## Facts

- Russell H. Potts and Lawrence Scott Ramirez participated in a burglary of a Clearwater car dealership.
- Ramirez entered the dealership and, during the burglary, placed his hand on an employee, guided the employee to a restroom, and told the employee to remain there.
- Potts drove Ramirez to the scene, waited nearby, then drove the getaway vehicle when summoned.
- Both were charged under Florida’s burglary statute and the principal (aiding and abetting) statute, §§ 810.02 and 777.011, Florida Statutes (1977).
- Ramirez was tried separately and convicted of simple burglary, receiving a five-year sentence.
- Potts was tried separately and convicted of burglary of a structure wherein an assault was committed, receiving a thirty-year sentence.
- The district court rejected Potts’s argument that he could not be convicted of a greater offense than Ramirez, but ordered a new trial on other grounds; review was accepted to resolve a conflict on the greater-offense issue.

## Issues

1. Whether, under § 777.011, an aider and abettor charged as a principal may be convicted of a greater degree of an offense than a confederate who was separately tried and convicted of a lesser degree of the same offense.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court held that an aider and abettor may be convicted of a greater offense than the separately tried principal.
- The court approved the district court’s interpretation of § 777.011 on this point and disapproved contrary authority.
- The court rejected a rule requiring consistent degrees of conviction across separate trials of different participants.

## Legal Principles

- Florida’s principal statute, § 777.011, treats those who aid or abet as principals who may be charged, convicted, and punished as principals.
- An aider and abettor’s degree of criminal liability is determined in the aider’s own trial based on the evidence and instructions given to that jury, not by the outcome of a confederate’s separate prosecution.
- Separate juries may reach different determinations about the degree of the offense; such differences do not, by themselves, invalidate the aider and abettor’s conviction.

## Conclusion

Under Florida Statutes § 777.011, a participant who aids and abets may be convicted and punished for a greater degree of the offense than a separately tried confederate, because each defendant’s guilt and degree of offense are independently determined in that defendant’s own trial.


Potts v. State, 430 So. 2d 900 (Fla. 1982)