FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL

STATE OF FLORIDA

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No. 1D2023-0886 

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JAMES ERIC DENNIS,

Appellant,

v.

STATE OF FLORIDA,

Appellee.

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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Escambia County.

Linda Lee Nobles, Judge.

August 7, 2024

B.L. THOMAS, J.

James Dennis appeals his judgment and sentence arguing 

there was insufficient evidence to sustain his convictions on counts 

1 and 2 under sections 943.0435(4)(b)1 and (4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2022)

and that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on an 

essential element of count 3 under section 944.607(13)(c)(4). We 

affirm his conviction on count 3, providing false registration 

information as a sexual offender, without comment. But we reverse 

his convictions on count 1, failure of a sexual offender who vacates 

a permanent, temporary, or transient residence to report within 

48 hours, and count 2, failure of a sexual offender to report or 

register a change in permanent or temporary address.
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At trial, Dennis stipulated to being a sex offender. The State 

then presented evidence that Dennis registered an address in May 

of 2022, but that renters had lived at that address since 2019, and 

Dennis had never lived with them.

Count 1 charged Dennis with violating section 

943.0435(4)(b)1, which states: 

A sexual offender who vacates a permanent, temporary, 

or transient residence and fails to establish or maintain 

another permanent, temporary, or transient residence 

shall, within 48 hours after vacating the permanent, 

temporary, or transient residence, report in person to the 

sheriff's office of the county in which he or she is located.

Count 2 charged Dennis with violating section 943.0435(4)(a), 

which requires a sexual offender to report in person “any change” 

in the offender’s “permanent, temporary, or transient residence” to 

the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles within 48 

hours. § 943.0435(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2022). 

Under both subsections, a prerequisite to finding a violation—

for failing to establish or maintain a residence or failing to report 

a change in residences—is that the sexual offender establish one 

of the three types of statutorily-defined residences in the first 

place.

This Court has explained the difference between the two 

offenses. 

“Unlike subsection (4)(a), which required sex 

offenders to report [to the driver’s license office] after 

“any change” in their permanent, temporary, or transient 

residence, subsection (4)(b) applied only when an offender 

left one residence without establishing a new one: ‘A 

sexual offender who vacates a permanent, temporary, or 

transient residence and fails to establish or maintain 

another permanent, temporary, or transient residence’ 

must report to the sheriff's office.” 

Peterson v. State, 198 So. 3d 1064, 1065–66 (Fla. 1st DCA 2016)

(emphasis in original). In Peterson, “the State did not prove that 
3

Peterson became homeless or that he otherwise vacated one 

residence while failing to establish another.” Id. at 1066.

Here, the State established only that Dennis never lived at 

the address that he registered. The State failed to present any 

evidence that Dennis ever established a permanent, temporary, or 

transient residence and thereafter changed his residence or 

vacated his residence without establishing another permanent, 

temporary, or transient residence. Accordingly, we reverse and 

remand for entry of a judgment of acquittal on counts 1 and 2.

AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part.

ROBERTS and ROWE, JJ., concur.

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Not final until disposition of any timely and 

authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 

9.331.

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Jessica J. Yeary, Public Defender, and Tyler Kemper Payne, 

Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Miranda L. Butson, 

Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.