Summary
holding that erroneous introduction of out-of-court description by victim of assailant was not harmless where close case on issue of identification
Summary of this case from English v. StateOpinion
No. 4D99-3580.
April 24, 2002.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County, Paul L. Backman, J.
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Margaret Good Earnest, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Melynda Melear, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
EN BANC ON MANDATE FROM THE SUPREME COURT
In Puryear v. State, 810 So.2d 901 (Fla. 2002), the supreme court held that section 90.801(2), Florida Statutes (2000), did not authorize victim Amy Deese's out-of-court descriptions of her assailant to Danny Cratsenberg and Detective Rhonda Ward-law. This was a close case on the issue of identification. We cannot therefore say that the admission of this testimony was harmless error. Appellant's robbery conviction is reversed and the case is remanded for a new trial.
POLEN, C.J., GUNTHER, STONE, WARNER, FARMER, KLEIN, STEVENSON, SHAHOOD, GROSS, TAYLOR, HAZOURI and MAY, JJ., concur.