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980 So. 2d 1243

Docket No. 2D06-5072.

Frederick v. State

Benjamin Jarod FREDERICK, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 2008-05-07

Relies on 179 So. 2d 873 - Spataro v. State · 961 So. 2d 1116 - Watson v. State

Decided 2008-05-07

¶1*1244 James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Judith Ellis, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.

¶2Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Susan D. Dunlevy, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

¶3KELLY, Judge.

¶4Benjamin Frederick was convicted of various offenses he committed when fleeing from police officers attempting to conduct a traffic stop. In this appeal, he challenges only his convictions for possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.[1] The attorney general acknowledges, and we agree, that the State failed to prove that Frederick either actually or constructively possessed the contraband found in his car during a search of his vehicle. Accordingly, we reverse Frederick's convictions for possession of cocaine and possession of paraphernalia and the corresponding sentences. See Watson v. State,961 So.2d 1116 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007); Spataro v. State,179 So.2d 873 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965). We affirm the remaining counts without comment.

¶5Affirmed in part; reversed in part.

¶6WHATLEY and STRINGER, JJ., Concur.

NOTES

¶7[1] The paraphernalia Frederick was charged with possessing was the "baggie" which contained the crack cocaine. See § 893.145(10), Fla. Stat. (2006).

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