ROBERT GERBER
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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A qualifying sex offense conviction from another jurisdiction may be proven through competent testimony of a probation officer without requiring certified copies or fingerprints when the testimony is received without objection.
[1] A qualifying sex offense conviction from another jurisdiction may be established through competent testimony of a probation officer regarding the defendant's conviction a…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Because the State proved the qualifying New Jersey sex-offender conviction and Appellant's failure to timely register through unobjected-to testimony, the trial court's ruling is supported by competent, substantial evidence; thus, Appellant's motion for JOA was properly denied.”
Court's explanation for affirming the denial of the motion for judgment of acquittal
Robert Gerber was convicted of failure to comply with sex offender reporting requirements under Florida law. Gerber had been convicted in New Jersey o…
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FIFTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
ROBERT GERBER, Appellant,
V.
STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.
Case No. 5D2024-2910 LT Case No. 2024-CF-416-A
On appeal from the Circuit Court for Sumter County. Mary P. Hatcher, Judge.
Matthew J. Metz, Public Defender, and Even Altes, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
James Uthmeier, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Allison L. Morris, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.
September 4, 2026
PER CURIAM.
Appellant, Robert Gerber, appeals his conviction of one count of Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Reporting Requirements in violation of section 943.0435(14)(a), Florida Statutes. Appellant concedes that he did not report for the time period in question. In order to prove that Appellant was required to register, the State had to prove, among other things, that he was a convicted sex
offender. Appellant argues on appeal that his motion for judgment of acquittal (“JOA”) should have been granted, asserting that the State failed to properly prove that he had been convicted of a predicate or qualifying sex offense in New Jersey as alleged by the State. We disagree and affirm.
At the close of the State's case, Appellant moved for a JOA, asserting that the State had failed to prove the qualifying sex offense conviction by competent, substantial evidence arguing that the New Jersey paperwork documenting his qualifying sexoffender conviction proffered by the State offered was not properly and sufficiently authenticated. In support of his arguments below and on appeal, he cites to Gosling v. State, 205 So. 3d 860 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016), which can be read as requiring proof of the non-Florida qualifying sex-offender conviction to be accomplished with the use of a certified copy of the judgment and sentence complete with fingerprints from the foreign jurisdiction.
However, Appellant overlooks the fact that his probation officer, Anthony Pritchett, with the Florida Department of Corrections, testified without objection during the State's case that Appellant had been convicted in New Jersey of “possession, view, or control of less than1,000 items of child sex exploitation or abuse." Mr. Pritchett went on to testify that New Jersey's description of that criminal offense equates to the crime of "possession of child pornography" in Florida. There is no dispute that it is a crime for which a sex offender, such as Appellant, is required to register pursuant to section 943.0435, Florida Statutes (2023).1 Additionally, Mr. Pritchett testified that because Appellant was on probation for the above-described sex offense
when he moved from New Jersey to Florida, he was required by Florida sex-offender laws to periodically register or re-register.2
After Mr. Pritchett's testimony was received, the State proffered copies of the New Jersey sex-offender conviction documents. Appellant objected to the copies as proof of the New Jersey conviction because they were “plain” rather than “certified" copies and lacked fingerprints. The trial court overruled Appellant's objections, found that under the circumstances of this case Gosling was not controlling, and denied Appellant's motion for JOA.
Because the State proved the qualifying New Jersey sexoffender conviction and Appellant's failure to timely register through unobjected-to testimony, the trial court's ruling is supported by competent, substantial evidence; thus, Appellant's motion for JOA was properly denied.
Accordingly, we affirm the judgment and sentence entered below.3
AFFIRMED.
MAKAR, EDWARDS, and EISNAUGLE, JJ., concur.