Opinion ID: 1745742
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: admission of ryan's pretrial identification of appellant

Text: The trial court permitted the state to present testimony of one of the detectives that Ryan had selected appellant's picture from a five-picture photo pack as the man who hurt his mother. This selection by the child occurred approximately twenty-four hours after the incident. Present were the child's grandmother and two detectives. Upon a review of these photographs at the time of the motion to suppress, the trial judge noted: I think it was a very fair photo lineup. There can be no question about that. I think as a matter of fact, one guy in there looked like his twin brother. It's amazing he made the right identification so there is nothing unfair by any stretch of the imagination regarding the photo lineup or the way they were set out. There is nothing suggestive about that. At another point, It's amazing to get five people so similar. On the first day of trial, the trial judge directed that Ryan be shown again the same photographic lineup in chambers. This occurred approximately eleven months after the incident. On this occasion, the child selected someone other than the appellant. As a result of this failure to identify appellant, the court prohibited the state from attempting to have Ryan identify the appellant in the courtroom, but allowed the state to adduce testimony that at the earlier time Ryan had picked out the appellant as the man who shot his mother. The state was also required to advise the jury that, in the recent photographic lineup in chambers, the child had picked out someone other than the appellant as his mother's assailant. We find no harmful error in allowing the admission of this evidence. The prior identification and subsequent misidentification were matters that could properly be considered by the jury as a matter of credibility, since the witness was before the court for examination. See, e.g., Chaney v. State, 267 So.2d 65 (Fla. 1972); Brown v. State, 397 So.2d 320 (Fla.2d DCA 1981); Daniels v. State, 262 So.2d 725 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972).