JUNIOR ROBINSON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1979-03-16
No. 78-1652
HOBSON, J., concurs., BOARDMAN, J., dissents with opinion.
368 So. 2d 638 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1979) Positive Treatment
Cited by 13 cases

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Synopsis

Robinson appealed his five-year sentence for carrying a concealed firearm, challenging the trial court's reservation of jurisdiction over his sentence under Florida law. The court held that carrying a concealed firearm is not a felony "involving the use of a firearm" and therefore does not authorize judicial retention of sentencing jurisdiction.


Holding

Carrying a concealed firearm is not a felony "involving the use of a firearm" under Section 947.16(3). The statute requires that the firearm be employed or used in connection with the commission of the felony, not merely possessed or carried. Therefore, the trial court lacked authority to retain jurisdiction over Robinson's sentence.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may retain jurisdiction over a portion of a sentence for review of a parole release order only if the felony conviction involves the use of a firearm or oth…

[2] A conviction for carrying a concealed firearm, without more, does not constitute a felony involving the "use" of a firearm for the purpose of authorizing a judge to retai…

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Key Quotes

“a study of the enumerated crimes which bring the statute into play leads us to believe that the legislature contemplated that the firearm or other deadly weapon was to have been employed in some manner in connection with the felony before the court would be authorized to retain jurisdiction over the defendant's sentence”

Establishes the court's interpretation that "use" of a firearm requires employment in connection with the felony, not mere possession

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Facts & Procedural History

Robinson was convicted of carrying a concealed firearm and sentenced to five years in prison. At sentencing, the trial court entered an order retainin…

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Opinion of the Court
GRIMES, Chief Judge.

GRIMES, Chief Judge.

The appellant was sentenced to five years upon conviction of the offense of carrying a concealed firearm. In this appeal he contests the court’s reservation of jurisdiction over a portion of his sentence under Section 947.16(3), Florida Statutes (Supp.1978).

The portion of that statute pertinent to this appeal reads as follows:

(3) Persons who have become eligible for parole and who may, according to the objective parole guidelines of the commission, be granted parole shall be placed on parole in accordance with the provisions of this law; except that, in any case of a person convicted of murder, robbery, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, kidnapping, sexual battery, arson, or any felony involving the use of a firearm or other deadly weapon or the use of intentional violence, at the time of sentencing the judge may enter an order retaining jurisdiction over the offender for review of a commission release order. This jurisdiction of the trial court judge is limited to the first third of the maximum sentence imposed.

The question before us is whether carrying a concealed firearm is a felony “involving the use of a firearm.”

Some good semantical arguments concerning the word “use” are made by both sides. The appellant also argues that because the statute is penal in nature, it must be strictly construed. Dotty v. State, 197 So. 2d 315 (Fla. 4th DCA 1967). In the final analysis, a study of the enumerated crimes which bring the statute into play leads us to believe that the legislature contemplated that the firearm or other deadly weapon was to have been employed in some manner in connection with the felony before the court would be authorized to retain jurisdiction over the defendant’s sentence.

Our conclusion is fortified by Section 775.087, Florida Statutes (1977), which reclassifies felonies upward when a firearm is involved. In that section, the felonies in question are those in which “the defendant carries, displays, uses, threatens, or attempts to use” a firearm. If, in Section 775.087, the terms “uses” and “carries” have different meanings, then it should follow that the legislature also conceived of those terms as different when it enacted Section 947.16(3), and thus did not intend for that section to apply to a carrying offense.

The judgment is affirmed, but the retention of jurisdiction over the sentence pursuant to Section 947.16(3) is hereby stricken.

HOBSON, J., concurs.

BOARDMAN, J., dissents with opinion.

Dissent
BOARDMAN, Judge,

BOARDMAN, Judge,

dissenting.

Respectfully, I disagree with the majority. I would affirm the ruling of the trial court in all respects.

With due deference, I disagree with Chief Judge Grimes that “a study of the enumerated crimes which bring the statute into play leads us to believe that the legislature contemplated that the firearm or other deadly weapon was to have been employed in some manner in connection with the [crime] . . . Those crimes may all be committed without a firearm and some may be committed without a deadly weapon.

The majority opinion relies somewhat on the wording of Section 775.087 which speaks to sentencing for a commission of a crime during which a “defendant carries, displays, uses” a firearm. I find the distinction made between the words carries, displays, and uses in this statute offers little guidance to resolution of the issue before us.1 Since the majority has concluded based on this distinction that “the use” does not include carry, then it follows that “the use” must not include display. A logical extension of the majority’s reasoning would result in the inapplicability of Section 947.-16(3) to felonies where firearms or deadly weapons were “displayed” but not “used.” I do not believe that the legislature intended such a result.

If Section 947.16(3) contemplated actual employment of a firearm, “use” would have been included in the statute as a verb rather than as a noun. The definition of “use” as a noun includes several variations on the concept of the power to or availability for use. In my view carrying a concealed firearm necessitates “the use” of that weapon in the commonly understood meaning of the noun “use” since one must have in his possession a firearm; and, thereby, it is readily accessible, available, and adaptable for use.

Accordingly, I would affirm.

. The legislature may well have intended by the terms of Section 775.087 to avoid problems other jurisdictions have experienced with statutes which include only the word “carries” such as whether locomotion of the defendant is required. See Annot., 43 A.L.R.2d 492.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Williamson v. State, 388 So. 2d 1345 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)
    …jurisdiction of the trial court judge is limited to the first third of the maximum sentence imposed. It is apparent that, since burglary is not one of the specified crimes, the section could not properly be invoked in this case. Robinson v. State, 368 So. 2d 638 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979); Williams v. State, 374 So. 2d 1086 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979).7 The reservation of jurisdiction under Section 947.16(3), Florida Statutes (Supp.1978), is stricken from the judgment under review, which is otherwise affirmed. Affirmed in…
  • Green v. State, 406 So. 2d 1148 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)
    …nt to withdraw his guilty plea, should he so desire. For purposes of any subsequent proceeding, we also note that the trial judge may not retain jurisdiction over the defendant’s sentence for burglary. § 947.16(3), Fla. Stat. See Robinson v. State, 368 So. 2d 638 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979). We have considered Green’s remaining points on appeal and find them to be without merit. See Albernaz v. United States, 450 U.S. 333, 101 S.Ct. 1137, 67 L.Ed.2d 275 (1981); State v. Hegstrom, 401 So. 2d 1343 (Fla.1981). AFFIRMED…
  • Palmer v. State, 416 So. 2d 878 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982)
    …er deadly weapon or the use of intentional violence, at the time of sentencing the judge may enter an order retaining jurisdiction over the offender for review of a commission release order. The Second District Court of Appeal in Robinson v. State, 368 So. 2d 638 (Fla.2d DCA 1979), determined that carrying a concealed weapon does not constitute a felony “involving the use of a firearm,” as defined in Section 947.16(3), Florida Statutes. We agree and reverse only that part of the trial court’s order retaining…

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