Opinion ID: 1880670
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Armed Kidnapping Charge

Text: We hold that the trial court properly denied the motion for judgment of acquittal as to the armed kidnapping charge. Section 787.01(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1997), defines kidnapping as forcibly, secretly, or by threat confining, abducting, or imprisoning another person against her or his will and without lawful authority, with intent to: .... 2. Commit or facilitate commission of any felony. 3. Inflict bodily harm upon or to terrorize the victim or another person. Boyd was charged with armed kidnapping, meaning that during the commission of the kidnapping he possessed, carried, displayed, or used a deadly weapon, under both of these theories of intent. Eyewitness testimony established that although Dacosta entered Boyd's vehicle voluntarily, she was at the station to get gas and return to her car. Dacosta first approached Bell and Harris, both women, asking only for a ride back to her car. When she accepted a ride from Boyd, who was driving a church van, the jury could have inferred that it was with the sole purpose of receiving a ride back to her car. Although Dacosta had never met Boyd before, her blood was found in his apartment. Boyd's apartment was east of the Texaco station, while Dacosta's car was located only a block west of the stationin the opposite direction. The State relied on this circumstantial evidence, as well as the defensive and other wounds she received from the screwdriver and reciprocating saw, as evidence to establish that Boyd kidnapped Dacosta. The trial court concluded in its sentencing order that [a]lthough initially Ms. Dacosta voluntarily entered Mr. Boyd's borrowed van, there was some point in time, during the entire episode when Ms. Dacosta was forcibly restrained against her will, as evidenced by the defensive wounds she suffered and the bite marks Mr. Boyd inflicted on her body prior to her death. Sentencing Order at 3. We agree. This issue raises concerns similar to those in Conahan v. State, 844 So.2d 629, 636-37 (Fla.2003). In Conahan, the victim initially went freely with the defendant after the defendant offered him money to pose for nude photographs. The defendant was convicted of premeditated murder and kidnapping after the victim was discovered dead and bound to a tree at the site of the photo shoot. We held that there was competent, substantial evidence to support the kidnapping charge because even though the victim initially went freely with the defendant and even might have also initially consented to being tied up, the victim's extensive ligature wounds indicated that the victim was confined against his will at some point and apparently struggled for his life. Id. at 637. Also instructive is this Court's opinion in Gore v. State, 599 So.2d 978 (Fla.1992). In that case, we affirmed the trial court's denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal on a kidnapping charge, even though the victim, whose body was found in Florida, had initially gone willingly with the defendant when they left a party together in Cleveland, Tennessee. Id. at 985. We concluded that the evidence was sufficient to deny the motion because it showed that the victim had planned to return home at some point on the night she was with the defendant and because a shoestring found tied around her wrist indicated that she had been held against her will. Id.; see also Schwab v. State, 636 So.2d 3, 6 (Fla. 1994) (after victim's nude body was found in a footlocker in a remote location, and evidence revealed that victim died from manual asphyxiation, we concluded that [a]lthough the victim may have gone willingly with Schwab initially, the conclusion that at some point he was held against his will is inescapable); Peede v. State, 474 So.2d 808 (Fla.1985) (motion for judgment of acquittal on kidnapping charge properly denied where evidence indicated that although victim went willingly with defendant, she had no intention of leaving Miami or Florida, and her body was recovered in Georgia); cf. Anderson v. State, 841 So.2d 390 (Fla.2003) (evidence insufficient to prove kidnapping because victim went willingly with defendant, and no evidence indicated that she ever tried to escape), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 956, 124 S.Ct. 408, 157 L.Ed.2d 292 (2003). While no evidence existed of any binding of the victim, as it did in Conahan and Gore, the defensive wounds on Dacosta do indicate that at some point she was in a struggle for her life and was held against her will. As in Gore, Dacosta's family had expected Dacosta to return home immediately following her prayer meeting, and all of Dacosta's actions at the gas station were consistent with this intention. Eyewitness testimony and the evidence of Dacosta's blood at Boyd's apartment suffice to dispute Boyd's theory of innocence that he had never met Dacosta. Thus, there is also competent, substantial evidence sufficient for the jury to conclude that Dacosta was confined at some point against her will under either of the statutory theories of intent and that Boyd used a deadly weapon during the kidnapping. Boyd also argues that any confinement that did take place was incidental to the other felonies charged. We have held that to find kidnapping under the theory of intent in section 787.01(1)(a)(2), the resulting movement or confinement: (a) Must not be slight, inconsequential and merely incidental to the other crime; (b) Must not be of the kind inherent in the nature of the other crime; and (c) Must have some significance independent of the other crime in that it makes the other crime substantially easier of commission or substantially lessens the risk of detection. Faison v. State, 426 So.2d 963, 965 (Fla. 1983) (quoting State v. Buggs, 219 Kan. 203, 547 P.2d 720, 731 (1976)). Competent, substantial evidence supports the State's contention that Boyd's movement and confinement of Dacosta from the Texaco station away from her car made the sexual battery and murder of Dacosta substantially easier to commit and lessened the risk of the crimes being detected while they were being perpetrated. Boyd was also charged with kidnapping under section 787.01(1)(a)(3) of the kidnapping statute. This subsection requires that the kidnapper have the intent to [i]nflict bodily harm upon or to terrorize the victim or another person. Competent, substantial evidence supports the finding that Boyd had the intent to harm or terrorize Dacosta while confining her after she voluntarily entered the van. Thus, even if Dacosta's kidnapping did not meet the requirements of Faison, Boyd would still be guilty of kidnapping under section (1)(a)(3) of the statute.