DAVID VETTER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1982-12-15
No. 82-1498
CAMPBELL and SCHOONOVER, JJ., concur.
425 So. 2d 575 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1982) Caution
Cited by 6 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

David Vetter appealed the summary denial of his postconviction motion seeking to vacate his sentence for manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident. The court reversed and vacated the sentence, finding that the state violated its agreement to remain silent at sentencing when the prosecutor made damaging comments about Vetter to the probation officer who prepared the presentence investigation report.


Holding

The state violated its agreement to remain silent at sentencing by having the prosecutor convey damaging statements to the probation officer, constituting an indirect violation of the state's obligation of neutrality. Vetter's sentence was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing before a different judge with the prejudicial remarks excised from the presentence investigation report.


Headnotes

[1] A prosecutor's unofficial damaging comments to a probation officer preparing a presentence investigation report can indirectly violate the state's agreement to remain sil…

[2] A defendant is denied due process when the state indirectly violates its agreement to stand silent at sentencing through damaging remarks to a probation officer.

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Key Quotes

“we cannot sanction the state taking a covert position hostile to a defendant who has acted on direct representations of the state's neutrality in a sentencing procedure”

Establishes the core principle that even indirect violations of a state's agreement to remain silent at sentencing are impermissible

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Facts & Procedural History

Vetter pled guilty to manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident in exchange for the state's agreement to stand silent at sentencing. He was se…

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Opinion of the Court
SCHEB, Acting Chief Judge.

SCHEB, Acting Chief Judge.

We have for review the trial court’s summary denial of David Vetter’s motion for postconviction relief.

Vetter pled guilty to manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident. In exchange for his plea, the state agreed to stand silent at his sentencing. He was convicted and on May 28, 1981, sentenced to consecutive prison terms of fifteen years and one year respectively.

In his motion for postconviction relief, Vetter acknowledged the state stood silent at his sentencing. Yet, he contended that he was denied due process of law because the assistant state attorney unofficially made some damaging comments to the probation officer who prepared the presentence investigation report (PSI). The prosecutor’s actions, he argued, indirectly violated the state’s agreement to stand silent and improperly influenced the court.

Subsequent to the imposition of sentence, on July 23, 1981, the same trial judge who sentenced Vetter heard his motion to modify or reduce his sentence. At that hearing, the court observed that there had not been a plea bargain in the traditional sense. The court noted the comments attributed to the assistant state attorney were included in the PSI but stated they had no effect on the court’s decision to impose the sentence. He denied Vetter’s motion, whereupon Vet-ter filed the instant motion under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 seeking to vacate his sentence. The trial court summarily denied his motion and this appeal ensued.

We have examined the PSI. The confidential portion of it reflects that the assistant state attorney told the probation officer who prepared the report that it was his unofficial position that what Vetter did was “murder” and that he ought to “hang” for it. That record was before the court at time of sentencing. We have full confidence in the trial court and its impartiality and note the trial judge’s comment that such statements had no bearing on the sentence he imposed. Yet, we cannot sanction the state taking a covert position hostile to a defendant who has acted on direct representations of the state’s neutrality in a sentencing procedure.

Irrespective of whether there was a plea bargain in the traditional sense, the state was bound by its representations to remain silent at Vetter’s sentencing. Here, the state did not violate its obligation directly, but it did so indirectly when the prosecutor conveyed his unofficial position to the trial court by making damaging statements to the probation officer who prepared the PSI. See Wood v. State, 357 So. 2d 1060 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978).

Accordingly, we vacate Vetter’s sentence.1 We direct the chief judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit to cause the prejudicial remarks in the PSI to be excised and thereafter to assign this case to a judge other than the judge who imposed the sentences for resentencing. Of course, the sentencing judge must comply with Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.700, and Vet-ter shall be allowed to be present at the resentencing.

CAMPBELL and SCHOONOVER, JJ., concur. . Ordinarily, we would remand this cause for an evidentiary hearing as contemplated by Rule 9.140(g). We have not since the critical facts relied on by this court were already documented by the record in prior adversarial evidentiary hearings.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Lollar v. State, 443 So. 2d 1079 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)
    …honored. See, e.g., Nesmith v. State, 374 So. 2d 1139 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979) (trial judge declined to honor plea bargain); Wood v. State, 357 So. 2d 1060 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978) (state violated agreement to recommend concurrent sentences). Vetter v. State, 425 So. 2d 575 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982), relied on by the trial judge, is factually distinguishable. There, the defendant moved to vacate his sentence only. REVERSED and REMANDED for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. DANAHY and CAMPBELL, JJ., c…
  • Ruth v. State, 574 So. 2d 225 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991)
    …other hand, they are also held to a high standard of both promise and performance in the area of plea agreements. Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971); Tillman v. State, 522 So. 2d 14 (Fla.1988); Vetter v. State, 425 So. 2d 575 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); Macker v. State, 500 So. 2d 256 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987); Acosta v. Turner, 666 F. 2d 949 (5th Cir.1982). This high standard governs a state attorney’s promise in a plea agreement to move for a reduced sentence if a defendant convicted…
  • MacKer v. State, 500 So. 2d 256 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986)
    …ted the government’s recommendation, it necessarily follows that in this case the Parole Board’s awareness of and/or disinclination to adopt the terms and conditions of the plea agreements would be irrelevant.” (citations omitted)); Vetter v. State, 425 So. 2d 575 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982). Thus, the state’s breach of the plea agreement removes the legal basis for the plea, see Petition of Geisser, 554 F. 2d 698, 704 (5th Cir.1977), and entitles Macker to relief. Moreover, it cannot be said that Macker’s constitutio…

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