STEPHEN MIZNER v. STATE OF FLORIDA
Case No. 2D13-1917
IN THE SECOND DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL, LAKELAND, FLORIDA
December 3, 2014
SECOND DISTRICT OPINION
Upon the court‘s own motion,
IT IS ORDERED that the opinion dated July 30, 2014, is withdrawn, and the attached opinion is substituted therefore.
I HEREBY CERTIFY THE FOREGOING IS A TRUE COPY OF THE ORIGINAL COURT ORDER.
JAMES BIRKHOLD, CLERK
Opinion filed December 3, 2014.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Sarasota County; Donna Padar Berlin, Judge.
Howard L. Dimmig, II, Public Defender and Stephen M. Grogoza, Special Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Brandon R. Christian, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
WALLACE, Judge.
On its own motion, the court withdraws its opinion of July 30, 2014, and substitutes the following opinion in its place. The opinion is unchanged substantively except that we substitute the following language for the last two sentences of our original opinion: We affirm the judgment imposed with regard to Count 2, traveling to meet a minor, and we vacate Mr. Mizner‘s sentence for Count 2. Because Mr. Mizner‘s
A jury found Stephen Mizner guilty of multiple offenses arising from his entanglement in a “sexual mentor” sting operation that was initiated by law enforcement officers on the Internet. Mr. Mizner appeals his judgment and sentences, raising multiple issues. Finding merit in some of his arguments and rejecting others, we affirm in part and reverse in part.
I. THE FACTS
On November 1, 2011, a special agent employed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (the FDLE Agent) was assigned to the Department‘s cybercrime squad operating out of the Tampa region. On that day, the FDLE Agent began an undercover online operation with the Hardee County Sheriff‘s Office designed “to identify individuals who may be online seeking to sexually exploit children.” The FDLE Agent and the other officers set up a “sexual mentor” sting operation. In this type of operation, a law enforcement officer places an online advertisement in which the officer pretends to be an older relative—usually but not always a mother—soliciting a man to “teach” the older relative‘s minor relation about sex.1
The FDLE Agent began the sting operation on November 1 at 2:07 p.m. by placing an online advertisement in the “casual encounters” subsection of the personals section of the Sarasota Craigslist. The ad began as follows: “Single Mom Looking for Family Fun—w4m-35 (Zolfo Springs, FL).” The FDLE Agent explained at trial that “w4m” indicated that the ad was placed by a woman looking for a man. The reference to “35” denoted “Cindy‘s” age; “Zolfo Springs” was her place of residence. The ad continued: “I am single mom with a 10yo daughter and we are both nudists. We are seeking family fun. Must be discreet and DD. Email if interested.” The FDLE Agent explained further that “DD” typically meant “disease and drug free,” but that it could also mean “discreet and actually drug free.” The ad was signed, “Cindy,” and once again designated her location as in Zolfo Springs.
