GEORGE REGAN JONES v. STATE OF FLORIDA
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IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA
GEORGE REGAN JONES,
Appellant,
v.
CASE NO. 1D04-5366
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
_____________________________/
Opinion filed September 5, 2006.
An appeal from the Circuit Court for Walton County.
Kelvin C. Wells, Judge.
Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and Edgar Lee Elzie, Jr., and M. Gene Stephens,
Assistant Public Defenders, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
Charlie Crist, Attorney General, and Sheron Wells, Assistant Attorney General,
Tallahassee, for Appellee.
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
PER CURIAM.
Pursuant to appellant’s motion for rehearing, we withdraw the opinion issued
in this cause on July 20, 2006, and substitute the following in its place.
George Regan Jones appeals his convictions for various offenses of possession
of and trafficking in drugs, entered following his nolo contendere pleas, conditioned
on his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress the search of the house from
which the drugs were obtained. For the reasons following, we dismiss the appeal and
remand the case with directions.
Without addressing the merits of the motion, the lower court decided only that
appellant did not have standing to contest the search on the ground that he was not a
resident of the house searched.1 Because it appeared to this court that the trial court’s
determination of standing was not dispositive of the case, meaning that “regardless of
whether the appellate court affirms or reverses the lower court’s decision, there will
be no trial of the case,” Morgan v. State, 486 So. 2d 1356, 1357 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986),
we relinquished jurisdiction to the trial court for a decision on whether the order to be
reviewed was dispositive. On remand, the court decided only that a ruling on the
motion to suppress would be dispositive, not that its specific ruling on standing was
dispositive of all issues, as the parties themselves agreed that the ruling would have
no such effect.
1
The court should not have limited its determination solely to the question of
standing, but should have resolved as well the merits of the motion to suppress.
See Dean v. State, 478 So. 2d 38 (Fla. 1985); Andrews v. State, 536 So. 2d 1108
(Fla. 4th DCA 1988), review denied, 544 So. 2d 200 (Fla. 1989); Sparkman v.
State, 482 So. 2d 421 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985).
2
In that it clearly appears from the record that the court’s ruling on standing
would not preclude the trial of the case, we are required to DISMISS this appeal and
REMAND the case to the trial court with directions to conduct an evidentiary hearing
and rule on the substantive merits of the motion to suppress. Pursuant to the terms of
the negotiated plea agreement, if the trial court denies the motion to suppress on the
merits, appellant may appeal the ruling.
ERVIN, DAVIS, and LEWIS, JJ., CONCUR.
3
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