Quintana-Camporredondo v. State

The trial court did not reversibly err in answering the jury's request to clarify which charged crime was a felony, since the trial court did not discuss possible sentences.

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Johan Andres Quintana-Camporredonda appeals his conviction and sentence of aggravated battery and criminal trespass. In his sole enumeration of error, he contends the trial court made a reversible error responding to a question from the jury while it was deliberating. Evidence presented at trial shows that the appellant pointed a handgun at Luis Suarez in a threatening manner while Suarez was sitting in a car, then the appellant hit him in the eye with the handgun. Suarez received eight stitches for the wound near his eye. Suarez also heard a sound that made him think that he might have been shot, and he ran into a nearby store. Other testimony showed that the sound he heard was the car window being broken by a co-defendant. The damage to the car was the basis for the criminal trespass charge. In addition to aggravated battery and criminal trespass, the appellant was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony the aggravated assault, but he was acquitted of these additional charges.

At the appellant’s request, the court charged the jury on the lesser included offenses of battery and simple battery as they relate to aggravated battery. During jury deliberations, the jury submitted the following question to the court: “Is simple battery a felony Battery a felony Aggravated Battery a felony” Before consulting with the attorneys, the judge sent the note back marked “no” or “yes” next to each question. The judge addressed the parties thereafter: I have sent them a note back that says simple battery is not a felony; that battery is not a felony because none of the circumstances that would make battery a felony, I don’t believe, are present in this case; and that aggravated battery is a felony. Counsel for appellant did not object or otherwise respond to the court’s statement or raise the issue in his motion for new trial. He contends that the issue is preserved for appeal because earlier, following the court’s charge to the jury, he had reserved the right to raise objections to the charge on appeal.

Quintana-Camporredondo v. State

The trial court did not reversibly err in answering the jury's request to clarify which charged crime was a felony, since the trial court did not discuss possible sentences.

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