Opinion ID: 1940521
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Monlyn's Claim Regarding the Money in the Victim's Wallet

Text: Monlyn claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to elicit testimony at trial that after the victim's wallet was recovered from the crime scene, an FDLE analyst found a one-hundred dollar bill hidden inside it. He also asserts error in counsel's failure to object to the argument that no money was found in the victim's wallet. At the evidentiary hearing, Monlyn's trial counsel admitted that he knew about the hidden money but had overlooked it at trial. He considered the amount of cash taken from the wallet to be of no significance in light of Monlyn's own testimony about the robbery. We agree with the trial court that Monlyn failed to meet the Strickland requirements. As we explained above, the robbery was complete in this case with Monlyn's taking of the victim's wallet. In addition, ample evidence demonstrated that Monlyn did take cash from the victim. Moreover, robbery was charged in the alternative, and the evidence shows that Monlyn robbed the victim of his truck. Monlyn next contends that the robbery conviction fails, along with the felony murder conviction, if it is based solely on his taking of the victim's truck. He relies on cases such as Knowles v. State, 632 So.2d 62 (Fla.1993), where this Court struck the aggravator that the murder was committed in the course of a robbery because the taking of the vehicle in that case could have been an afterthought. Unlike the situation in Knowles, however, Monlyn was charged with and convicted of robbery, and the evidence at trial showed that he planned to and did unlawfully rob the victim of his truck, abandoning it some fifty miles away. Therefore, Monlyn's robbery conviction, felony murder conviction, and the aggravating factor that the murder was committed in the course of a robbery are all supported by competent, substantial evidence. Finally, Monlyn claims that because a general verdict form was used, there is no way to determine on which theory the jury based its verdict, and that the robbery basis is invalid because there is insufficient evidence to support it. This claim, too, fails. First, as discussed above, the felony murder conviction rests firmly on either or both the robbery of the wallet or of the truck. Second, his reliance on Fitzpatrick v. State, 859 So.2d 486 (Fla.2003), is misplaced. In Fitzpatrick we invoked the principle that a general verdict is invalid when it rests on multiple bases, one of which is legally inadequate and reversed for new trial because the jury had been given an erroneous burglary instruction. Id. at 490 (emphasis added) (citing Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 312-13, 77 S.Ct. 1064, 1 L.Ed.2d 1356 (1957)). Thus, the verdict in the case could have been based on a legally unsupportable theory. Monlyn's claim is different; he argues a factual or evidentiary insufficiency. As we explained in Fitzpatrick, claims of legal and factual insufficiency are not synonymous, and reversal is not required in the latter instance. 859 So.2d at 491 (citing Griffin v. United States, 502 U.S. 46, 59, 112 S.Ct. 466, 116 L.Ed.2d 371 (1991)). Thus, even if competent, substantial evidence did not support robbery of the wallet, it does support robbery of the truck, and reversal is not required. And even if Monlyn's felony murder conviction were not supported by the robbery of the wallet or the truck, competent, substantial evidence supports the kidnapping conviction on which the felony murder charge was alternatively based. See Morrison v. State, 818 So.2d 432, 453-54 (Fla.2002) (holding that even if evidence did not support premeditated murder and one of the felony murder bases, the conviction could be affirmed if one of the bases for felony murder was supported by competent, substantial evidence), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 957, 123 S.Ct. 406, 154 L.Ed.2d 308 (2002).