ERNEST STEWART, JR., APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1992-11-13
No. 92-03079
DANAHY, A.C.J., and FRANK and ALTENBERND, JJ., concur.
608 So. 2d 536 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1992) Positive Treatment
Cited by 7 cases

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.

Synopsis

Ernest Stewart appeals the summary denial of his motion to vacate or correct an illegal sentence under Rule 3.800(a). The trial court amended Stewart's sentence via nunc pro tunc order to reflect a habitual felony offender sentence, but the appellate court reversed and remanded because the record attachments were insufficient to support the ruling.


Holding

The Court reversed and remanded for further proceedings because the attachments to the appealed order were insufficient to support the trial court's ruling. The Court expressed no opinion on whether the trial court had the authority to correct the sentence via nunc pro tunc notation under Rule 3.800(a), but required a more complete record for proper adjudication.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court's summary denial of a motion to vacate or correct sentence is reversible error when the attachments to the order are insufficient to support the ruling.

[2] A trial court may not rely on an incorrect or incomplete scoresheet to determine the legality of a sentence.

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

Key Quotes

“We reverse and remand for further proceedings because the attachments to the appealed order are insufficient to support the ruling.”

Statement of the core holding—the trial court's decision was reversed due to inadequate record support

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Stewart was convicted and received a fifteen-year sentence for what appears to be either a second-degree or third-degree felony. At a January 23, 1990…

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.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

[*537] PER CURIAM.

Ernest Stewart appeals the summary denial of his unsworn motion to vacate or correct sentence, filed pursuant to rule 3.800(a). Mr. Stewart maintains that his sentence was an illegal guidelines sentence of fifteen years for a third-degree felony. The trial court apparently concluded that the offense was a second-degree felony and determined that the sentencing judge had intended to impose a habitual felony offender sentence. Thus, it declared the sentence legal and entered a “nunc pro tunc” order amending the earlier sentence to reflect that it was imposed pursuant to the habitual felony offender statute. We reverse and remand for further proceedings because the attachments to the appealed order are insufficient to support the ruling.

This record does not contain the challenged sentence. The only scoresheet before us appears to be an incorrect score-sheet that may have been an estimate prepared by the defendant. That scoresheet claims the offense is a third-degree felony. However, there are other references in the record to a drug offense that would be a second-degree felony.

It is clear from the attached documents that the state sought a habitual offender sentence following the defendant’s convictions. At a sentencing hearing on January 23, 1990, the trial court obviously intended to impose a habitual offender sentence. However, the defendant was not represented at that hearing, and the trial court decided to vacate that sentence at a subsequent hearing on February 6, 1990. The trial court scheduled another sentencing hearing. We have no information concerning whether that hearing occurred and, if so, what sentence was imposed.

Interestingly, Mr. Stewart has filed a copy of a letter from his counsel on direct appeal explaining that the habitual offender box had not been checked on his sentence. The attorney explained that an appeal of this error would simply result in a remand for a new sentencing hearing at which the defendant could be properly ha-bitualized. See Graves v. State, 548 So. 2d 801 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989); Johnson v. State, 576 So. 2d 916 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991). Apparently, the defendant’s counsel convinced him to dismiss the appeal so that he could receive the gain time associated with a nonhabitual sentence. See § 775.084(4)(e), Fla.Stat. (1989). By filing this postconviction proceeding, it is possible that the defendant may lose the gain time that his attorney saved through the dismissal of the direct appeal.

In light of our limited record, we express no opinion at this time concerning the trial court’s ability to correct the sentence under rule 3.800(a) by a nunc pro tunc notation of a habitual offender status. We remand for further consideration of Stewart’s claim. The court may conduct an evidentiary hearing, or it may again deny the motion without a hearing and attach those portions of the record that conclusively demonstrate Stewart is clearly entitled to no relief. Any party aggrieved by the trial court’s subsequent action must file a notice of appeal within thirty days to obtain further appellate review.

DANAHY, A.C.J., and FRANK and ALTENBERND, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Stewart v. State, 647 So. 2d 219 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994)
    …tewart’s claims. The events leading up to the trial court’s order represent a legal and procedural quagmire in the realm of habitual offender and guidelines sentencing law which we detailed in Stewart’s prior appearance before us. Stewart v. State, 608 So. 2d 536 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992). Following our remand, the trial court entered another order that Stewart appealed. Stewart then voluntarily dismissed this appeal. Stewart v. State, 619 So. 2d 964 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993). Stewart’s latest motion again challenged the…
  • Wyche v. State, 624 So. 2d 830 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)
    …cing documents. It appears the errors regarding the designation of felony degree resulted in concomitant sentences exceeding the statutory maximum for the convicted offenses. Such claims may be raised in a rule 3.800(a) motion. See Stewart v. State, 608 So. 2d 536 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992). Based upon our own examination of the record and the state’s concession of error, we have determined the trial court’s order denying the motion to correct illegal sentence must be reversed and remanded for resentencing. Upon rem…
  • B.M. v. State, 625 So. 2d 956 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993)
    …mitment order of the juvenile judge should not be seized upon to salvage section 39.061 as it was written between October 1990 and October 1992. . Apparently the second district is in accord with the first and fourth Districts. See State v. Brower, 608 So. 2d 536 (Fla. 2d DCA1992) (per curiam affirmance based on D.P.). The third district has not spoken on this issue.…

Previewing 3 of 7 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw