Cedric Coleman v. State of Florida
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledOctober 29, 2026
Docket3D2024-2109
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed October 29, 2026.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D24-2109
Lower Tribunal No. F16-8641
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Cedric Coleman,
Appellant,
vs.
State of Florida,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Andrea R.
Wolfson, Judge.
Stephan Lopez Law Firm, LLC., and Stephan Lopez, for appellant.
James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and Liz Feliz, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
Before SCALES, C.J., and BOKOR and GOODEN, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Affirmed. See Bush v. State, 295 So. 3d 179, 200–01 (Fla. 2020) (“The
standard of review historically applied to a determination of the legal
sufficiency of evidence to support a criminal conviction, at least where there
is some direct evidence, is simply whether the State presented competent,
substantial evidence to support the verdict. . . . This standard should now be
used in all cases where the sufficiency of the evidence is analyzed.”); Smith
v. State, 7 So. 3d 473, 509 (Fla. 2009) (“Furthermore, the courts of this state
allow attorneys wide latitude to argue to the jury during closing argument.
Logical inferences may be drawn, and counsel is allowed to advance all
legitimate arguments.”) (citations omitted); Floyd v. State, 569 So. 2d 1225,
1232 (Fla. 1990) (“We find the officers’ testimony within the permissible
range of lay observation and ordinary police experience. Hence, the trial
court did not abuse its discretion in admitting this particular testimony.”);
Triana v. State, 433 So. 3d 530, 532 (Fla. 3d DCA 2026) (“[A] conviction is
supported by sufficient evidence where a rational trier of fact could find the
existence of the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt after
viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State.”) (quoting Azin
v. State, 400 So. 3d 733, 739 (Fla. 3d DCA 2024)); Johnson v. State, 351
So. 3d 252, 254 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022) (“Demonstrative exhibits can be used
when they are relevant and provide a reasonably accurate reproduction of
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the objects and incident involved. Whether a demonstrative exhibit
constitutes a sufficiently accurate reproduction is a matter left to the
discretion of the trial court.”) (internal citation omitted); Mintz v. State, 349
So. 3d 531, 532–33 (Fla. 3d DCA 2022) (“The primary purpose of closing
argument is to give the parties an opportunity to summarize the evidence
and explain how the facts derived therefrom should be applied to the law as
instructed by the trial court. In closing argument, counsel is permitted to
review the evidence and fairly discuss and comment upon properly admitted
testimony and logical inferences from that evidence. The proper exercise of
closing argument is to review the evidence and to explicate those inferences
which may reasonably be drawn from the evidence.”) (citations omitted).
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