JOE N. BYERS
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA

Fla. 1st DCA | 2026-02-18
No. 2024-3131
2026 FL 1611 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2026)

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Synopsis

Joe N. Byers appeals the revocation of his probation, claiming insufficient evidence of electronic-monitoring violations and that any violations were not willful and substantial. The court affirms the revocation, finding Byers failed to preserve his sufficiency-of-evidence argument and rejecting his remaining contentions.


Holding

The court affirmed the probation revocation. The court declined to address Byers's sufficiency-of-evidence argument because he failed to preserve it at trial, and found no merit in his remaining willfulness argument.


Headnotes

[1] An appellate argument regarding the sufficiency of evidence to support a probation-revocation finding is not preserved for appeal if not raised at the trial court level.

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Key Quotes

“Parties are required to preserve arguments because it allows the lower tribunal to consider and resolve errors when they arise, rather than wait for the process of an appeal and expend the judicial resources that come with that procedure.”

Establishes the foundational rule requiring parties to raise arguments at trial level, which Byers violated regarding his sufficiency-of-evidence claim.

Facts & Procedural History

Byers was subject to probation with an electronic-monitoring condition. He allegedly violated this condition on multiple occasions. The trial court fo…

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Per_curiam
Per Curiam

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL STATE OF FLORIDA

JOE N. BYERS, Appellant,

V.

STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.

No. 1D2024-3131

On appeal from the Circuit Court for Columbia County. Melissa G. Olin, Judge.

February 18, 2026

PER CURIAM.

Joe N. Byers appeals the revocation of his probation, contending that the evidence was insufficient to establish multiple violations of his electronic-monitoring condition and that the violations, even if established, were not willful and substantial. Because Byers did not raise his first argument below, it is unpreserved, and we decline to address it. See State v. Clark, 373 So. 3d 1128, 1131 (Fla. 2023) (“Parties are required to preserve arguments because it allows the lower tribunal to consider and resolve errors when they arise, rather than wait for the process of an appeal and expend the judicial resources that come with that procedure."). Finding no merit in Byers's remaining argument, we affirm.

AFFIRMED.

ROWE, RAY, and LONG, JJ., concur. Not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 9.331.

Jessica J. Yeary, Public Defender, and Jessica Kasey Helms Lacey, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and David Welch, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.


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