JOHN AARON PEACOCK, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1964-02-04
No. E-105
WIGGINTON and RAWLS, JJ., concur.
160 So. 2d 541 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1964) Caution
Cited by 25 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

John Aaron Peacock was convicted by jury of breaking and entering a dwelling with intent to commit grand larceny. On appeal, he challenged the admissibility of tire track comparison evidence and the legality of the traffic stop and search. The court affirmed the conviction, finding the tire comparison testimony admissible and relying on parallel holdings in the co-defendant's appeal.


Holding

The court held that the tire comparison testimony was admissible because the witness did not need to be a qualified expert to make such a visual comparison, and adequate foundation was laid for the testimony. The court also upheld the legality of the traffic stop and warrantless search, applying the same reasoning from the parallel appeal of co-defendant Romanello.


Key Quotes

“One does not have to be specially trained in order to make a visual comparison of this character. The subject is one upon which an intelligent person with some degree of experience — qualifications possessed by the witness — may and should be permitted to testify, leaving to the jury, as is its exclusive province, the determination of the credence and weight to be given thereto.”

Establishes the standard for admitting lay testimony regarding tire comparison evidence without requiring expert qualification.

Previewing 1 of 2 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Peacock was jointly indicted with Mike Romanello for breaking and entering a dwelling with intent to commit grand larceny. He was separately tried by …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
STURGIS, Chief Judge.

STURGIS, Chief Judge.

The appellant, John Aaron Peacock, was jointly indicted with one Mike Romanello ■upon a charge of breaking and entering the ■dwelling of another with intent to commit grand larceny. He was separately tried 'by jury, convicted and adjudged guilty, lienee this appeal. We affirm.

The material facts are the same as set out in the opinion of this court this day filed in the separate appeal of appellant’s co-defendant, styled Romanello v. State of Florida, Fla.App., 160 So.2d 529, and reference is had thereto to the extent applicable on this appeal.

The first, second, third and fifth points of law related by our opinion in the Ro-manello case are identical with points of law presented by appellant Peacock on this appeal. Appellant’s contentions in these particulars are found to be without merit for the same reasons stated by our said opinion in the Romanello case. Appellant Peacock presents and argues the following additional point of law for disposition on this appeal: Whether the court erred in permitting witness Murphy to testify concerning his visual comparison of a mold of automobile tire marks imprinted on the ground and the tread of tires on the automobile of the appellant.

Here, as in the Romanello appeal, appellant Peacock’s primary thrust is directed to the acts of the Florida Highway Patrol in stopping the automobile driven by him, arresting him, searching the automobile and his person without benefit of a search warrant, and seizing from the automobile articles that were subsequently used in evidence. The material evidence on this trial pertaining to the probable cause for appellant’s arrest and the subsequent search and seizure is substantially the same as that adduced on the trial of Romanello and outlined in our opinion on his appeal. Our conclusions in that case on the parallel points of law involved apply with like force to this appeal and it would serve no useful purpose to repeat them here.

On the additional point of law presented by this appeal, we have carefully reviewed the testimony given by witness Grady Murphy, a deputy sheriff of Taylor County, Florida, touching upon casts made by him of automobile tire prints found on the premises of the victims of the robbery, Mr. and Mrs. Holton, and upon the shoulder *543of the sand road across the railroad and opposite the robbed premises; and also touching upon a visual comparison made by him of such casts with the tires of the automobile operated by appellant Peacock. Appellant contends that this testimony was inadmissible because the witness was not qualified as an expert in such matters and because no proper predicate was laid for such testimony. We find no merit in this contention. One does not have to be specially trained in order to make a visual comparison of this character. The subject is one upon which an intelligent person with some degree of experience — qualifications possessed by the witness- — may and should be permitted to testify, leaving to the jury, as is its exclusive province, the determination of the credence and weight to be given thereto. Also, there were ample facts upon which to predicate the use of the tire casts or molds from which the witness made a comparison with the tires found on the automobile operated by appellant.

Finding no error, the judgment appealed is

Affirmed.

WIGGINTON and RAWLS, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (14 total)

  • Floyd v. State, 569 So. 2d 1225 (Fla. 1990)
    …ces do not require a special knowledge, skill, experience, or training. § 90.701(1), (2), Fla. Stat. (1983). Lay witness opinion testimony is admissible if it is within the ken of an intelligent person with a degree of experience. Peacock v. State, 160 So. 2d 541, 542-43 (Fla. 1st DCA 1964) (visual comparison of casts of tire prints from victim’s property with tires of defendant’s car was one upon which deputy sheriff was qualified to testify under facts presented, leaving to the jury the determination of cr…
  • Johnston v. State, 497 So. 2d 863 (Fla. 1986)
    …d little trouble in qualifying Officer Ostermeyer as an expert. The testimony given by Officer Oster-meyer in this instance is analogous to the non-expert testimony held admissible in Jones v. State, 440 So. 2d 570 (Fla.1983), and Peacock v. State, 160 So. 2d 541 (Fla. 1st DCA), cert. denied, 168 So. 2d 148 (Fla.1964), cert. denied, 381 U.S. 916, 85 S.Ct. 1541, 14 L.Ed.2d 436 (1965). In Jones, we held that a police officer’s testimony that the mark on the “stash house” window sill was made by the recoil of…
  • Nardone v. State, 798 So. 2d 870 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)
    …is nothing more than speculation of an admitted non-expert on issue involved, it invades the province of the jury). It was not, as the state suggests, permissible lay opinion testimony. We distinguish the cases cited by the state, Peacock v. State, 160 So. 2d 541 (Fla. 1st DCA 1964), Floyd v. State, 569 So. 2d 1225 (Fla.1990), and Lewek v. State, 702 So. 2d 527 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). In those cases, the witnesses were describing their personal observations. For instance, in Peacock, a deputy testified about hi…

Previewing 3 of 14 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw