Opinion ID: 1740628
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: Corpus Delicti for Sexual Battery

Text: Chavez next claims that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal as to the capital sexual battery charge because the State failed to prove the corpus delicti of the crime. The phrase corpus delicti refers to proof independent of a confession that the crime was in fact committed. See Schwab v. State, 636 So.2d 3, 6 (Fla.1994). Here, as in Schwab, we find this assertion unpersuasive. In Schwab, the defendant had moved for judgment of acquittal on the murder, sexual battery, and kidnapping charges against him, arguing that the State had failed to prove the corpus delicti of those crimes independent of his statements. On appeal, Schwab argued that the trial court erred in denying those motions. In rejecting this argument, the Court articulated the general principles which govern a corpus delicti analysis: The general order of proof is to show that a crime has been committed and then that the defendant committed it. Spanish v. State, 45 So.2d 753 (Fla. 1950); see State v. Allen, 335 So.2d 823 (Fla.1976). But in many cases the two elements are so intimately connected that the proof of the corpus delicti and the guilty agency are shown at the same time. Spanish, 45 So.2d at 754. Thus, the evidence which tends to prove one may also tend to prove the other, so that the existence of the crime and the guilt of the defendant may stand together and inseparable on one foundation of circumstantial evidence. Cross v. State, 96 Fla. 768, 780-81, 119 So. 380, 384 (1928). A defendant's confession or statement may be considered in connection with the other evidence, but the corpus delicti cannot rest upon the confession or admission alone. Id. at 781, 119 So. at 384. Before a confession or statement may be admitted, there must be prima facie proof tending to show the crime was committed. Frazier v. State, 107 So.2d 16 (Fla.1958); Cross; see Farinas v. State, 569 So.2d 425 (Fla.1990); Bassett v. State, 449 So.2d 803 (Fla.1984). Additionally, by the end of trial the corpus delicti must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Cross. 636 So.2d at 6. In applying these principles to the facts in Schwab, we stated: The state's proof met these standards. The medical examiner testified that the victim died from manual asphyxiation, most probably by strangling or smothering. The victim's nude body and the clothes that had been cut off him were found concealed in a footlocker in a remote location. Cf. Stano v. State, 473 So.2d 1282 (Fla.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1093, 106 S.Ct. 869, 88 L.Ed.2d 907 (1986). A wad of tape also found in the footlocker yielded a fingerprint identified as Schwab's. Witnesses testified that Schwab rented and returned the U-haul truck. Although the victim may have gone willingly with Schwab initially, the conclusion that at some point he was held against his will is inescapable. Cf. Sochor v. State, 619 So.2d 285 (Fla.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1025, 114 S.Ct. 638, 126 L.Ed.2d 596 (1993); Bedford v. State, 589 So.2d 245 (Fla.1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 1009, 112 S.Ct. 1773, 118 L.Ed.2d 432 (1992). The details in Schwab's statements correspond well with the physical evidence. Therefore, we hold that the state submitted sufficient proof of the corpus delicti to admit Schwab's admissions that he kidnapped and raped the victim. Moreover, all of the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt the corpus delicti of each of the charged crimes and that Schwab committed them. The Schwab analysis is instructive in this case. Here, as in Schwab, the details in Chavez's confession correspond well with the physical evidence. The victim a little boyhad disappeared months before his body was found, at a time when he had been expected to return home directly from school (suggesting that he was taken by an adult by force). The Scheinhaus property where Chavez lived was in the same general vicinity from which the little boy had disappeared. Mrs. Scheinhaus found a handgun which had been stolen from her in Chavez's trailer at the same time that she discovered the victim's book bag there. Both the gun and the book bag were found to have Chavez's prints on them, and the gun was positively identified as the murder weapon. From these facts, as in Schwab, the conclusion that at some point [the child victim] was held against his will is inescapable. The little boy, who died almost instantly from a gunshot wound, bled on the threshold of the horse farm trailer (which was situated in a remote location), suggesting that the murderer had stopped him as he tried to escape. As observed by the trial court here in making its ruling, [t]he state established that the victim didn't know the defendant, and there was no reason for Jimmy Ryce to be alone with the defendant in a remote area of Dade County in a small trailer. There was no evidence that a ransom demand was ever made. Jimmy's remains showed, significantly, that his pants were still unzipped. He was also otherwise partially unclothed, having one shoe off, and a sock missing, further suggesting that he had, at some point, been disrobed. A tube of lubricant matching the description Chavez gave in his final confession was recovered from the trailer where the victim died and admitted into evidence, providing additional corroboration of the details of Chavez's confession regarding the sexual battery. On these facts, the trial court did not err in concluding that the State had submitted sufficient proof of the corpus delicti to admit into evidence Chavez's admissions that he had sexually assaulted the victim. The evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt the corpus delicti of the sexual battery charge, and that Chavez committed it.