1.Renewed Motion for Judgment of Acquittal and Defense Rests
93 lines(The following proceedings were resumed October 24, 2024, at 9:06 a.m., with appearances as previously noted; stenographically reported by June Bufford.)
THE COURT: Good morning. You-all can be seated.
COURT CLERK: Case No. 2020-CF-2603, the State of Florida vs. Sarah Boone.
Announce your names for the record, beginning with the State?
MR. CACCIATORE: Dave Cacciatore on behalf of the State.
COURT CLERK: Defense?
MR. OWENS: James Owens for Sarah Boone.
MR. HENDERSON: Tony Henderson for Sarah Boone.
COURT CLERK: Ms. Boone, raise your right hand to be sworn, please.
(Defendant sworn.)
SARAH BOONE: I do.
COURT CLERK: Thank you.
THE COURT: Good morning, ma'am. Could you state your name and date of birth for the record for me?
SARAH BOONE: Sarah Boone, 10/10/77.
THE COURT: Ms. Boone is seated at counsel's table buttressed by her attorneys, wearing a black suit and pink blouse.
All members of our jury are present this morning.
State, is there anything we need to address before we bring in our panel?
THE COURT: Defense, anything we need to address?
MR. OWENS: Yes, Judge. I intend to introduce these two exhibits that have already been stipulated to. One is -- you're going to mark them once they're introduced?
COURT CLERK: Correct. Right now, they are ID'd as AB, aS in boy, and AC, as in cat.
MR. OWENS: Defense Identification AB, Judge, which is the order dated June 16th of 2019. It's a no contact order. And then Identification AC is a no contact order dated June the 19th, 2019. And then I'd like to introduce them into evidence. And then I'd like to hand-publish them to jury.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. OWENS: And let them look at them one at a time.
And then, I believe, we're going to rest our case. But, at some point, I guess you would excuse the jury because Sarah Boone needs to be questioned about --
THE COURT: And there may be additional motions to be addressed at that time --
MR. OWENS: Okay.
THE COURT: -- so, yes.
THE COURT: I don't have a problem with that. If you want to rest now, subject to those being entered and published, and we can address any motions. The Court has reviewed both of the no contact orders.
MR. OWENS: Okay.
THE COURT: And that way we don't have to do an in-and-out, and I can colloquy Ms. Boone at that point in time, and we can proceed with the State's rebuttal case.
MR. OWENS: Okay. Subject to the introduction of those two exhibits just mentioned, we would be -- the defense would be resting our case at that juncture.
THE COURT: Okay. All right. I've been advised by the courtroom deputy the juror wearing Badge 130, Seat 10, cannot stay past 5:30 today. So just be advised and we'll use our time accordingly.
MR. OWENS: Is that an alternate, Judge?
THE COURT: Give me a moment and I can check.
That is an alternate. It's Alternate Seat 4.
THE COURT: Defense, do you have any motions?
MR. BECK: Just out of an abundance of caution, I'll renew our motions for judgment of acquittal, pursuant to the defense resting. Might as well do that now while the jury is still out.
I don't have any additional arguments other than what was made the other day.
THE COURT: Okay. Thank you.
Any other additional argument, Mr. Jay?
MR. JAY: Just that at this point in time, the standard is whether or not a reasonable trier of fact could find the defendant guilty, and there is sufficient evidence for that to be sent to the jury.
THE COURT: Thank you.
The Court recalls the arguments that were made after the conclusion of the State's case, both from the State and the defense. The Court finds that a reasonable juror could make a finding of guilt on the elements of the sole charge in the Information, beyond and to the exclusion of each and every reasonable doubt. For those reasons, the renewed judgment of acquittal is denied.
Ms. Boone, I have a couple of questions to go over with you, ma'am. You've been previously sworn this morning. Your attorney has indicated that all of the evidence and testimony of all witnesses in your case have been presented to the jury with the exception of the two no contact orders, premarked as AB, from June 16th, 2019, and the no contact order of June 19th, 2019, premarked as AC, which, once the jury comes in, he will enter into evidence and produce them to the jury for their viewing.
Are there any witnesses that you wanted to call that your attorneys failed to call?
SARAH BOONE: No.
THE COURT: Is there any evidence that you wanted your attorneys to present that any of them failed to present?
SARAH BOONE: No.
THE COURT: Are you satisfied with all of your attorneys up and until this point?
SARAH BOONE: Very.
THE COURT: Is there anything that you would like to bring to my attention at this time?
SARAH BOONE: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Okay. All right. I did receive the proposed jury instructions this morning. I'll look at them during the lunch hour, and after the State concludes their rebuttal case, we can proceed with addressing those.
Mr. Beck, yes, sir?
MR. BECK: Your Honor, the defense did not receive the redline copies that the Court discussed yesterday. I don't know if those were sent.
THE COURT: I emailed Ms. Berrios last night once we got out of court. I'll send them to everyone this morning.
THE COURT: Just give me a moment and I'll get those out right now.
Is there anyone else -- the email correspondents that I have is Mr. Owens' email, Ms. Andrews' email, Mr. Cacciatore's email. Is there anyone else that they need to be sent to from the defense side?
MR. OWENS: We'll pass them around.
THE COURT: All right. Very good.
All right. Can we go ahead and bring in our panel, State?
THE COURT: Defense?
MR. OWENS: Yes.
THE COURT: All right. Let's stand and bring in our panel, please.
COURT STAFF: Jury entering.
(Jury entered.)
THE COURT: State, do you recognize our jury?
MR. CACCIATORE: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Defense, do you recognize our jury?
MR. OWENS: Yes, I do.
THE COURT: Thank you. You-all can be seated.
Good morning, members of the jury. Welcome back to 12 Alpha in the Orange County Courthouse.
If you could, just raise your hands to confirm that you complied with the Court's instructions last night during break. Thank you.
The record will reflect that all jurors have raised their hands.
We're going to have a little bit of additional evidence presented by the defense this morning, and then we'll go from there, okay? All right. Thank you very much.
Mr. Owens, you may proceed, sir.
MR. OWENS: Judge, at this time, I would move to introduce Defense Identification Exhibit AB into evidence.
THE COURT: What was premarked as Defense AB will be received into evidence, without objection, as Defense 19.
(Defendant's Exhibit 19 received in evidence.)
THE COURT: And if you could just identify AC for the record, sir.
MR. OWENS: Judge, at this time, I would like to move Defense Identification AC into evidence and that is --
THE COURT: Hearing no objection from the State, what was premarked as Defense AC will be received into evidence, without objection, as Defense 20.
(Defendant's Exhibit 20 received in evidence.)
MR. OWENS: Judge, I would like to publish these to the jury and allow them to take their time to pass these down to --
THE COURT: You may proceed.
MR. OWENS: -- everyone.
The first one is Defense Exhibit 19. Just review it and pass it down.
(Pause.)
MR. OWENS: Next document is Defense Exhibit 20.
(Pause. )
THE COURT: Thank you, members of the jury.
Mr. Owens, any additional witnesses, evidence, or testimony, sir?
MR. OWENS: No, sir. On behalf of Sarah Boone, the defense rests.
THE COURT: Thank you.
Defense -- or State, are you intending on putting on a rebuttal case?
THE COURT: You may proceed, sir.
DR. TONIA WERNER
was called as a witness and, having first been duly sworn,
testified as follows:
TONIA WERNER: I do.
THE COURT: Doctor, good morning. Can you state and spell your name for the record for us?
TONIA WERNER: My name is Tonia, T-o-n-i-a, Werner, W-e-r-n-e-r.
THE COURT: Thank you. You may be seated, ma'am.