Court Opinion

ID: 9928272
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-31 15:02:53.076268+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:52:14.707993
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                STATE OF FLORIDA
                 _____________________________

                        No. 1D2021-3718
                 _____________________________

AIRON DOUGLAS CARMACK,

    Appellant,

    v.

STATE OF FLORIDA,

    Appellee.
                 _____________________________

On appeal from the Circuit Court for Escambia County.
Gary Lee Bergosh, Judge.

                        January 31, 2024

PER CURIAM.

     Airon Douglas Carmack filed a “Petition for Review De Novo
for Cumulative Error of the Lower Tribunal” in this Court. We
construe the petition as an appeal of Carmack’s conviction and
sentence for attempted first-degree murder. We can discern two
claims made in the appeal: first, that trial counsel should have
introduced the testimony of an alibi witness; and second, that the
evidence was legally insufficient to support the conviction. We
affirm.

    Carmack’s claim that his counsel failed to introduce an alibi
witness constitutes a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel,
which cannot be raised on direct appeal unless the appellant
demonstrates that fundamental error occurred. Steiger v. State,
328 So. 3d 926, 932 (Fla. 2021). Fundamental error is error that
“reach[es] down into the validity of the trial itself to the extent that
a verdict of guilty could not have been obtained without the
assistance of the alleged error.” Knight v. State, 286 So. 3d 147,
151 (Fla. 2019) (quoting Brown v. State, 124 So. 2d 481, 484 (Fla.
1960)). To find fundamental error “we must consider whether
counsel’s alleged failure to object or otherwise act was so egregious
that the trial court should have intervened even without a
prompting by an objection.” Ford v. State, 350 So. 3d 109, 113 (Fla.
1st DCA 2022). With regard to failure to call an alibi witness, the
court cannot assess the existence of fundamental error without
knowing, beyond Carmack’s speculation, exactly what testimony
the witness would have offered. * As such, Carmack has failed to
demonstrate fundamental error.

     Carmack makes other arguments about shortcomings in the
evidence, but the appellate claim he seems to be making is that the
evidence was insufficient to support the conviction. “[A]ll claims of
legal sufficiency must be reviewed to determine ‘whether the State
presented competent, substantial evidence to support the verdict.’”
Jones v. State, 297 So. 3d 685, 687 (Fla. 1st DCA 2020) (quoting
Bush v. State, 295 So. 3d 179, 200 (Fla. 2020)). The evidence must
be viewed “in the light most favorable to the State and consider
whether ‘a rational trier of fact could have found the existence of
the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’” Jones, 297
So. 3d at 687. Applying this standard, the evidence was more than
sufficient to support the conviction, in spite of Carmack’s
irrelevant claims about the credibility of some of the evidence.

    AFFIRMED.

    * It is for this reason that ineffective-assistance claims are

made in a postconviction proceeding, where the defendant can
introduce the testimony of the omitted witness and counsel can
explain why the testimony was omitted. See, e.g., McKinney v.
State, 579 So. 2d 80, 82 (Fla. 1991) (noting that “[t]he trial court is
the more appropriate forum to present such claims where evidence
might be necessary to explain why certain actions were taken or
omitted by counsel.”).

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B.L. THOMAS, WINOKUR, and LONG, JJ., concur.
               _____________________________

    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
               _____________________________

Donovan L. Parker of the Law Offices of Donovan L. Parker,
Pembroke Pines, for Appellant.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Robert “Charlie” Lee,
Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

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