## Facts

- James Walter Todd entered a church and stole about $110 from the collection plate.
- A congregant, Richard Voegltin, saw the theft and pursued Todd by car.
- Voegltin had a preexisting heart condition; during the pursuit he suffered cardiac dysrhythmia, lost control, struck a tree at low speed, and died of cardiac arrest.
- The State charged Todd with manslaughter on the theory that the misdemeanor theft proximately caused Voegltin’s death under a “misdemeanor-manslaughter” (unlawful-act manslaughter) doctrine.
- Todd moved to dismiss, arguing the State could not establish legally sufficient causation, emphasizing the medical uncertainty, the victim’s special vulnerability, and Todd’s lack of knowledge of that vulnerability.
- The trial court denied the motion; Todd entered a guilty plea while expressly reserving the right to appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss.

## Issues

1. Whether Florida recognizes a freestanding “misdemeanor-manslaughter” rule under which an unintended death occurring during commission of a misdemeanor constitutes manslaughter.
2. Whether a manslaughter prosecution may proceed when it is premised solely on that misdemeanor-manslaughter theory rather than on statutory manslaughter requirements and traditional causation limits.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the order denying Todd’s motion to dismiss.
- The court held Florida does not recognize the misdemeanor-manslaughter rule as an independent doctrine establishing manslaughter liability.
- Because the manslaughter charge rested solely on that rejected theory, the charge could not stand and should have been dismissed.

## Legal Principles

- Florida manslaughter liability is governed by statute; courts should not create an additional, broad common-law homicide rule that automatically converts any misdemeanor plus an unintended death into manslaughter.
- A passing reference in prior intermediate appellate authority did not constitute adoption of misdemeanor-manslaughter in Florida.
- Even where unlawful-act theories are discussed, criminal liability for a death requires legally sufficient causation (including proximate cause) assessed within the statutory framework; a temporal link between a misdemeanor and a death is not, by itself, enough.

## Conclusion

The Fifth District Court of Appeal held that Florida does not recognize a separate misdemeanor-manslaughter doctrine and therefore reversed the denial of Todd’s motion to dismiss, barring a manslaughter prosecution founded only on the theory that a misdemeanor theft led to an unintended death during a subsequent pursuit.


Todd v. State, 594 So. 2d 802 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 5th Dist. 1992)