Fifteen minutes after the FDLE Agent placed the personal ad on Craigslist, Mr. Mizner responded as follows by e-mail: “Hello cindy . . . how are you ... i am interested... i like hanging out nude.” The FDLE Agent‘s initial reply as “Cindy” inquired about Mr. Mizner‘s interest in “family fun with my daughter and I.” (Emphasis added.) After a few e-mail exchanges, Mr. Mizner and “Cindy” began a lengthy series of communications over a period from November 1 through November 3. At the beginning of these exchanges, “Cindy” inquired if Mr. Mizner would be willing to act as a sexual mentor for the ten-year-old “Sabrina.” Although Mr. Mizner‘s initial expression of interest was directed to the thirty-five-year-old “Cindy,” he readily agreed to her proposal that he act as a sexual mentor for “Sabrina.” The FDLE Agent also arranged for a female Sarasota County Sheriff‘s detective (the Detective) to have two controlled
The tactical goal of the sting operation was to have the targets travel to the undercover residence in Zolfo Springs, prepared to have sexual intercourse with “Sabrina.” Upon arrival, the unsuspecting targets could be arrested for various offenses, including attempted sexual battery on a minor less than twelve years of age. However, Mr. Mizner lived in Sarasota, and he did not own a vehicle. For this reason, “Cindy” agreed to drive to Sarasota and to meet Mr. Mizner at a fast food restaurant located on Clark Road in Sarasota, at an exit just off of
Mr. Mizner was waiting at the fast food restaurant at 10:30 a.m. when the Detective, who was playing the role of “Cindy,” arrived in her unmarked vehicle. Before going to the restaurant, Mr. Mizner had stopped at a convenience store and purchased a box of candy for “Sabrina” and two boxes of condoms in accordance with “Cindy‘s” previous instructions. Mr. Mizner got into the Detective‘s vehicle and requested a hug
After Mr. Mizner was in custody, a deputy employed by the Sarasota County Sheriff‘s Department (the Deputy) interviewed him at the sheriff‘s office. At this point, Mr. Mizner did not realize that Cindy and Sabrina were fictitious persons. However, he did suspect that the Detective, whom he still believed to be “Cindy,” was actually a detective operating undercover. When the Deputy inquired of Mr. Mizner concerning whether he actually intended to assist “Cindy” by having sexual intercourse with “Sabrina,” he responded, “There‘s no way I would have been able to go through with it. No way. I have a conscience. I have daughters.” Captivated by “Cindy‘s” convincing online and telephonic persona, Mr. Mizner said that he “wanted to go in [to the restaurant], you know, and meet her and just talk to her and, you know, get a vibe, like you would on a blind date.” Mr. Mizner‘s post-arrest interview suggests that he was more interested in developing a relationship with the thirty-five-year-old “Cindy” than he was with her ten-year-old daughter. Unfortunately for him, Mr. Mizner‘s instant messages and telephone conversations with “Cindy” do not display a similar reluctance to participate in sexual behavior with “Sabrina.” In fact, Mr. Mizner‘s communications to “Cindy” explicitly discuss proposed sexual behavior involving him, “Cindy,” and “Sabrina.”
II. THE PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
The State filed an information against Mr. Mizner charging him with four offenses: Count 1, soliciting a parent to consent to sex with a minor in violation of
The trial court adjudged Mr. Mizner to be guilty in accordance with the jury‘s verdict. The trial court imposed sentences on Mr. Mizner as follows: Count 1, five years in prison; Count 2, fifteen years in prison; Count 3, five years in prison; and Count 4, twenty years in prison followed by ten years of sex offender probation. The trial court designated the sentences to run concurrently. Also, the trial court designated Mr. Mizner to be a sexual predator.
III. MR. MIZNER‘S APPELLATE ISSUES
On appeal, Mr. Mizner raises five issues. First, he argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal and motion for new trial with regard to Count 1, the soliciting offense. Second, Mr. Mizner contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal on count 4, the offense of attempted sexual battery. Third, Mr. Mizner asserts that the trial court erred in refusing to give the jury his special jury instruction on attempted sexual battery. Fourth, Mr. Mizner argues that his convictions for soliciting and unlawful use of a two-way communications device violate double jeopardy because they are subsumed within the other offenses and occurred during a single act. Finally, Mr. Mizner asserts that fundamental error exists with regard to all four of the offenses for which he was found guilty because the conduct of the law enforcement officers at issue is so outrageous that it constitutes objective entrapment. We find merit in Mr. Mizner‘s second and fourth arguments. Mr. Mizner‘s first and fifth arguments are without merit and do not warrant
IV. DISCUSSION
A. Mere Preparation or Overt Act toward the Commission of Sexual Battery?
On his second appellate issue, Mr. Mizner concedes that he appeared at the restaurant on Clark Road at the appointed time carrying a box of candy for “Sabrina” and two boxes of condoms. However, Mr. Mizner argues that his actions in this regard were preparatory only and did not amount to the overt act necessary to prove an attempt to commit a sexual battery on a minor less than twelve years of age. In order to analyze Mr. Mizner‘s argument on this issue, we must first review the pertinent facts.
