Dewayne Warren v. the State of Florida

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed July 2, 2025.

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

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No. 3D22-2022

Lower Tribunal No. F17-7937B

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Dewayne Warren,

Appellant,

vs.

The State of Florida,

Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Teresa Pooler, Judge.

Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Shannon Hemmendinger, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and Linda Katz, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Before LOGUE, BOKOR and GOODEN, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying the Appellant’s use of a peremptory strike to remove a juror where the trial court found Appellant’s race-neutral explanation was not credibly genuine after Appellant agreed to the sitting of another juror who expressed essentially the same concerns that formed the basis of the race-neutral explanation. We decline to hold that the trial court abused its discretion in this regard. See Melbourne v. State, 679 So. 2d 759, 764–65 (Fla. 1996) (“The court’s focus . . . is not on the reasonableness of the explanation but rather its genuineness. . . . Accordingly, . . . the trial court’s decision turns primarily on an assessment of credibility and will be affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous.” (footnotes omitted)).

Affirmed.