NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING 

MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED 

 IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL 

 OF FLORIDA 

 SECOND DISTRICT 

CECIL LAMBERT, ) 

 ) 

 Appellant, ) 

 ) 

v. ) Case No. 2D15-700 

 ) 

STATE OF FLORIDA, ) 

 ) 

 Appellee. ) 

 ) 

Opinion filed October 5, 2016. 

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Pasco 

County; William Webb, Judge. 

Howard L. Dimmig, II, Public Defender, and 

Edward Lee Giles, Special Assistant Public 

Defender, Bartow, for Appellant. 

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, 

Tallahassee, and Brandon R. Christian, 

Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, 

for Appellee. 

LUCAS, Judge. 

 The State charged Cecil Lambert with two counts of attempted seconddegree murder and one count of carrying a concealed firearm. With respect to the 

attempted second-degree murder counts, the jury found Mr. Lambert guilty of two 
- 2 - 

counts of the lesser included offense of improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon 

under section 790.10, Florida Statutes (2012). Mr. Lambert was found guilty as charged 

for carrying a concealed firearm. The trial court adjudicated Mr. Lambert guilty and 

sentenced him to time served on the two improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon 

counts and to five years in prison on the carrying a concealed firearm count. 

We find no error in Mr. Lambert's conviction or sentence with respect to 

the charge of carrying a concealed firearm. However, Mr. Lambert is correct that his 

two convictions and sentences under section 790.10 for what was clearly a single 

criminal episode in which he wielded a handgun in the presence of two victims violated 

the prohibition against double jeopardy. See Vance v. State, 472 So. 2d 734, 735 (Fla. 

1985) ("Section 790.10 by its express wording proscribes the act of exhibiting the 

weapon in the presence of one or more persons. We approve the interpretation of 

section 790.10 . . . that precludes multiple convictions for a single act of exhibition."); 

Roberts v. State, 47 So. 3d 380, 380 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010) (holding that improper 

exhibition of a firearm by a taxi driver who had gotten into a dispute with two men in a 

pickup truck could only support a single conviction of that offense under the language of 

section 790.10); Bass v. State, 739 So. 2d 1243, 1246 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999) ("Appellant 

is correct in contending that he should have only been adjudicated on one count of 

improper exhibition of a weapon, because the exhibition of the firearm occurred in one 

criminal episode, although in front of several people.").1 We see nothing in the record to 

 

 1Mr. Lambert's trial counsel confined his argument for a judgment of 

acquittal solely on the two counts of attempted second-degree murder as they were 

originally charged. However, violation of the constitutional prohibition against double 

jeopardy can constitute fundamental error that may be raised for the first time on 
- 3 - 

support the State's conclusory assertion that Mr. Lambert's repeatedly displaying a 

firearm during a domestic dispute among three individuals in a driveway somehow 

constituted separate criminal incidents under section 790.10. Nor has the State argued 

that a temporal break occurred at any point in this altercation during which Mr. Lambert 

might have had an opportunity "to pause, reflect, and form a new criminal intent" such 

that he committed two "distinct and independent criminal acts." Cf. Welch v. State, 189 

So. 3d 296, 302 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016). Accordingly, we reverse and remand with a 

direction to the trial court to vacate Mr. Lambert's conviction and sentence as to one 

count of improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon. 

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with directions. 

LaROSE and BLACK, JJ., Concur. 

 

appeal. See Rios v. State, 19 So. 3d 1004, 1006 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009); Eichelberger v. 

State, 949 So. 2d 358, 359 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007).