Case Name: Alvin C. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1999-05-28
Citations: 734 So. 2d 1149
Docket Number: No. 98-1850
Parties: Alvin C. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: THOMPSON, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 734
Pages: 1149–1151

Head Matter:
Alvin C. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 98-1850.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
May 28, 1999.
James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Noel A. Pelella, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Robin A. Compton, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

Opinion:
W. SHARP, J.
Williams appeals from his judgment and sentences for sale of cocaine, possession of cocaine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. On appeal Williams argues two issues: first, the evidence was insufficient to establish that he was the person who sold cocaine to the undercover officer, and that he possessed the cocaine; and second, the cocaine and the laboratory test results should not have been admitted in evidence under the business records exception of section 90.803(6), Fla. Stat. Neither point has merit.
The evidence in this case established that Frein, an undercover police officer, drove his car to an intersection in Seminole County, Florida. He saw Williams near a convenience store at that location. Williams approached the car and Frein said he wanted to buy some "crack." The two exchanged a marked twenty dollar bill and one rock of cocaine.
Frein gave a signal to arrest Williams and other officers moved in. Williams fled from them on foot and they followed. They lost sight of Williams for about five seconds, but found him lying behind some bushes in a wooded area behind a house. The officers took Williams back to Frein, who identified him as the person who had just sold him cocaine, as did another officer at the scene. Williams was searched and drug paraphernalia was found. No additional contraband was found and the twenty dollar marked bill was not found. We think this evidence was sufficient to establish that Williams was the individual who possessed the cocaine and sold it to Frein.
The cocaine purchased from Williams was sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Orlando Regional Crime Laboratory for testing. At trial, Katrina Reid, acting supervisor of the chemistry section of the laboratory, testified to the authenticity of the laboratory report proffered and admitted. At that time, the supervisor of the laboratory was on maternity leave and Reid was the acting supervisor for the chemistry section. Reid did not actually analyze the sample. However, in her capacity as supervisor of the chemistry section that prepares the reports, Reid was the custodian of the records for the laboratory and thus she was a proper person to authenticate its records pursuant to section 90.803(6). See Davis v. State, 562 So.2d 431 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990).
AFFIRMED.
THOMPSON, J., concurs.
ANTOON, J., concurs specially with opinion.
. § 893.13(1), Fla. Stat.
. § 893.13(6)(a), Fla. Stat.
.§ 893.147(1)(b), Fla. Stat
. Section 90.803(6)(a), Florida Statutes provides:
[T]he following are not inadmissible as evidence .
(6) Records of regularly conducted business activity.—
(a) A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinion, or diagnosis, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make such memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, unless the sources of information or other circumstances show lack of trustworthiness. The term "business" as used in this paragraph includes a business, institution, association, profession, occupation, and calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit.