JEFFREY LYNN MOORE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1984-08-22
No. AW-88
SMITH and WENTWORTH, JJ., concur.
455 So. 2d 535 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1984) Negative Treatment
Cited by 66 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

Jeffrey Moore appeals his armed robbery conviction and sentence. The court affirmed the conviction but vacated the sentence because the trial court improperly included a prior conviction committed after the charged offense when calculating Moore's sentencing guidelines score.


Holding

The court held that the sentencing guidelines require only an affirmative selection to be sentenced thereunder, not a knowing and intelligent waiver. However, the court held that the trial court erred in including a prior conviction committed after the charged offense in the sentencing guidelines calculation, as the rules require prior convictions to have been disposed of before commission of the instant offense.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence is affirmed if the alleged errors made during the trial stage are without merit.

[2] A trial court does not improperly limit defense cross-examination of a state witness when the alleged errors made during the trial stage are without merit.

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Key Quotes

“The Florida Supreme Court, in its opinion approving the sentencing guidelines, and the Florida Legislature, in its legislation authorizing and implementing the guidelines, require only a showing that a defendant 'affirmatively selected' to be sentenced under the guidelines.”

Establishes the legal standard for sentencing under guidelines does not require knowing and intelligent waiver

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Facts & Procedural History

Moore was convicted of armed robbery. At sentencing, the trial court applied the Florida sentencing guidelines, which eliminated parole eligibility. T…

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Opinion of the Court
WIGGINTON, Judge.

WIGGINTON, Judge.

Moore appeals from his conviction of, and sentence for, armed robbery, raising several points for our review.

Points I and II, regarding alleged errors made by the court during the trial stage are without merit. We therefore affirm the court’s denial of Moore’s motion to suppress evidence, and hold that the trial court did not improperly limit defense cross-examination of a state witness.

Points III and IV, however, pertaining to the sentencing stage, merit some discussion. Under Point III, Moore argues that the trial court erred in sentencing him pursuant to the sentencing guidelines, since the record is silent as to whether Moore “knowingly and intelligently” waived his right to parole eligibility. Moore makes two contentions to advance his argument. First, he contends that the applications of the guidelines to his case, where he committed his crime prior to October 1, 1983, the effective date of rules 3.701 and 3.988, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, would be an impermissible ex post facto application of the law. Therefore, by his choosing to be sentenced under the guidelines, Moore waived a valuable constitutional right to be protected from the application of ex post facto laws.

Second, Moore contends that a defendant’s choice to be sentenced under the guidelines should be as carefully scrutinized by the trial court as when a defendant enters a guilty plea. As his argument goes, a determination should be made as to whether a defendant knows that by being sentenced under the guidelines, he has lost his eligibility for parole. Thus, the court’s scrutiny would concentrate on the issue of a knowing and intelligent waiver. We reject Moore’s argument under Point III for one major reason. The Florida Supreme Court, in its opinion approving the sentencing guidelines, and the Florida Legislature, in its legislation authorizing and implementing the guidelines, require only a showing that a defendant “affirmatively selected” to be sentenced under the guidelines. In re Rules of Criminal Procedure (Sentencing Guidelines), 439 So. 2d 848 (Fla.1983); section 921.001(4)(a), Florida Statutes (1983). There is no indication in either source that the term “affirmatively” was intended to mean “knowingly and intelligently.” We decline to accord it that definition now.

The record indicates the following exchange took place between the trial court and defense counsel:

MR. GREEN: For the record, Your Honor, I have discussed this with my client. The Court was kind enough to give us an option. I think even under the law we’re entitled to an option for us to determine whether or not we would elect to be sentenced under the guidelines. I have discussed this with my client. We have chosen to be sentenced under the guidelines, even though the crime was committed before October 1.

THE COURT: All right. He elects to be sentenced under guidelines?

MR. GREEN: That’s correct.

THE COURT: I want the court file to clearly show that. (T. 588) (emphasis added)

We hold the above colloquy to be clear evidence of Moore’s affirmative selection to be sentenced under the guidelines.

However, we would agree with Moore’s final argument under Point IV, that the trial court erred in scoring Moore by including in his number of prior convictions, over defense objection, a prior conviction of armed robbery. That particular offense was committed the day after the offense in the present case occurred. Rule 3.701 d.5.a), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, provides for inclusion in the prior record score only criminal convictions disposed of prior to the commission of the instant offense. Here, the second robbery, and the conviction therefor, occurred after the commission of the instant offense, and obviously was not disposed of prior to the commission of the instant offense. Consequently, we vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing in accordance with this opinion.

SMITH and WENTWORTH, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (31 total)

  • Mischler v. State, 458 So. 2d 37 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)
    …DCA 1984); Perry v. State, 457 So. 2d 543 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984). Guidelines do not require defendant to "knowingly and intelligently" select to be sentenced under the guidelines Kiser v. State, 455 So. 2d 1071 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Moore v. State, 455 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). Conviction prior to effective date does not prevent election to use guidelines but election may be waived Query v. State, 455 So. 2d 554 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Johnson v. State, 453 So. 2d 411 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Harms v. Sta…
  • Jordan v. State, 460 So. 2d 477 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)
    …ppellant may affirmatively select to be sentenced under the guidelines. If he does not, the trial judge will resentence him according to procedures in effect prior to the adoption of the sentencing guidelines. Rodriguez v. State. Cf. Moore v. State, 455 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984) (defense counsel stated in the record “we have chosen to be sentenced under the guidelines, even though the crime was committed before October 1”). REVERSED AND REMANDED. GRIMES, A.C.J., and SCHEB, J., concur.…
  • Johnson v. State, 462 So. 2d 49 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
    …Florida Statutes, and such affirmative selection does not require any advisement by the court as to parole ineligibility. See Jones v. State, 459 So. 2d 1151 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Coates v. State, 458 So. 2d 1219 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Moore v. State, 455 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). In imposing a sentence outside the presumptive guideline range the court noted appellant’s “utter disregard for the property rights [and] welfare and safety” of others. The court further explained that: ... [T]his robbery was…

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