Opinion
No. 98-2.
Opinion filed September 9, 1998. JULY TERM, 1998.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Dade County, Lauren Levy Miller, Judge. L.T. No. 96-23887
Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Suzanne M. Froix, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Wendy Benner-Leon, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and FLETCHER and SHEVIN, JJ.
The state correctly argued that the trial court properly excluded testimony that was totally unrelated to the instant case and would have only served to confuse the jury and defeat the ends of justice. As this court stated in Welch v. State, 342 So.2d 1070, 1071 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977), "[t]he extent to which cross-examination should be permitted to show a witness' bias, interest, motives or animus rests largely within the sound discretion of the trial judge and [her] rulings will not be disturbed in the absence of a showing of a clear abuse of that discretion." (Emphasis added). See also Breedlove v. State, 580 So.2d 605 (Fla. 1991).
Finding no abuse of discretion, we affirm.
Affirmed.