Brown v. State
The First DCA, on rehearing, affirmed Brown's convictions for armed robbery, three counts of kidnapping, conspiracy, and felon-in-possession, finding none of his unpreserved claims rose to fundamental error. The court applied the Faison test to uphold the kidnapping convictions where victims were forced back into a restaurant beyond what was inherent to the robbery, and held that a general hearsay objection did not preserve a specific co-conspirator-foundation challenge, so the court's failure to require threshold conspiracy findings before admitting a co-conspirator's statement was reviewed only for fundamental error (and found harmless given overwhelming other evidence).
Key facts
- Brown was convicted in trial court of armed robbery, three counts of kidnapping, conspiracy, and felon-in-possession.
- During the robbery, victims were forced back into a restaurant and sequestered beyond what was necessary to complete the robbery.
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Why it matters
This opinion offers a useful practical application of the Faison kidnapping test to a robbery-with-detention fact pattern, and reinforces that counsel must lodge the specific foundational objection (not just 'hearsay')… — full analysis with a trial
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