mack, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Raymond L. Marky, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appel-lee.

Opinion:
McCORD, Judge.
This is an appeal of judgment and sentence of appellant for petit larceny, she having been convicted of petit larceny twice previously. Appellant contends the trial court erred in refusing to grant appellant's motion for mistrial after the store manager of the Montgomery Ward store from which appellant had allegedly stolen property testified that appellant neither denied nor admitted the charge after he took her into custody. We find no error and affirm.
The evidence shows that appellant was observed by several employees of Montgomery Ward walking through the store wearing a hat which she had not paid for. They observed her go out the door and then return when she knew she had been seen. She then took off the hat and tossed it down with a pair of the store's gloves. She was then approached by the manager. He testified that upon apprehending appellant, he "asked her to step down back to the office, we needed to talk to her. She stated that she wasn't coming back and I said that we'd have to take her back there forcibly if she didn't want to go with us. She stopped, opened her purse, took out a cigarette, lit a cigarette and then she walked back with us." Upon being asked if appellant said anything to him at that point, the manager replied, "She neither denied nor admitted the charge." There is no affirmative testimony that appellant was actually interrogated by the manager. After the above quoted testimony, the manager said, "I left the scene, we walked back to my office. She came into my office and sat down. I had one of the ladies from the credit area come down and sit down to be present. I went in and picked up the store's walki talki and paged the mall police." The manager then testified that the officer came in and took appellant to their security office where he filled out his form and sealed the merchandise in a sack.
Appellant contends that the doctrine laid down in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), is applicable, and that the manager's testimony that "she neither denied nor admitted the charge" injected fundamental error into the trial; that appellant's motion for mistrial made immediately after the statement should have been granted; that appellant had a right to remain silent, and any reference before the jury that appellant had declined to answer questions propounded to her while in custody was fundamental error.
Miranda deals only with police custodial interrogation. We do not consider that the doctrine pronounced in Miranda by the United States Supreme Court in relation to police custodial interrogation should be broadened and extended to include circumstances such- as those present in the case sub judice which does not involve police custodial interrogation. The manager's testimony that "she neither denied nor admitted the charge" means only that she did not volunteer any information one way or the other and properly relates to her unexplained possession of recently stolen property. Such testimony was admissible since appellant's silence was not silence in the face of police custodial interrogation.
Affirmed.
SMITH, J., concurs.
RAWLS, Acting C. J., dissents.