Stephen Alexander Gonzalesmccoy v. State of Florida

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: January 14, 2026
• Docket: 3D2024-1038
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed January 14, 2026. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D24-1038 Lower Tribunal No. F22-1678 B ________________

Stephen Alexander Gonzales McCoy, Appellant,

vs.

State of Florida, Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Ellen Sue Venzer, Judge.

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

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and Camilo Montoya, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

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

PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See State v. Richards, 843 So. 2d 962, 965 (Fla. 3d DCA

2003) (recognizing that if there has been a recantation, the State generally

may impeach its own witness with a prior inconsistent statement where the

State calls the witness with the reasonable expectation that the witness will

testify to something helpful to the State’s case aside from the prior

inconsistent statement); see also Valentine v. State, 307 So. 3d 726, 737

(Fla. 4th DCA 2020) (concluding that any error resulting from a witness’s

hearsay identification of the defendant in a surveillance video was harmless,

in part, because the defendant’s face could be seen in the video and the jury

viewed the video).