Jones v. State
Jones v. State
Opinion of the Court
Jones appeals his conviction and sentence for armed robbery. Jones argues that the trial court erred in admitting hearsay statements contained in a-BOLO and in failing to grant a mistrial when a police officer testified that Jones’ eodefendant was identified by a store clerk who did not testify at trial. In a separate appeal, this court recently reversed the conviction and sentence of Jones’ code-fendant based on the same issues raised in this appeal. Shaffer v. State, 619 So.2d 409 (Fla. 4th DCA1993). Likewise, we reverse Jones’ conviction and sentence and remand for a new trial.
At trial, the State elicited testimony from one of the arresting officers regarding the contents of a BOLO. In particular, the BOLO contained information from a store clerk, who did not testify at trial, with respect to the race of the suspects. The BOLO was the only evidence presented to the jury concerning the race of the suspects. “As has been repeatedly held by various courts, the contents of a BOLO are generally inadmissible in that they contain incriminating hearsay details unnecessary to establish a logical sequence of events.” Shaffer, 619 So.2d at 410.
Because we cannot conclude that these two errors did not affect the verdict, we reverse Jones’ conviction and sentence and remand for a new trial.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Bobby JONES v. STATE of Florida
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published