Jimmy Hall v. Louie L. Wainwright, Director, Division of Corrections, State of Florida

SIMPSON, Circuit Judge:

Jimmy Hall was charged in a Florida court with four counts of robbery arising from a hold-up of an A & P grocery store. Trial by jury resulted in a verdict of guilty of the lesser included offense of grand larceny as to two of the counts and acquittal as to the other two. The guilty verdicts were for the theft of money in possession (a) of the store manager, John Schwartz, and (b)- of a customer, Mrs. Anthony Sotelo, present in the store at the time. The trial court imposed consecutive sentences of five years on each count.

Hall appealed to the Florida District Court of…