Nathaniel Brown v. State of Florida

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed March 31, 2026. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D25-0399 Lower Tribunal No. F22-23158 ________________

Nathaniel Brown, Appellant,

vs.

State of Florida, Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Andrea R. Wolfson, Judge.

Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Jennifer Thornton, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and Ivy R. Ginsberg, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Before SCALES, C.J., and EMAS and MILLER, JJ.

PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Guzman v. State, 214 So. 3d 625, 632 (Fla. 2017)

(holding that a ruling on a motion for mistrial is reviewed for an abuse of

discretion); Ward v. State, 306 So. 3d 1004, 1007 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020) (“The

trial court should not grant a motion for mistrial merely because an error is

prejudicial. Rather, the lower court should grant a mistrial only when ‘an error

is so prejudicial as to vitiate the entire trial[.]’” (citation omitted) (quoting

Jennings v. State, 124 So. 3d 257, 265 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013))); Granados v.

State, 199 So. 3d 384, 389 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016) (holding that, once a

defendant takes the stand and his credibility becomes an issue at trial, the

State can expose contradictions and improbabilities in his testimony).