TEDDY RICO PORTER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Teddy Porter appeals his departure sentences that exceed the one-cell increase allowed for violation of probation. The First District Court of Appeal reversed and remanded for resentencing within the permissible one-cell increase, holding that Florida law does not permit departure sentences exceeding one cell based on probation violations.
A departure sentence for violation of probation is impermissible if it exceeds the one-cell increase permitted by the sentencing guidelines, regardless of the severity or frequency of the probation violations.
[1] A departure sentence for violation of probation or community control is impermissible if it exceeds the one-cell increase permitted by the sentencing guidelines.
[2] Violation of probation is not an independent offense punishable at law, and departure sentences based on such violations are improper.
Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Violation of probation is not itself an independent offense punishable at law in Florida; the legislature has chosen to punish conduct underlying the violation of probation by revocation of probation, conviction and sentencing for the new offense, addition of status points when sentencing for a new offense, and a one-cell increase when sentencing for the original offense”
Establishes the legislature's prescribed penalties for probation violations and the limitation on departure
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePorter received departure sentences totaling 15 years in prison, which exceeded the recommended guidelines range of community control or 12 to 30 mont…
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WIGGINTON, Judge.
Appellant appeals his departure sentences which exceed the one-cell increase allowed by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.701(d)(14) for violation of probation or community control. We reverse his sentences and remand for resentencing within the one-cell increase.
In his sentencing departure order, the trial judge related that appellant has an extensive recent history of probation and community control violations, some of which include commission of other crimes, thus indicating that he is not responding to alternative treatment programs and is not amenable to rehabilitation through probation or community control. Thereupon, the court departed more than one cell from the recommended guidelines range of community control or 12 to 30 months and sen tenced appellant to a total of 15 years m prison.
In Lambert v. State, 545 So. 2d 838 (Fla.1989), the supreme court clearly expressed its view that more than a one-cell increase for violation of probation is improper. The court explained: Violation of probation is not itself an independent offense punishable at law in Florida; the legislature has chosen to punish conduct underlying the violation of probation by revocation of probation, conviction and sentencing for the new offense, addition of status points when sentencing for a new offense, and a one-cell increase when sentencing for the original offense; if departure based upon probation violation were to be approved, the courts unilaterally would be designating probation violation as an offense greater than that intended by the legislature. In so ruling, the court specifically receded from State v. Pentaude, 500 So. 2d 526 (Fla.1987), in which the court had approved departure for violation of probation when the trial judge found that the underlying reasons for the violation were sufficiently egregious and when, as here, the defendant had also committed several violations of probation in a short period of time.
Further, in Ree v. State, 565 So. 2d 1329 (Fla.1990), the court stated:
We recently have held that any departure sentence for probation violation is impermissible if it exceeds the one-cell increase permitted by the sentencing guidelines. Lambert, 545 So. 2d at 842
Again, the court recognized that to depart for violation of probation is impermissible “because it constitutes double dipping” in that the court imposes a departure sentence for probation violation while simultaneously the guidelines automatically aggravate the sentence for the separate offense that constituted the violation. Also in Teer v. State, 557 So. 2d 910 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), similar to the instant case, the defendant had a “repeated, persistent pattern of violating his probation and the violations had occurred within a short period of time.” There, relying on Ree and Maddox v. State, 553 So. 2d 1380 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989), the court reversed a departure which was based on the repeated persistent pattern of probation violation and remanded for resentencing within the one-cell increase even though the court noted that the trial court’s ground for departure otherwise would have been valid under Williams v. State, 504 So. 2d 392 (Fla.1987).
In light of the above opinions, we must reverse the trial judge’s departure sentences in the instant case and remand for resentencing within the one-cell increase allowed by the sentencing guidelines.
ERVIN, J., and WENTWORTH, Senior Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Harris v. State, 659 So. 2d 345 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995)…five years in prison, stating as its reason for departure: “One cell bump for VOP; sentence concurrent with sentence from Tampa.” This was error. Ree v. State, 565 So. 2d 1329 (Fla.1990); Lambert v. State, 545 So. 2d 838 (Fla.1989); Porter v. State, 579 So. 2d 345 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991). Harris properly raised this issue via motion to correct illegal sentence, because the improper two-cell bump-up appears on the face of the seoresheet. See and compare Nowlin v. State, 639 So. 2d 1050, 1051-52 (Fla. 1st DCA 199…
Authorities Cited
- Lambert v. State, 545 So. 2d 838 (Fla. 1989)
- REE v. State, 565 So. 2d 1329 (Fla. 1990)
- Williams v. State, 504 So. 2d 392 (Fla. 1987)
- State v. Pentaude, 500 So. 2d 526 (Fla. 1987)
- Maddox v. State, 553 So. 2d 1380 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989)
- Teer v. State, 557 So. 2d 910 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)