2D06-3362 / Santoro v. State

SUPREME COURT CASES

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State: Florida

Court: Florida Southern District Court

Docket No: 2D06-3362

Case Date: 06/22/2007

Plaintiff: 2D06-3362 / Santoro

Defendant: State

Preview:NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA SECOND DISTRICT JOSEPH SALVATORE SANTORO, ) ) Appellant, ) ) v. ) ) STATE OF FLORIDA, ) ) Appellee. ) ___________________________________ ) Opinion filed June 22, 2007. Appeal from the Circuit Court for Collier County; Cynthia A. Ellis, Judge. James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Raymond Dix, Special Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant. Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jonathan P. Hurley, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

Case No. 2D06-3362

LaROSE, Judge. Joseph Salvatore Santoro appeals his convictions and sentences for eighteen counts of felony bookmaking. We affirm. Mr. Santoro argues that the State failed to prove that he committed the crimes in Florida. We write to address his claim

that United States v. Truesdale, 152 F.3d 443 (5th Cir. 1998), a case dealing with offshore bookmaking, compels reversal. As we explain below, Truesdale is unavailing. Mr. Santoro also argues that the State failed to prove his intent to commit multiple offenses and that the State relied on improper identification evidence to convict him. Mr. Santoro failed to preserve these alleged errors in the trial court; he has not demonstrated fundamental error. Thus, we reject these arguments without further discussion. Between late 2001 and early 2002, the Collier County Sheriff's Office investigated Mr. Santoro's bookmaking operations. Mr. Santoro contacted an undercover officer and asked if he wanted to place bets. Mr. Santoro confirmed the events on which the officer would like to place bets, informed the officer of his dollar limits, and provided toll-free service numbers and an identification number for placing bets. Mr. Santoro also gave the officer his personal phone number. Thereafter, the undercover officer placed numerous bets by phone with unknown individuals using the service numbers provided by Mr. Santoro. On one occasion, Mr. Santoro met the officer in Naples and paid him $1500 for bets made during the undercover operation. A week later, the officer and Mr. Santoro spoke by phone to arrange a $1150 payment by the officer. Mr. Santoro instructed the officer to send the money to Mr. Santoro's Fort Lauderdale address. The sheriff's office sent the money to that address. The betting continued after Mr. Santoro arranged for an increase in the undercover officer's betting limits. A final meeting occurred at an exit off Interstate 75 in mid-February, where the officer paid a $1200 betting debt to Mr. Santoro.

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The State filed an information charging Mr. Santoro, as a principal, with bookmaking. The term "bookmaking" means the act of taking or receiving, while engaged in the business or profession of gambling, any bet or wager upon the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed, power, or endurance of [man] . . . or upon the result of any chance, casualty, unknown, or contingent event whatsoever. See

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