HAROLD B. CARTWRIGHT, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1992-07-10
No. 91-2348
COBB and PETERSON, JJ., concur.
602 So. 2d 641 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1992) Caution
Cited by 4 cases

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Synopsis

Appellant Cartwright challenged his habitual offender sentencing enhancement by filing a Rule 3.800 motion to correct an illegal sentence. The court affirmed the denial of his motion, holding that although an out-of-state conviction could not be used for the enhancement, his two Florida convictions for lewd or lascivious acts were sufficient to support habitual offender status under applicable law.


Holding

The Alabama conviction could not be used under section 775.084(l)(a)1, Florida Statutes. However, the two Florida convictions for lewd or lascivious acts were sufficient to support the habitual offender finding, and the sequentiality requirement established in prior case law was superseded by the Florida Supreme Court's decision in State v. Barnes.


Headnotes

[1] An out-of-state conviction cannot be used to qualify a defendant for sentencing as a habitual offender under Florida Statutes section 775.084(1)(a)1, Florida Statutes (19…

[2] Under Florida law, convictions arising from a single incident may not be sufficient to support a habitual offender finding, even if they are otherwise qualifying offenses…

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Key Quotes

“the appellant's out-of-state conviction could not be used”

Establishes that the Alabama Federal Court conviction was improper for habitual offender sentencing under section 775.084(l)(a)1, Florida Statutes

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Facts & Procedural History

Cartwright was sentenced as a habitual offender based on prior convictions including: a 1987 drug offense conviction in Alabama Federal Court, and two…

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Opinion of the Court
GRIFFIN, Judge.

GRIFFIN, Judge.

Appellant seeks review of the denial of his motion filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800 to correct an illegal sentence. The only issue raised in the motion that was not raised in appellant’s prior appeal1 is the question whether appellant’s record of prior convictions qualified him for sentencing as a habitual offender. At appellant’s sentencing, the evidence of prior convictions adduced by the state showed that in 1987 he had been convicted of a drug offense in Alabama Federal Court.

Additionally, he had been convicted in 1987 on two counts of commission of a lewd or lascivious act in the presence of a child under the age of fourteen. It does appear from the, sentencing transcript and from the order of the trial court denying the rule 3.800 motion that the Alabama conviction was used by the court to make the habitual offender finding. The state now concedes that under the controlling statute, section 775.084(l)(a)l, Florida Statutes (1988 Supp.), the appellant’s out-of-state conviction could not be used.

The trial court’s order denying appellant’s 3.800 motion was thus incorrect in this respect.

The state argues that because appellant also had convictions for two Florida offenses, the habitual offender finding was nevertheless correct. In his pro se brief, the appellant anticipated the state’s position. He argued that because his “lewd and lascivious” convictions occurred on the same date, they were not “sequential,” as required by Florida case law and, thus, would not support a habitual offender finding. Appellant was correct that, at the time he filed his brief, the intermediate appellate courts of Florida had held that sequential convictions were required to support a habitual offender finding. During the pendency of this appeal, however, those cases were superseded by the decision of the Florida Supreme Court in State v. Barnes, 595 So. 2d 22 (Fla.1992).

In response to that event, appellant, through his subsequently retained counsel, urges that, because appellant’s convictions arose out of a “single episode” (the photographing of two underage girls), the rationale of the specially concurring opinion in Barnes should apply and preclude habitual offender status in this case. Apart from the fact that the rationale of the majority opinion in Barnes appears inconsistent with the appellant’s position, the record does not disclose whether the appellant’s convictions arose out of a single incident.

Accordingly, we affirm the lower court’s denial of appellant’s rule 3.800 motion.

AFFIRMED.

COBB and PETERSON, JJ., concur. . The judgment and sentence were affirmed by this court in the prior appeal and, in any event, we find these other issues are either without merit or are not supported by the record.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Rankin v. State, 620 So. 2d 1028 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993)
    …though sentenced simultaneously. However, we did not explicitly foreclose the possibility that two predicate felonies could occur, as well as be punished, simultaneously. The “single episode” issue was first addressed [*1031] in Cartwright v. State, 602 So. 2d 641 (Fla. 5th DCA), rev. denied, 613 So. 2d 2 (Fla.1992). There the court denied relief in part because the record was inadequate to substantiate the defendant’s factual assertions, but also noted that “the majority opinion in Barnes appears inconsisten…
  • Antonious Wilder v. State, 695 So. 2d 489 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997)
    …cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1046, 114 S.Ct. 1578, 128 L.Ed.2d 221; Blanco v. State, 452 So. 2d 520 (Fla.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1181, 105 S.Ct. 940, 83 L.Ed.2d 953 (1985); Manning v. State, 625 So. 2d 1326 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993); Cartwright v. State, 602 So. 2d 641 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992); Thomas v. State, 494 So. 2d 240 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986); Busch v. State, 466 So. 2d 1075 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); State v. Cromartie, 419 So. 2d 757 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), Jefferson v. State, 298 So. 2d 465 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974).…

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