Case ID: so2d_516/html/0078-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "COBB, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Edward Joseph BRAGG, Appellee.
    No. 87-738.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
    Dec. 3, 1987.
    Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Kevin Kitpatrick Carson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellant.
    James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Kenneth Witts, Asst. Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for appellee.
   COBB, Judge.

The state appeals the trial court’s dismissal of a count in an information charging appellee Edward Joseph Bragg with delivery of cannabis to a minor. The issue in this appeal is whether Bragg, age 18 years and 3 months at the time of the offense, could have violated section 893.13(l)(c), Florida Statutes (1985), which provides:

Except as authorized by this chapter, it is unlawful for any person over the age of 18 years to deliver any controlled substance to a person under the age of 18 years.

The trial court interpreted this proviso to exclude persons who had not reached their 19th birthday. A common sense reading of the proviso shows that the legislature intended the dividing line to be the 18th birthday. Accordingly, we reverse.

REVERSED.

ORFINGER and SHARP, JJ., concur.