During Mr. Mizner‘s initial exchange of instant messages with “Cindy” on November 1, he suggested that the parties meet at the fast food restaurant on Clark Road. “Cindy” subsequently responded to this suggestion as follows: “I like [the restaurant] you mentioned before because we could sit an [sic] talk first and get to know each other first.” In a subsequent telephone conversation with Mr. Mizner, the Detective, who was playing the role of “Cindy,” outlined her plan for the meeting with Mr. Mizner and subsequent events. First, Mr. Mizner and “Cindy” would have lunch at the restaurant and talk. Later, after arriving at “Cindy‘s” home in Zolfo Springs, they would pick up “Sabrina” from school, return home, and have dinner. Finally, “Cindy,” “Sabrina,” and Mr. Mizner would retire to “Cindy‘s” bedroom.
Preparation generally consists of devising or arranging the means or measures necessary for the commission of the offense. The attempt is the direct movement toward the commission after preparations are completed. The act must reach far enough toward accomplishing the desired result to amount to commencement of the consummation of the crime. Some appreciable fragment of the crime must be committed and it must proceed to the point that the crime would be consummated unless interrupted by a circumstance independent of the attempt[e]r‘s will. The act need not be, however, the ultimate, the last proximate, or the last possible act toward consummation of the crime.
Coker, 452 So. 2d at 1136 (citations omitted). “[T]he line between preparatory acts and overt acts is difficult to draw and tends to be case specific.” Hudson v. State, 745 So. 2d 997, 1000 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999).
In reviewing the facts in this case, two reasons lead us to conclude that Mr. Mizner‘s conduct constituted mere preparation and not overt acts leading to the
Second, when Mr. Mizner was arrested in the restaurant parking lot in Sarasota, he was approximately sixty miles and eight-to-ten hours away from the proposed sexual contact with “Sabrina.” Before that event could occur, the following steps needed to happen: (1) Mr. Mizner and “Cindy” had to eat lunch at the restaurant; (2) “Cindy” had to drive Mr. Mizner to Zolfo Springs; (3) Mr. Mizner and “Cindy” had to pick up “Sabrina” from school; and (4) dinner had to be prepared, served, and eaten. It would have been impossible for Mr. Mizner to have committed a sexual battery upon “Sabrina” in Sarasota. Here, the nature of the impossibility at issue is not that “Sabrina” is a fictitious persona. Instead, to the extent that “Sabrina” is a person for the purpose of our analysis of Mr. Mizner‘s culpability under the law of attempts, she was attending school in another community approximately sixty miles away when the law enforcement officers placed Mr. Mizner under arrest. Thus Mr. Mizner could not have committed a
Here, Mr. Mizner‘s lack of his own transportation prevented the FDLE Agent and the other law enforcement officers from achieving their tactical goal of having him drive himself to the undercover residence in Zolfo Springs. See generally Sheetz, supra at 414-15 (discussing the tactical and strategic reasons that law enforcement agencies prefer to have the target of such investigations meet the undercover officer at the officer‘s location). Thus they had to improvise with a meeting at a distant location and to make the arrest of Mr. Mizner in Sarasota. This hitch in their operational plan does not justify ignoring the absence of an overt act by Mr. Mizner toward the commission of a sexual battery on “Sabrina.”
For these reasons, the trial court erred in denying Mr. Mizner‘s motion for a judgment of acquittal on count 4 of the information, attempted sexual battery on a minor less than twelve years of age. Accordingly, we reverse Mr. Mizner‘s judgment and sentence for attempted sexual battery and remand for his discharge on that offense.
