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603 So. 2d 130

Green v. State

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided August 11, 1992

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1992-08-11

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently February 2002

1 state decisions

Relies on 306 So. 2d 104 - Negron v. State · Beasley v. State · Henigson v. Davis

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1992-08-11

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FERGUSON, Judge.

¶1Green was convicted and sentenced for burglary and grand theft of a police scanner from a University of Miami complex. He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on the theft charge and the seven-year sentence on the burglary charge. We reverse on both points.

¶2The offenses were witnessed by Charles Harvey, a patrol investigator and shift commander employed by the University, who recovered the scanner and arrested the defendant. On direct examination he valued the item at its $399.95 invoice price without indicating the age or condition of the scanner, or whether in his valuation an allowance had been made for depreciation. See Negron v. State, 306 So.2d 104 (Fla.1974) (proof of value is essential element of crime of grand larceny; testimony as to cost is insufficient to establish value). On cross-examination Harvey admitted to having previously reported the value at between $250 and $350.

¶3This case is controlled by Negronand Beasley v. State, 305 So.2d 285 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974), cert. denied, 315 So.2d 180 (Fla.1975). In Beasley, we held that a theft victim’s testimony that the stolen stereo was purchased for $225 one year before the theft was insufficient to prove that the stereo had a market value in excess of $100 on the date of the theft.

¶4On the sentencing issue the State concedes, correctly, that burglary of a structure, as charged in the information, is a third-degree felony punishable by a maximum five-year sentence. §§ 810.02(3), 775.082(3)(d), Fla.Stat. (1991).

¶5The conviction for burglary is affirmed, but the sentence is vacated; the conviction for grand theft is reduced to petite theft and the sentence is vacated; the cause is remanded for resentencing.

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