RAYMOND JEFFREY MCGUIRE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1991-07-25
No. 90-1660
GOSHORN, C.J., and PETERSON, J., concur.
584 So. 2d 89 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1991) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases
Topics
Invited Error Doctrine Curative Instruction Mistrial

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Opinion of the Court
GRIFFIN, Judge.

GRIFFIN, Judge.

Raymond Jeffrey McGuire timely appeals his conviction for first degree murder, attempted first degree murder with a firearm, and robbery with a firearm. The only issue on appeal is whether defendant was entitled to a mistrial because, during cross-examination, a witness for the state blurted out that the defendant had been “doing time in Georgia” and that “he was on a fifteen year sentence up in Georgia.” The Georgia conviction was unrelated to the current charges.

We agree that the admission of this testimony was reversible error. § 90.404(2)(a), Fla.Stat. (1990). Here, even though the trial judge denied the motion for mistrial, he found a curative instruction would not have alleviated the harm done by the comment. The error was not invited by defense counsel, as the state argues. Cf. Ferguson v. State, 417 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 1982). As the result of the clear conflict in testimony of the witnesses present, we find there exists at least a “reasonable possibility” that the impermissible statement made by the witness improperly influenced the jury’s verdict. See Ward v. State, 559 So. 2d 450 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). REVERSED and REMANDED for a new trial.

GOSHORN, C.J., and PETERSON, J., concur.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus

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Cited By

  • Jackson v. State, 598 So. 2d 303 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)
    …SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge. We reverse Jackson’s convictions because, over objection, an investigating police officer was permitted to recount that defendant had “an arrest record and was recently released from prison.” See McGuire v. State, 584 So. 2d 89 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991); McCall v. State, 463 So. 2d 425 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985); Houston v. State, 360 So. 2d 468 (Fla.3d DCA 1978); Perkins v. State, 349 So. 2d 776 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977). The other evidence of guilt consisted entirely of non-conclusive eyewit…
  • Goforth v. State, 15 So. 3d 786 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009)
    …was largely circumstantial, we cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt that the verdict was not affected by the revelation that he was an escaped convict. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for a new trial. Id. at 928. Similarly, in McGuire v. State, 584 So. 2d 89, 89 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991), we explained: The only issue on appeal is whether defendant was entitled to a mistrial because, during cross-examination, a witness for the state blurted out that the defendant had been “doing time in Georgia” and that “he…

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