State v. Gibson

109 So. 3d 251, 2013 WL 514079
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 13, 2013
DocketNo. 2D11-5818
StatusPublished

This text of 109 So. 3d 251 (State v. Gibson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gibson, 109 So. 3d 251, 2013 WL 514079 (Fla. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

SILBERMAN, Chief Judge.

The State appeals an order suppressing a witness’s out-of-court and in-court identifications of Gibson. Gibson was charged with grand theft and resisting a merchant’s employee as the result of the theft [253]*253of two televisions from a Walmart. We convert this direct appeal to a petition for writ of certiorari. Because the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in failing to consider the appropriate factors to determine whether the impermissibly suggestive identification procedure should result in the suppression of the out-of-court and in-court identifications, we grant the petition, quash the order, and remand for further proceedings.

Jurisdiction

The State filed a notice of appeal asserting that it was appealing an order suppressing evidence before trial. However, Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.140(c)(1)(B), only allows direct appeal by the State of orders suppressing “evidence obtained by search and seizure.” The challenged photo pack and identification were not obtained by search and seizure. Instead, review of an order suppressing both an in-court and out-of-court identification is by certiorari. See State v. Dorsey, 5 So.3d 702, 708 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009); see also State v. Styles, 962 So.2d 1031, 1032 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007) (reviewing by certiorari an order suppressing an out-of-court identification based on a photographic array); State v. Gomez, 937 So.2d 828, 830 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) (treating the State’s appeal of an order suppressing in-court and pretrial identifications as a petition for writ of certiorari). Thus, we treat the State’s appeal as a petition for writ of certiorari. See State v. Pettis, 520 So.2d 250, 253 (Fla.1988); Dorsey, 5 So.3d at 703.

Merits

Gibson sought to suppress witness Adrian Morris’s identification of Gibson as the person who committed the theft and resisted a Walmart employee. At the suppression hearing Adrian Morris and Deputy George Moffett testified. On December 24, 2010, Morris, an assistant manager for Walmart, saw loss prevention officer Donna Mckenzie and an African-American male just outside the doors of the store; they were fighting over two television sets in a shopping cart. Morris saw them from as far as twenty yards to as close as about seven feet as Morris approached. It was a well-lit area. At one point the man looked up and Morris made eye contact with him. The man then gave up the struggle and jumped into a white pickup truck that drove away. Morris got the license plate number. During his testimony Morris referred to focusing his attention on the man for fifteen to twenty minutes, but Morris later clarified that it was fifteen to twenty seconds.

When Deputy Moffett arrived at the scene, Morris described the suspect as an African-American man who was thirty-five to forty-five years old. The man was wearing a hat and sunglasses. Morris gave the deputy the license plate number, and the deputy testified that he believed that the truck was registered to Gibson’s father. Deputy Moffett reviewed the surveillance video and could not see the suspect’s face but could see his build and stature. After conducting a search in the DAVID database from the DMV, Deputy Moffett told Morris that he observed a photograph that closely resembled the suspect that Deputy Moffett saw in the surveillance video. The deputy told Morris that he would compile a photo pack and return at a later date.

Two days later, Deputy Moffett showed Morris a photo pack with six photos. Gibson’s photo was in the array. The deputy instructed Morris that the suspect may or may not be included in the photo pack and not to identify anyone unless Morris was 100 percent sure. Morris testified that he viewed the photo pack within twenty-four [254]*254hours of the incident, that he was not influenced to pick the photo that he picked, and that as soon as he saw Gibson’s photo he recognized him.

The trial court found that the photo pack identification procedure was imper-missibly suggestive for two reasons. First, the deputy told Morris that based on the deputy’s research he found a photo of someone who closely resembled the perpetrator in the surveillance video and that the deputy would prepare a photo pack and return. This suggested to Morris that the photo pack would contain a photo of the person whom the deputy believed closely resembled the perpetrator seen in the video. Second, the trial court found that Gibson’s photo was the only one that depicted a middle-aged person and that the other five individuals all appeared to be younger than thirty.1 The trial court found that only one photo in the photo pack fit the description of an African-American man between thirty-five and forty-five years old. Coupled with Morris being conditioned to believe the perpetrator’s photo would be in the photo pack, the trial court found the procedure impermis-sibly suggestive. The court suppressed the out-of-court identification and any in-court identification Morris might make in the future.

We must review the trial court’s ruling based on the standards for certiora-ri review. The State has a limited right to file a petition for writ of certiorari to challenge a pretrial ruling. State v. Storer, 920 So.2d 754, 758 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006) (citing State v. Pettis, 520 So.2d 250 (Fla.1988)). This is because double jeopardy limits the right of the State to obtain adequate posttrial relief. Id. However, it is insufficient to show that a trial court’s ruling is incorrect; rather, the State must show that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law. State v. Dorsey, 5 So.3d 702, 706 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009); State v. Smith, 951 So.2d 954, 957 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007).

A trial court must apply the following two-pronged test to determine whether to suppress an out-of-court identification: “(1) whether the police used an unnecessarily suggestive procedure and (2), if so, considering all the circumstances, whether the suggestive procedure gave rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.” Dorsey, 5 So.3d at 705; see also Fitzpatrick v. State, 900 So.2d 495, 517-18 (Fla.2005). When considering the totality of the circumstances to evaluate the likelihood of misidentification, the trial court must consider the following factors: “(1) the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, (2) the witness’s degree of attention, (3) the accuracy of the witness’s prior description of the criminal, (4) the level of certainty demonstrated by the witness at the confrontation, and (5) the length of time between the crime and the confrontation.” Dorsey, 5 So.3d at 705; see also Fitzpatrick, 900 So.2d at 518. The determination of whether the procedure was unnecessarily suggestive “is wholly separate and apart from the reliability of the identification.” Styles, 962 So.2d at 1034.

With respect to an in-court identification, when law enforcement obtains a pretrial identification by an impermissibly suggestive procedure, “an ‘in-court identification may not be admitted unless it is found to be reliable and based solely upon the witness’ independent recollection of the offender at the time of the crime, uninflu[255]*255enced by the intervening illegal confrontation.’” Dorsey, 5 So.3d at 706 (quoting Edwards v. State, 538 So.2d 440, 442 (Fla.1989)).

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Related

State v. Gomez
937 So. 2d 828 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2006)
Fitzpatrick v. State
900 So. 2d 495 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2005)
Edwards v. State
538 So. 2d 440 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1989)
State v. Styles
962 So. 2d 1031 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2007)
State v. Dorsey
5 So. 3d 702 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2009)
State v. Smith
951 So. 2d 954 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2007)
State v. Pettis
520 So. 2d 250 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1988)
State v. Storer
920 So. 2d 754 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
109 So. 3d 251, 2013 WL 514079, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gibson-fladistctapp-2013.