MARK WILLIAM CHARLES, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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.
Mark Charles appealed his sentencing guidelines calculation, challenging whether victim injury points should be multiplied by four for four separate counts of lewd and lascivious assault against the same child. The court affirmed, holding that victim injury points may be multiplied when offenses against a single victim constitute separate episodes or transactions rather than a single criminal episode.
Victim injury points may be scored multiple times (once per count) when a defendant is sentenced simultaneously for multiple offenses committed during separate episodes or transactions involving the same victim. The fact that there is a single victim does not alone preclude multiplication of victim injury points; instead, the court must determine whether the separate acts constituted separate episodes or transactions.
[1] When multiple offenses against a single victim constitute separate transactions or episodes, victim injury points may be scored for each offense.
[2] The passage of several weeks between offenses against the same victim supports the conclusion that each offense constitutes a separate transaction or episode.
Previewing 2 of 4 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“The analysis must continue for the purpose of determining whether the separate acts constituted separate episodes or transactions, or whether they were parts of a single episode or transaction.”
Establishes that the key inquiry is not merely the number of victims but whether offenses constitute separate transactions
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceCharles was convicted by jury of four counts of lewd and lascivious assault on the same child committed on four different days in March, May, June, an…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
PETERSON, Judge.
Mark William Charles appeals his guidelines sentence. The sentence was determined in part by multiplying the victim injury score by four. A jury had found him guilty of committing four counts of lewd and lascivious assault on the same child on four different days in March, May, June, and July of 1988. We affirm.
Charles argues that, since there was only one victim, the trial court should have calculated the cumulative severity of the injuries from the four different assaults and assigned a single score pursuant to Weekley v. State 553 So. 2d 239 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989).
The state argues that the victim injury score can be multiplied in the case of a single victim when each offense constitutes a separate transaction or episode. In Weekley, the district court reversed the trial court’s imposition of victim injury points for each of four separate acts of sexual battery and one act of aggravated battery against a single kidnap victim.
The court noted that the 1987 amendment to the committee note to rule 3.701(d)(7), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, omitted a previous provision for scoring multiple victim injury points for each count involving the same victim. The Weekley court did not address whether a victim injury score should be multiplied when the offenses against a single victim constitute separate transactions, and it can be inferred, as the state urges, that all five of the battery charges in that case occurred during the one criminal episode or transaction of kidnapping. In Williams v. State, 565 So. 2d 838 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), rev. denied, 576 So. 2d 295 (Fla.1991), the defendant committed multiple violent acts against one victim during the course of a single burglary. The court held that the violent acts were committed during a single transaction and that victim injury could be scored only once.
In the instant case the four offenses were committed against the same victim, but this fact alone does not terminate the analysis. The analysis must continue for the purpose of determining whether the separate acts constituted separate episodes or transactions, or whether they were parts of a single episode or transaction. Here, several weeks elapsed between each act. The defendant does not assert that the four offenses comprised a single transaction, and we hold that, under the circumstances of this case, each act was an episode or transaction in itself and that victim injury points were properly assessed for each episode. See also Ramsey v. State, 573 So. 2d 1053 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991) (Victim injury should be scored twice for offenses against one victim occurring in October 1987 and December 1987.)
We hold that rule 3.701(d)(7) prescribes scoring multiple victim injuries on a single scoresheet when a defendant is sentenced simultaneously for multiple offenses committed during separate episodes or transactions involving the same victim.
AFFIRMED.
HARRIS and DIAMANTIS, JJ„ concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Fretwell v. State, 586 So. 2d 483 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991)…573 So. 2d 1053 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991). Under this construction of the rule, the 40 point block for victim injury on the defendant’s guidelines scoresheet was properly multiplied by three, for each of the three criminal episodes. See Charles v. State, 584 So. 2d 227 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991). Neither the six counts representing the six offenses for which the defendant was convicted, nor the 20 point block for victim injury should have been used. The Guidelines Commission recently petitioned the Supreme Court to “cla…
-
Dolan v. State, 598 So. 2d 291 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992)…njured during a criminal episode_ (emphasis supplied). Thus the focus of the inquiry in this case is to determine how many “episodes” or “transactions?’ were involved in these crimes, and not the number of counts. Fretwell, supra; Charles v. State, 584 So. 2d 227 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991). The record shows in this case that Fret-well pled nolo contendere to four counts of sexual battery. The victim was a taxi driver who had the bad luck to encounter Dolan as a paying passenger. Dolan directed her to drive to a re…
Authorities Cited
- Weekley v. State, 553 So. 2d 239 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)
- Ritteman v. Dep't of Env't Reg., 565 So. 2d 838 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)
- Ramsey v. State, 573 So. 2d 1053 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991)