Benevento v. State

We are affirming a conviction for escape (§ 944.40, Fla.Stat. (1981)) from a county jail where the only evidence that the defendant was in “lawful custody” (§ 944.-02(4), Fla.Stat. (1981)) was that at the time he escaped he had been arrested and confined as a prisoner in the county jail in the custody of the county sheriff. The arresting officer only identified Benevento as the man he arrested and placed in the county jail in the custody of the county sheriff but there was no evidence that the arrest was made pursuant to a valid arrest warrant or, under circumstances when an arrest by an…