Case Name: Felix ORTIZ, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2003-03-28
Citations: 843 So. 2d 313
Docket Number: No. 2D01-5209
Parties: Felix ORTIZ, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: NORTHCUTT, J., Concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 843
Pages: 313–316

Head Matter:
Felix ORTIZ, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 2D01-5209.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
March 28, 2003.
Rehearing Denied April 23, 2003.
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, Bartow, and Robert D. Rosen, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Katherine Coombs Cline, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

Opinion:
DAVIS, Judge.
Felix Ortiz challenges his convictions and sentences for resisting an officer with violence, possession of cocaine, and battery. We affirm Ortiz's resisting arrest and battery convictions without comment but reverse on the possession charge.
Ortiz argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal as to the cocaine possession charge. He maintains that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction for possession of cocaine because the State failed to introduce the cocaine into evidence. We agree.
"[W]hen a defendant is charged with possession of a controlled substance, that substance, if available, must be introduced into evidence but . a defendant who fails to object to its nonintroduction may not be heard to complain of the error on appeal." G.E.G. v. State, 417 So.2d 975, 977 (Fla.1982). Here, defense counsel raised the nonintroduction of the cocaine, and neither the FDLE lab chemist nor the officer who discovered the cocaine testified that the cocaine was not available. See also Mack v. State, 711 So.2d 1154, 1154 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998) ("After [defense] counsel made this argument, the State offered no excuse or explanation why it had not introduced the cocaine.").
Accordingly, we reverse Ortiz's cocaine possession conviction but affirm his resisting an officer with violence and battery convictions.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part.
NORTHCUTT, J., Concurs.
ALTENBERND, C.J., Dissents with opinion.