Case ID: so2d_705/html/0148-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "KARLAN, SANDY, Associate Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Alpheus JONES, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
    No. 97-1608.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
    Feb. 18, 1998.
    Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Tatjana Ostapoff, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
    Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Barbra Amron Weisberg, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
   KARLAN, SANDY, Associate Judge.

Appellant appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal. Appellant was convicted of grand theft for stealing property from K-Mart. However, there was no testimony from a K-Mart employee that there were any items missing from inventory. Rather, the State’s circumstantial evidence was that the merchandise was found in Appellant’s car without any customer receipt. This circumstantial evidence was insufficient to negate Appellant’s reasonable hypothesis of innocence. See State v. Law, 559 So.2d 187 (Fla.1989). Accordingly, Appellant’s conviction is reversed.

REVERSED.

STONE, C.J., and PARIENTE, BARBARA J., Associate Judge, concur.