PHILLIP KARL GISSINGER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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The court held that points for legal status at the time of the offense should be assessed for any offense being sentenced, not just the primary offense.
[1] Under sentencing guidelines, points for legal status at the time of the offense are assessed for any offense for which the defendant is being sentenced, not solely the pr…
[2] The purpose of sentencing guidelines is to establish uniform standards and eliminate unwarranted variation in the sentencing process.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe defendant was convicted of aggravated child abuse and later violated probation by committing resisting an officer without violence. The trial cour…
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ORFINGER, Judge.
The defendant appeals from the sentences imposed under the guidelines, Fla.R. Crim.P. 3.701, for the crimes of aggravated child abuse1 and resisting an officer without violence.2 He argues that the guidelines scoresheet used to compute the recommended sentence was erroneous because it included 24 points for his legal status at the time of the offense. We affirm.
The defendant committed the second degree felony offense of aggravated child abuse in 1982 and was placed on probation. In November of 1984, while still on probation, the defendant was charged with resisting an officer with violence. § 843.01, Fla.Stat. (1983). Based on a plea agreement with the State, the defendant pleaded guilty to the crime of resisting an officer without violence, a misdemeanor, and also pleaded guilty to violation of his earlier probation. The court revoked his probation and sentenced defendant to six years’ imprisonment on the aggravated child abuse (the primary offense), and one year concurrent on the additional misdemeanor offense, based on a scoresheet total of 184 points. The trial court stated that there was no basis for departure.
The earlier conviction for aggravated child abuse was scored as the “primary offense” because it was the offense which, when scored on the scoresheet, recommended the most severe sanction. Fla.R. Crim.P. 3.701(d)(3). The misdemeanor conviction for resisting an officer without violence was scored as an “additional offense at conviction.” Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.701(d)(4). In computing the total score, defendant was assessed 24 points because, as the State successfully argued, he was under legal constraint at the time he committed the additional offense.
Defendant argues that because the aggravated child abuse was the primary offense at conviction, and because he was under no legal constraint at the time he committed that crime, these 24 points should not have been assessed, and that his total score would then be 160 points, with a presumptive sentence of 3V2 to 4V2 years, two cells lower than the one under which he was sentenced.
Rule 3.701 subd. d subd. 6 does not clearly state whether “legal status at time of offense” refers to only the primary offense or to any offense at conviction, but a review of the purpose and intent of the sentencing guidelines points to the latter rather than the former. The stated purpose of the guidelines is to establish a uniform set of standards to guide the trial judge and to eliminate unwarranted variation in the sentencing process. Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.701(b); Hendrix v. State, 475 So. 2d 1218 (Fla.1985).
Only one scoresheet is prepared for each defendant covering all offenses pending before the court for sentencing. Fla.R. Crim.P. 3.701(d)(1); Gallagher v. State, 476 So. 2d 754 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985).
A sentence must be imposed for each offense, although the total sentence cannot exceed the total guidelines sentence absent a written reason for departure. Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.701(d)(12).
Where multiple convictions are involved, to determine the primary offense at conviction, a guidelines scoresheet is prepared showing each offense as the “primary offense,” and that scoresheet which recommends the most severe sanction is the one to be utilized for sentencing. Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.701(d)(3).
With these basic precepts in mind, and because the rule does not indicate otherwise, we conclude that legal status at time of offense should be scored for any offense for which the defendant is being sentenced. It would not promote uniformity in sentencing if one defendant could avoid the points for legal constraint because he committed a less serious crime while on probation for an earlier, more severe crime, while another defendant who committed the identical crimes, only in reverse order, would receive the points for legal constraint. That would produce incongruous results in eases which should be treated alike.
Moreover, since another stated purpose of the guidelines is to increase the severity of the sanctions as the length and nature of the defendant’s criminal history increases, Rule 3.701(b)(4), to adopt the defendant’s argument would permit a defendant to violate his probation with no additional points being scored when his probation is revoked after he commits a second crime, merely because his first crime was the more serious. Uniformity is promoted and disparity in sentencing is avoided if a defendant is scored points for legal constraint as it applies to any offense for which he is being sentenced.3
Cases relied on by defendant4 are inapposite, because in all those cases, it appears that the defendants were being sentenced only for the original crimes for which they had been placed on probation. Nothing in those opinions indicates that the defend ants were being sentenced for additional crimes at the same time.
AFFIRMED.
COBB, C.J., and COWART, J., concur. . § 827.03(3), Fla.Stat. (1983).
. § 843.02, Fla.Stat. (1983).
. We are not confronted with, and thus do not decide the question of whether, after scoring points for legal constraint, a trial judge may also increase the sentence by one cell pursuant to Rule 3.701(d)(14). Cf. Hendrix v. State, 475 So. 2d 1218 (Fla.1985).
. Higgs v. State, 470 So. 2d 75 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985); Daniels v. State, 462 So. 2d 51 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Burke v. State, 460 So. 2d 1022 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984); Addison v. State, 452 So. 2d 955 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984); Carter v. State, 452 So. 2d 953 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984).
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Flowers v. State, 567 So. 2d 1055 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990)…epends on which scoresheet is used and the appropriate scoresheet depends not on which offense was committed while the defendant was under a status of legal constraint, but depends on the primary offense defined in 3.701 d.3. See Gissinger v. State, 481 So. 2d 1269 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986). When one factor to be considered in arriving at any conclusion is related by description or otherwise to some other factor, confusion can easily result from that relationship. When a circumstance involves two factors and one is…
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Walker v. State, 546 So. 2d 764 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989)…heet. In doing so he added points for legal constraint twice, once for each offense. This resulted in the appellant receiving fourteen points instead of seven. This court has addressed a similar, though not identical, problem in Gissinger v. State, 481 So. 2d 1269 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986), holding that “legal status at the time of the offense” refers not only to the primary offense, but any offense at conviction. We now hold that a defendant is properly assessed legal constraint points to each offense for which he…
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Carter v. State, 571 So. 2d 520 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990)…herefore, a defendant is properly assessed legal constraint points to each offense for which he is sentenced where he was under legal constraint at the time of the offense. See Walker v. State, 546 So. 2d 764 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989); Gissinger v. State, 481 So. 2d 1269, 1270 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986). Since pursuant to the guidelines, an “offense” can be scored as a misdemeanor, and legal constraint points can be scored for additional “offenses,” legal constraint points can be scored for misdemeanors as well. Additiona…
Previewing 3 of 6 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Hendrix v. State, 475 So. 2d 1218 (Fla. 1985)
- Carter v. State, 452 So. 2d 953 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)
- Glynn Addison, Jr. v. State, 452 So. 2d 955 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)
- Gallagher v. State, 476 So. 2d 754 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985)
- Higgs v. State, 470 So. 2d 75 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)
- Burke v. State, 460 So. 2d 1022 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)
- Daniels v. State, 462 So. 2d 51 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984)