Spadaro v. State

In Barnhill, supra, the Supreme Court quoted with approval the rule stated in Coulson v. State, 110 Fla. 281, 149 So. 522 (1933), viz:

“. . . ‘In the present case the verdict of the jury did not expressly determine separately, as we have held must be done, the historical fact of the defendant’s former conviction as alleged. Benson v. State, 88 Fla. 103, 101 So. 231. A verdict of “guilty” in a case like this, where more severe penalties for a second or third offense are invoked, is not regarded as responsive to the allegations of the indictment charging a given criminal act as constituting a…