BENJAMIN GIPSON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Defendant's sentence was illegal because probation terminated after five years per the plea agreement, depriving the trial court of jurisdiction to revoke probation after that date.
A trial court lacks jurisdiction to revoke probation after the probation term has expired pursuant to an unequivocal plea agreement providing for automatic termination.
[1] A trial court is divested of jurisdiction to revoke probation once the probation term has expired pursuant to an unequivocal plea agreement providing for automatic termin…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“probation will early terminate at the end of five years”
Trial judge's pronouncement of sentence, establishing automatic termination of probation after five years
Defendant pleaded guilty under a plea agreement stating probation would terminate after five years with no restitution. The trial judge pronounced sen…
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FARMER, J.
Defendant appeals an order denying his motion for relief from an illegal sentence. The sentence in question arose from an order revoking probation and sentencing him to 10 years in prison. His principal contention is that under the plea agreement for the underlying conviction, his probation had terminated before the alleged violation and, consequently, the court lacked jurisdiction to revoke probation, making the sentence illegal. We agree and reverse.
Defendant pleaded guilty under a plea agreement. The plea form states his probation sentence would terminate “after 5 years ... no restitution.” Each provision is initialed by defendant, and the form was signed by defendant, his attorney, and the sentencing judge. In pronouncing sentence, the trial judge said: “probation will early terminate at the end of five years.... ” We contrast the circumstances in this case with Hepburn v. State, 780 So. 2d 326 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001), where in pronouncing sentence the judge said that probation “may be terminated early after three years ... if all conditions have been met and there are no violations.” Here the agreement and the pronouncement are unequivocal that probation terminates after 5 years. Hence the trial court lacked jurisdiction after the lapse of 5 years to revoke defendant’s probation.
Reversed.
HAZOURI, J., and PALMER, WILLIAM D., Associate Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Dorian Kimberly Mathews v. State, 58 So. 3d 929 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011)…led an orally pronounced special condition that allowed his probation to automatically terminate, the trial court could not find him guilty of a violation that occurred subsequent to the date he complied with the special condition); Gipson v. State, 997 So. 2d 1276 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009) (holding that the defendant’s probation automatically terminated after five years when the trial judge, when pronouncing sentence, said “probation will early terminate at the end of five years”). The trial court is divested of ju…
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State v. Maddex, 159 So. 3d 267 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015)…ant paid restitution. The fact that the amount remained undetermined at nine months did not transform the condition for early termination into either a time limitation on restitution or an automatic termination of probation. Compare Gipson v. State, 997 So. 2d 1276, 1277 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009) (finding that “ ‘probation will early terminate at the end of five years’ ” showed automatic termination after five years), with Hepburn v. State, 780 So. 2d 326, 327-28 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001) (finding “may be terminated early…
Authorities Cited
- Hepburn v. State, 780 So. 2d 326 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001)