JOSHUA LOWERY
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA

Fla. 1st DCA | 2020-05-18
No. 19-2740
Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2020)

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Holding

A trial court must correct a judgment to reflect the defendant's actual guilty plea convictions when the written judgment contains a scrivener's error inconsistent with the plea and sentencing transcripts.


Headnotes

[1] A scrivener's or clerical error in a judgment reflecting an incorrect felony degree may be corrected on remand when the actual guilty plea and sentencing transcripts esta…

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Key Quotes

“a defendant need not be present at resentencing if the error to be corrected is 'purely ministerial' or clerical, and involves no exercise of the court's discretion.”

Walton v. State citation regarding whether defendant must be present for correcting clerical errors

Facts & Procedural History

Joshua Lowery pleaded guilty to two counts of child neglect as third-degree felonies at a plea hearing and sentencing hearing. The written judgment in…

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Opinion of the Court
Nordby

PER CURIAM.

Upon review of the instant case, we affirm the lower court’s order denying postconviction relief sought under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We write only to correct a scrivener’s error in the judgment. See Ashley v. State, 850 So. 2d 1265, 1268 n.3 (Fla. 2003) (defining a scrivener’s error as a written clerical error that is not “the result of a judicial determination or error”). Appellant’s written judgment reflects that he was convicted of child neglect as a second-degree felony. However, both the plea hearing and the sentencing hearing transcripts indicate that Appellant pleaded guilty to two counts of child neglect as third degree felonies. On remand, the trial court shall correct the judgment to reflect Appellant’s convictions on counts two and three are the third-degree felony of child neglect.

Appellant need not be present for this ministerial correction to the judgment. See Walton v. State, 106 So. 3d 522, 529 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013) (“[A] defendant need not be present at resentencing if the error to be corrected is ‘purely ministerial’ or clerical, and involves no exercise of the court’s discretion.”).

LEWIS, B.L. THOMAS, and NORDBY, JJ., concur. _____________________________


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