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The Second District Court of Appeal has affirmed a man’s Hillsborough County convictions for first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of felony aggravated child abuse, rejecting his argument that his conviction by a six-person jury violated his constitutional rights. The court said that argument “lacks merit under current precedent,” and in the same … Read more

The Fifth District Court of Appeal has held that a Lake County defendant had a right to be present at a resentencing in which the judge had discretion over the new sentence, and that his lawyer’s oral waiver of his presence was not enough without a record showing he knowingly and voluntarily waived that right. … Read more

The First District Court of Appeal has held that a sentencing judge who rejects a request for a downward departure does not have to state on the record the reasons for that decision, expressly disagreeing with the reasoning of a line of Second District Court of Appeal decisions. Bryan Arthur Weber entered an open no … Read more

The Second District Court of Appeal has held that a Manatee County judge could not depart below the guidelines for a man convicted of selling cocaine within 1,000 feet of a church because of the small amount of drugs involved or because of the volunteer work he did while jailed awaiting trial. Wayne Carlton Mathis … Read more

The Fifth District Court of Appeal has reversed a Seminole County man’s drug trafficking and possession convictions and ordered him discharged, holding that carrying keys to a third party’s house and to a locked safe that held drugs did not, without independent proof, establish that he constructively possessed the drugs. Officers found Dwight Deon Oliver, … Read more

The First District Court of Appeal has held that section 948.30(2)(a), Florida Statutes, which bars the results of a sex offender probationer’s mandatory polygraph from being used as evidence in court to prove a violation, does not bar admissions the probationer makes when a probation officer or treatment provider questions him about those results. Antonio … Read more

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial for a man convicted in Broward County of two counts of vehicular homicide, holding that a detective who was not an accredited accident reconstructionist was improperly allowed to estimate the vehicles’ speeds using a “momentum formula” without the expert-testimony analysis section 90.702, Florida Statutes, … Read more

The Second District Court of Appeal has reversed a Sarasota County man’s sexual battery convictions and ordered a new trial, holding that the trial court improperly limited cross-examination of the alleged victim about her own prior denial of the abuse — and that the error was not harmless. Brian K. Johnson was convicted on two … Read more

The Third District Court of Appeal has held that a routine toxicology report prepared by a non-testifying analyst as part of a medical examiner’s statutory autopsy duty is not “testimonial” under the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause — meaning a testifying substitute expert may describe the report’s contents at trial without violating the defendant’s confrontation right. … Read more