House committee approves bill hiking crime level if committed outside home county
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida House committee on Wednesday expanded the list of enhanced crimes an offender could be charged with if they commit the act in a county outside of where they live.
Rep. John Snyder, R-Stuart, filed the bill, HB 531, which passed through the Justice Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday 9-4.
Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, filed an identical version of the bill in the Florida Senate.
The bill states that if a person travels out of their county of residence with the intent to commit a grand theft or a forcible felony, the degree of the offense shall be reclassified to the next higher degree.
The bill replaces “burglary” in the current Florida statute with “grand theft or forcible felony.”
According to the bill analysis, forcible felonies include:
- Treason
- Murder
- Manslaughter
- sexual battery
- Carjacking
- Home-invasion robbery
- Robbery
- Burglary
- Arson
- Kidnapping
- Aggravated assault
- Aggravated battery
- Aggravated stalking
- Aircraft piracy
- Unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb
- Any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.
Rep. Daryl Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, said he thinks the bill “leaves too much room for questioning, too much room for error, human error.”
Rep. Michael Gottlieb, D-Davie, said he thinks the bill “may make it harder to prosecute certain cases.”
“Because on certain offenses, now, the state attorney doesn’t just have to prove the intent to commit the crime, they also have to prove the intent to cross county lines to commit the crime,” Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb said he would not vote in approval of the bill, but he said he will work with Snyder to “try to make it better.”
Rep. Mike Beltran, R-Riverview, thanked Snyder for the “good bill” and addressed some of the concerns surrounding the bill.
He said someone who has committed a crime and moves from jurisdiction to jurisdiction “is attempting to evade detection or evade apprehension,” making the individual less recognizable in the neighboring county.
“It’s gonna be harder for the authorities to track them down,” Beltran said.
“And so with a decreased ability for law enforcement to capture that person or to apprehend and charge that person is going to come a lower deterrent to that person with the same punishment, which is why the punishment has to be higher if it’s going to be harder to prosecute them and it’s not unfair and it’s not unusual,” he said. “All you have to do is look at federal criminal law.”
