Criminal Law
Criminal law — Murder — Armed robbery — Evidence — Trial court did not err in admitting evidence of defendant’s earlier attempt to commit another robbery — Such evidence was admissible to show defendant’s intent — Trial court did not abuse discretion in admitting portion of defendant’s taped confession in which defendant, in response to detective’s question as to where he got gun used in murder, explained that he had obtained the gun in a residential burglary, a crime for which defendant was not charged — Any error in admitting statement was harmless
Reported at 35 Fla. L. Weekly D846a
Dissolution of marriage — Alimony — Reduction — Income — In calculating amount of reduced alimony to be paid to former wife, court improperly included annuity payments as income for former husband if payments were from principal — Court erred in failing to include in former wife’s income sums she was receiving from investments — Court should not impute to either party income from reverse mortgages
Reported at 35 Fla. L. Weekly D846b
Dissolution of marriage — Error to order return to husband of funds he had voluntarily and unconditionally paid to wife to reduce a self-acknowledged debt to her where that relief was not pled and was not justified — Error to award guardian ad litem fees against wife where there was no evidence of what services were provided or their claimed value — Wife was entitled to prejudgment interest on fixed obligations owed to her by husband
Reported at 35 Fla. L. Weekly D842e
Injunction for protection against domestic violence — Dissolution of marriage — Where dissolution of marriage proceedings and wife’s petition for injunction for protection against domestic violence were assigned to the same judge, it was error for judge to grant petition for domestic violence injunction based on judge’s observations during custody hearing in dissolution proceeding — In granting domestic violence injunction, court overlooked fact that it had two separate proceedings pending before it — Court had ability to take judicial notice of records and proceedings in dissolution proceeding, but to do so, court was required to follow procedures in section 90.204, Florida Statutes, which require court to give parties notice of intent to rely upon these records and to make records part of record in the proceeding
Reported at 35 Fla. L. Weekly D833a
Mortgage foreclosure — Jurisdiction — Non-residents — Allegation that non-resident defendant owned property in state was sufficient to give rise to personal jurisdiction under long-arm statute — Trial court erred in finding that it lacked personal jurisdiction necessary to enter deficiency judgment — Default — Plaintiff failed to meet its burden of establishing error with respect to trial court’s order vacating default and affording property owner the opportunity to file an answer