Clark v. State

Full title: Sheldon A. CLARK, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee

Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District

Date published: Dec 24, 2003

861 So. 2d 111 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2003)

Opinion

No. 3D01-3513.

December 24, 2003.

An appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Kevin M. Emas, Judge.

Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Bruce A. Rosenthal, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Barbara Zappi and Andrea D. England, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee.

Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and COPE and SHEPHERD, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Sheldon Clark appeals his convictions for first degree murder and burglary of a dwelling.^_

_ He does not challenge his conviction on possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

First, assuming without deciding that duress can be a defense to a felony murder charge, see Wright v. State, 402 So.2d 493, 498 n. 8 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981), we conclude that the defense request for a jury instruction on duress was properly denied, because there was no competent evidence of duress. Second, the motion for judgment of acquittal on the burglary count was correctly denied. See Nicarry v. State, 795 So.2d 1114, 1116 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001), review denied, 819 So.2d 138 (Fla. 2002); Britton v. State, 604 So.2d 1288, 1290 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992).

Affirmed.