CARDOSO v. STATE (2022)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

Eric CARDOSO, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Case No. 5D22-1152

Decided: October 28, 2022

Matthew J. Metz, Public Defender, and Joseph Chloupek, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Daniel P. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

AFFIRMED. See Williams v. State, 710 So. 2d 24, 28 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998) (“Police officers and lay witnesses have long been permitted to testify as to their observations of a defendant's acts, conduct, and appearance, and also to give an opinion on the defendant's state of impairment based on those observations.”); City of Orlando v. Newell, 232 So. 2d 413, 413 (Fla. 4th DCA 1970) (holding that where police officer in prosecution for driving under influence of intoxicating beverages described to trial court, before expressing opinion, the defendant's acts, conduct, appearance and statements as seen and heard by officer, officer's opinion testimony that defendant was under influence of intoxicating beverages to the extent that his normal faculties were impaired was properly admitted).¹

FOOTNOTES

1. We also reject appellant's contention that the prosecutor below engaged in improper closing argument.

PER CURIAM.

LAMBERT, C.J., EVANDER and EDWARDS, JJ., concur.

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