Case Name: Ronald NESBITT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2002-06-28
Citations: 819 So. 2d 993
Docket Number: No. 5D01-203
Parties: Ronald NESBITT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: GRIFFIN, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 819
Pages: 993–997

Head Matter:
Ronald NESBITT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 5D01-203.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
June 28, 2002.
James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Rosemarie Farrell, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Allison Leigh Morris, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

Opinion:
COBB, J.
The defendant appeals from his convictions for aggravated assault (by use of a deadly weapon) and for battery. The defendant was charged by information with attempted second degree murder with a weapon and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon arising out of an incident involving his then wife. During this incident which featured an angry confrontation between the two, the defendant targeted his wife with a stun gun and repeatedly stunned her with it and at one point placed a pillow over her face. The wife was able to leave the scene and suffered some welts and blisters on her body.
The sole point warranting discussion concerns the conviction for aggravated assault. The trial court instructed the jury on aggravated assault as a lesser offense of attempted second degree murder with a weapon. Aggravated assault is a category 2 lesser included offense of attempted second degree murder. See Florida Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, p. 372. As such, it may or may not be included in the offense charged depending on the wording of the accusatory pleading and the evidence. See State v. Wimberly, 498 So.2d 929 (Fla.1986). An instruction on a permissive lesser included offense is proper only where the elements of the lesser offense are set forth in the charging document and are supported by the evidence. See State v. Espinosa, 686 So.2d 1345 (Fla.1996); State v. Von Deck, 607 So.2d 1388 (Fla.1992).
The aggravated assault conviction herein at issue was based on a jury charge defining that offense as "an assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill." See § 784.021, Fla. Stat. But the information did not charge in Count I that a deadly weapon was employed. If an objection was interposed that the instruction was unwarranted as exceeding the allegations of the charging document, reversible error would exist. See Von Deck.
In this case, however, defense counsel expressly agreed that one of the possible lesser included offenses was aggravated assault and never raised the issue of the deficiency in the charging document. Under these circumstances, the issue was not preserved for appellate review. See Ray v. State, 403 So.2d 956 (Fla.1981)(it is not fundamental error to convict under erroneous lesser included charge where defendant, despite opportunity, failed to object and offense is less serious than main offense); Herise v. State, 763 So.2d 393 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000); Tolbert v. State, 679 So.2d 816 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)(en banc). We recognize that a line of cases represented by Levesque v. State, 778 So.2d 1049 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001); and Mateo v. State, 757 So.2d 1229 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000) hold that an error of this type is fundamental in nature. We certify conflict with those decisions.
AFFIRMED.
GRIFFIN, J., concurs.
HARRIS, J., concurs specially with opinion.
. Cases such as K.H. v. State, 763 So.2d 1187 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000), Velasquez v. State, 654 So.2d 1227 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995), Jaramillo v. State, 659 So.2d 1238 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995), and Mauldin v. State, 696 So.2d 801 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997), which hold that conviction for a lesser offense not within the ambit of the charging document is fundamental error, are distinguishable. Those cases, relied upon by the courts in Levesque and Mateo, involved bench trials where the court found the defendants guilty of lesser offenses not charged by the charging documents. Those cases did not present the opportunity to object to the trier of fact's consideration of inappropriate lesser offenses in lieu of the main charge, an opportunity Ray finds to be significant. See K.H., 763 So.2d at 1188.