Raul Eduardo Banegas-Membran v. State of Florida

Appellant Raul Banegas-Membran was found guilty of tampering with a witness under section 914.22(1), Florida Statutes (2013). Because of the nature of the underlying crime for which he initially' had been tried, he was sentenced to life in prison. Appellant raises three issues on appeal: (1) the trial court erred by not allowing him to introduce evidence of the not-guilty verdicts obtained in the trial for his underlying crimes in order to impeach the credibility of the State’s primary witness against him; (2) the State’s characterization of the intimidation element of the witness tampering…