Opinion ID: 1723644
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: admission of codefendant's statements against franqui

Text: Franqui also asserts that the trial court erred by permitting the confession of his codefendant Ricardo Gonzalez to be admitted against him in their joint trial and by denying his motion to sever his trial from that of his codefendant. In Franqui v. State, 699 So.2d 1312 (Fla.1997), we discussed in detail the law applicable to the admissibility of a codefendant's confession. In this case, there is no question that Gonzalez's confession interlocked with Franqui's confession in many respects and was substantially incriminating to Franqui. Moreover, we cannot say that the totality of the circumstances under which Gonzalez made his confession demonstrated the particularized guarantee of trustworthiness sufficient to overcome the presumption of unreliability that attaches to accomplices' hearsay confessions which implicate the defendant. Thus, the admission of Gonzalez's confession was error. However, with respect to guilt, we conclude that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Not only did Franqui confess to participating in the robbery, he also admitted shooting the victim. He does not contest the legality of his confession in this appeal. In addition, a bullet recovered from the victim came from Franqui's gun, and an eyewitness identified Franqui as the driver of one of the stolen cars leaving the scene of the crime. Finally, Franqui's fingerprints were also found on one of the stolen vehicles used to commit the crime. Thus, we conclude that there is no reasonable possibility that the erroneous admission of Gonzalez's confession contributed to Franqui's conviction for felony murder.