Pollock v. State

Kevaris Lamont Pollock appeals his conviction for manslaughter. We reverse and remand for a new trial because appellee State of Florida’s final argument, when combined with an error in the trial court’s instructions to the jury, denied Pollock due process of law.

Pollock was tried for first degree murder, armed robbery, eluding police and resisting an officer without violence in the shooting death of Larry Sheppard. In November 1997, Pollock was a seventeen-year-old student athlete attending Carol City Senior High School. Sheppard, who was twenty-four years old, befriended Pollock by bestowing…