R.P. v. State

R.P. was adjudicated delinquent based upon the trial court’s determination that R.P. committed a robbery when he reached into the front of an elderly woman’s dress and snatched her purse. R.P. correctly argues that absent evidence of “force, violence, assault, or putting in fear,” § 812.13(1), Fla.Stat. (1983), his conviction of robbery cannot stand. We agree.

The law is well settled that picking a pocket or snatching a purse is not robbery if no more force or violence is used than is necessary to remove the property from a person who does not resist. Mims v. State, 342 So.2d 116 (Fla. 3d DCA…