HUGHES v. STATE (2023)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

Kevin Franklin HUGHES, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 4D2022-3283

Decided: November 22, 2023

Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Robert Porter, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Lindsay A. Warner, Senior Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Affirmed.

In this appeal of appellant's first-degree murder conviction for killing his wife, I would reverse for a new trial because of improper closing argument by the prosecutor in arguing facts not in evidence, which I do not deem as harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., Evans v. State, 177 So. 3d 1219 (Fla. 2015), receded from on other grounds by Johnson v. State, 252 So. 3d 1114, 1117–18 (Fla. 2018).

Per Curiam.

Gross and Damoorgian, JJ., concur. Warner, J., dissents with opinion.

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