Robert Clayton GEHRING, Jr., Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
*170 James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Clark E. Green, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Chandra Waite Dasrat, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
CANADY, Judge.
Robert Clayton Gehring, Jr., appeals his convictions for aggravated stalking and carrying a concealed firearm. We affirm the aggravated stalking conviction without comment. Based on the authority discussed below, we reverse the conviction for carrying a concealed firearm.
Detectives with the Lee County Sheriff's Department were investigating a complaint against Gehring for violation of an antistalking injunction. The detectives, believing they had probable cause to make an arrest for aggravated stalking, went to Gehring's address and learned that Gehring lived in a trailer on the property. They waited for fifteen minutes, and Gehring arrived in a vehicle. Gehring exited the vehicle, and the detectives explained to him that he was under arrest. Gehring was placed into a marked patrol unit that had arrived on the scene, and the detectives looked into the vehicle Gehring had been driving. In the vehicle, they found items relating to the aggravated stalking as well as shotgun shells and a pistol grip shotgun. The shotgun was lying on the front passenger seat underneath a blue jacket.
Gehring was later charged with aggravated stalking and carrying a concealed firearm. Gehring proceeded to jury trial and was convicted as charged on both counts. The trial court sentenced Gehring to five years in prison on the aggravated stalking count and to twenty-nine months and fifteen days in prison on the carrying a concealed firearm count.
On appeal, Gehring argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal on the carrying a concealed firearm charge because the shotgun was not on or about his person when it was discovered. Gehring claims that he had gotten out of the car and was arrested before the detectives found the shotgun in the vehicle. Gehring relies on two cases: Lamb v. State,
"A person who carries a concealed firearm on or about his or her person commits a felony of the third degree. . . ." § 790.01(2), Fla. Stat. (2003). "For a firearm to be concealed, it must be (1) on or about the person and (2) hidden from the ordinary sight of another person." Ensor v. State,
In Lamb,
In White,
that although [the] appellant had previously occupied the vehicle in which the firearm was found, and which he admitted was his, he was standing outside the automobile at the time the searching officer recovered the weapon within it. Only after the revolver was seized was [the] appellant arrested for its possession.
The court relied on Lamb and reversed the appellant's conviction of carrying a concealed firearm, concluding that the revolver was not on or about the appellant's person. Id.
The State asserts that this issue was not preserved because Gehring's trial counsel did not move for a judgment of acquittal of the carrying a concealed firearm charge on this basis. "In general, to raise a claimed error on appeal, a litigant must object at trial when the alleged error occurs. . . . The sole exception to the contemporaneous objection rule applies where the error is fundamental." F.B. v. State,
In moving for a judgment of acquittal, Gehring's trial counsel did not make the specific argument that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the firearm was on or about Gehring's person. Counsel only argued that the State had not proven the aggravated stalking count. Therefore, the specific issue raised on appeal was not preserved. See Goad v. State,
The evidence presented at trial did not show that the firearm was simultaneously carried by Gehring and concealed. Based on Lamb, we must reverse Gehring's conviction for carrying a concealed firearm. Cf. J.E.S. v. State,
Affirmed in part; reversed in part.
FULMER, C.J., and DAVIS, J., Concur.
