Howard v. State, 91-0231
| Decision Date | 27 December 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-0231,91-0231 |
| Citation | 591 So.2d 1067 |
| Parties | Lorenzo HOWARD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. 591 So.2d 1067, 17 Fla. L. Week. D781 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Tanja Ostapoff, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Dawn S. Wynn, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Appellant Lorenzo Howard was arrested and charged with sale or delivery of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school and with possession of cocaine. The arrest was the product of a controlled transaction staged and videotaped by the Martin County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's Officers later measured the distance between the point of the transaction and Murray Middle School as being less than 1,000 feet. The officer who made the measurement had not been present during the transaction, but he testified at trial that he based the location of the transaction on his viewing of the videotape of the event, and further testified that he was very familiar with the area in question before the incident. At the close of the state's case, Howard moved for judgment of acquittal arguing that the state failed to show the sale took place within 1,000 feet of a school. Howard appeals the trial court's denial of this motion.
In State v. Law, 559 So.2d 187 (Fla.1989), the Supreme Court of Florida reviewed the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal as follows:
It is the trial judge's proper task to review the evidence to determine the presence or absence of competent evidence from which the jury could infer guilt to the exclusion of all other inferences. That view of the evidence must be taken in the light most favorable to the state. The state is not required to rebut conclusively every possible variation of events which could be inferred from the evidence, but only to introduce competent evidence which is inconsistent with the defendant's theory of events. [citations omitted]
559 So.2d at 189. At trial, the state detailed its measuring procedures, presented a chart of the scene, and played the videotape of the transaction. The state presented a straight line measurement of 779 feet, and a measurement detoured by houses and street corners of 983 feet. The evidence in this case, when viewed in a light most favorable to the state, is competent evidence which is inconsistent with the defendant's position that the sale took place...
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