RANDY THOMAS v. THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed August 16, 2023.

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

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No. 3D22-1372

Lower Tribunal Nos. F05-29247, F14-840, F06-22915

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Randy Thomas,

Appellant,

vs.

The State of Florida,

Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Jose L.

Fernandez, Judge.

Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Susan S. Lerner, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Magaly Rodriguez, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Before EMAS, FERNANDEZ and BOKOR, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Affirmed. Warren v. State, 307 So. 3d 871, 872 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020)

(“[W]hile a trial judge is tasked with explaining to jurors the law they are to apply, the trial judge should rely upon, and seldom stray from, Florida's Standard Jury Instructions. This should not be interpreted as prohibiting a trial judge from using a hypothetical that properly explains the law, but due care must be taken in the process. . . . Trial judges must be ever mindful ‘that the high position which a judge holds in the scheme of the trial magnifies, in the minds of the jurors, the meaning of comments by the judge, to which he himself may not attach particular importance.’”) (quoting Kellum v. State, 104 So. 2d 99, 104 (Fla. 3d DCA 1958)).