IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA
HAROLD HAMMOND, NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO
FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND
Appellant, DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED
v. CASE NO. 1D16-0897
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
_____________________________/
Opinion filed September 27, 2017.
An appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County.
Bruce Anderson, Judge.
Andy Thomas, Public Defender, and Megan Lynne Long, Assistant Public Defender,
Tallahassee, for Appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Robert Quentin Humphrey, Assistant
Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Harold Hammond appeals his convictions for second-degree murder,
tampering with evidence (clothing and a firearm), possession of a firearm by a
convicted felon, and battery. He raises a single issue: whether the trial court should
have severed his battery count from his other charges, pursuant to Florida Rule of
Criminal Procedure 3.152(a)(2)(A). We review the trial court’s decision for an abuse
of discretion. Russ v. State, 832 So. 2d 901, 908 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002).
While the exact timeline of events was disputed throughout Hammond’s
prosecution, Hammond admitted both before and during trial that, at some point
during the evening hours of February 21st and morning hours of February 22nd,
2009, he not only shot and killed his neighbor, Kenneth Solada, but also battered his
live-in girlfriend’s son, Timothy Mossman. Hammond claimed self-defense as to
both, but the jury convicted him on all counts.
On appeal, Hammond argues that his battering Mossman arose from an
encounter wholly unrelated to his shooting Solada. He explains the crimes had
different victims and took place at different times and places. And, he argues, they
had different causes—namely, that he fought with Mossman because of a strained
living situation and shot Solada because Solada threatened him with a gun.
Hammond claims the charges therefore could not have been joined and that the
joinder denied him a fair trial. See Hart v. State, 70 So. 3d 615 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011)
(holding that joinder can deprive a defendant of a fair trial when evidence of one
crime is improperly used to bolster proof of the other). The State counters by arguing
that the murder and battery were connected by temporal proximity, physical
proximity, and a common motive (Hammond’s desire to obtain and use drugs),
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thereby constituting a single criminal episode and making their consolidation proper.
See Fletcher v. State, 168 So. 3d 186 (Fla. 2015) (affirming the denial of the
defendant’s motion to sever when his criminal acts shared temporal proximity,
physical proximity, and a common motive). We find the State’s argument more
persuasive.
The record included evidence that Hammond beat Mossman because
Mossman’s mother refused to give Hammond money for drugs, and that Hammond
murdered Solada because Solada refused to share a bottle of Xanax pills. While
Hammond contested these claims throughout his trial (and on appeal), we cannot
conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in denying Hammond’s motion to
sever. Given the facts presented, a reasonable judge could conclude that the crimes
were “temporally [and] geographically associated” and “linked in some significant
way.” Fletcher, 168 So. 3d at 202; see also Trease v. State, 768 So. 2d 1050, 1053
n.2 (Fla. 2000) (“[D]iscretion is abused only where no reasonable [person] would
take the view adopted by the trial court.”) (alteration in original) (quoting Huff v.
State, 569 So. 2d 1247, 1249 (Fla. 1990)). In fact, a reasonable judge could find that
the crimes were separated by only a few hours and a few yards. Moreover, a
reasonable judge could conclude that severance was not “necessary to achieve a fair
determination of guilt or innocence,” when the evidence suggested both crimes were
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relevant to understanding the motive behind Hammond’s entire criminal episode.
Fletcher, 168 So. 3d at 203.
AFFIRMED.
B.L. THOMAS, C.J., and OSTERHAUS and WINSOR, JJ., CONCUR.
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