Mitchell v. State

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided December 18, 1997

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1997-12-18

Relies on 703 So. 2d 1045 - Dale v. State · 698 So. 2d 555 - Mitchell v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1997-12-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently March 2019

21 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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SHAW, Justice.

¶1We have for review Mitchell v. State, 698 So.2d 555, 557 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997), wherein the district court certified:

If the State fails to prove that a BB pistol is loaded and operable at the time of an offense, can it be classified as a dangerous or deadly weapon when the defendant’s actions cause the victim to reasonably believe that the BB pistol is loaded and operable?

¶2We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We recently addressed this issue in Dale v. State, 703 So.2d 1045 (Fla.1997), wherein we held that whether a BB gun— loaded or unloaded — is a deadly weapon is a jury question. We approve Mitchell.

¶3It is so ordered.

KOGAN, C.J., HARDING, WELLS and ANSTEAD, JJ., and GRIMES, Senior Justice, concur.