B. The Double Jeopardy Issues.
On his fourth appellate issue, Mr. Mizner argues that his convictions for soliciting a parent to consent to sex with minor, in violation of
The State acknowledged in its answer brief and at oral argument that the offenses do not each contain a separate element of proof that the others do not and that the offense of solicitation is subsumed within the traveling offense and that the offense of unlawful use of a two-way communications device is subsumed within the traveling and soliciting offenses. Thus, the State acknowledged that Mr. Mizner‘s convictions would not withstand scrutiny under a Blockburger4 analysis, as codified in section
Mr. Mizner‘s argument, and the State‘s concession, that the solicitation offense is subsumed within the traveling offense is consistent with this court‘s recent holding to that effect in Shelley v. State, 134 So. 3d 1138 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014), review granted, No. SC14-755, 2014 WL 3360176 (Fla. Jul. 1, 2014). In addition, we agree with the parties’ arguments that the offense of unlawful use of a two-way communications device in this case was subsumed within the soliciting and traveling offenses.
The State argues that because the evidence at trial would support a finding that each of the offenses occurred on different days during separate episodes we should affirm Mr. Mizner‘s convictions. We recognized in Shelley “that convictions for both soliciting and traveling may be legally imposed in cases in which the State has charged and proven separate uses of computer devices to solicit.” 134 So. 3d at 1142. However, because in Shelley the State charged only one use of computer devices to solicit based on conduct that occurred on the same day as the traveling offense, we rejected the State‘s argument that the evidence reflected three separate uses of computer devices such that the soliciting charge was not subsumed within the traveling charge. Id. at 1141-42.6
Although the offenses charged in this case spanned more than one day, the State charged single counts of soliciting, traveling, and unlawful use of a two-way communications device. And, the State charged each of the offenses over the same time period, from November 1, 2011, to November 4, 2011. Thus we reject the State‘s argument, as we did in Shelley, that the evidence could support convictions for each offense as occurring during a separate criminal episode. The State did not charge the offenses as occurring during separate criminal episodes; rather, it charged them as
Finally, we note that in Shelley, we rejected the State‘s argument that although the soliciting offense in that case was subsumed in the traveling offense, the legislature intended to allow multiple punishments for the two crimes. After reviewing the statutory language, we concluded in Shelley that “there is an explicit statement of the legislature‘s intent to authorize multiple punishments for each violation of section 847.0135(3)(b) [(soliciting)]. However, there is no explicit statement of intent to authorize multiple punishments for conduct that violates both section 847.0135(3)(b) and section 847.0135(4)(b) [(traveling)].” Id. at 1140. We noted that the First District had reached the opposite conclusion in State v. Murphy, 124 So. 3d 323 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013), and certified conflict with Murphy.
Here, the State summarized in its brief the First District‘s conclusion in Murphy as follows: “[B]ecause these two offenses[, soliciting and traveling,] are separately established and defined and punished as separate degrees of offenses, there is no double jeopardy violation.” But the State acknowledged that the offenses of soliciting and traveling are “part of the very same statutory section” and “[t]hus, it is debatable whether the statutory scheme clearly establishes the legislature‘s intent to separately convict and punish a defendant for these two offenses when they are committed in the same criminal episode.”
V. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we vacate Mr. Mizner‘s judgment and the sentences imposed with regard to Count 1, soliciting a parent, and Count 3, unlawful use of a two-way communications device. We reverse Mr. Mizner‘s judgment and sentence on Count 4, attempt to commit sexual battery. On remand, the trial court shall discharge Mr. Mizner on this offense. We affirm the judgment imposed with regard to Count 2, traveling to meet a minor, and we vacate Mr. Mizner‘s sentence for Count 2. Because Mr. Mizner‘s conviction for attempt to commit sexual battery by a person eighteen years of age or older upon a child less than twelve years of age was the primary offense on Mr. Mizner‘s scoresheet, he is entitled to resentencing with a corrected scoresheet on his remaining conviction for traveling to meet a minor. See Vroom v. State, 48 So. 3d 82, 84 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010). We also certify conflict with Murphy.
Affirmed in part; vacated in part; reversed and remanded in part; and conflict certified.
ALTENBERND and NORTHCUTT, JJ., Concur.
