CARL ALVIN WILLIAMS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Carl Williams pleaded guilty to a probation violation with the understanding he would receive a 4.5-year sentence, which both he and the trial court believed was the maximum under sentencing guidelines. The appellate court found this sentence exceeded the actual guideline maximum of 3.5 years due to mutual mistake and reversed, remanding for Williams to either accept a departure sentence or withdraw his plea.
The court reversed the sentence and remanded the case, finding that the 4.5-year sentence was illegal because it exceeded the 3.5-year guideline maximum. The mutual mistake by both Williams and the court does not validate the sentence, and Williams must be given the option to either accept a departure sentence with proper acknowledgment or withdraw his guilty plea.
[1] A sentence imposed in mutual mistake regarding the maximum authorized by guidelines is illegal.
[2] A defendant may be allowed to withdraw a plea or agree to a departure sentence when the original sentence was imposed based on a mutual mistake of law.
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“There is no indication that Williams intended to plead outside the guidelines or that the court intended to depart from the maximum guideline range. This is not a case of departure based on a negotiated plea. This was a mutual mistake resulting in an illegal sentence.”
Establishes the court's finding that the sentence was invalid due to mutual mistake rather than any intentional departure by either party.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceWilliams was initially sentenced to 30 months probation for grand theft of a motor vehicle. He violated probation by failing to notify his probation o…
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HARRIS, Judge.
Carl A. Williams pled guilty to grand theft of a motor vehicle and was sentenced to 30 months probation. Subsequently, Williams violated this probation by failing to notify his probation officer of his change of residence. He pled guilty to the violation with the understanding that he would be sentenced to 4V2 years incarceration which both he and the court believed to be the maximum sentence under the guidelines.
The Court: Has [your attorney] answered all of the questions you have about that plea form and about the plea you’re entering here today?
THE DEFENDANT: Well, there’s a few questions, but I was concerned about my points for one.
THE COURT: What points are you talking about?
THE DEFENDANT: Points. In other words, I had a 31 probation violation, and now I jump to four and a half. I was curious or how is it that on my first charge I had like 30 points? She said I could bump to another cell. I was curious how I got there. She explained because it’s the — my probation officer asking for. THE COURT: Sir. It’s based on the score sheet that was prepared at the time that you were convicted on the grand theft third degree. That it’s just based on that.
Clearly, Williams and the court thought the sentence was authorized by the score-sheet. Just as clearly, it was not. It is conceded for the purpose of this appeal that three and a half years was the maximum, non-departure sentence authorized by the guidelines.
There is no indication that Williams intended to plead outside the guidelines or that the court intended to depart from the maximum guideline range in sentencing. This is not a case of departure based on a negotiated plea.1 This was a mutual mistake resulting in an illegal sentence.
Having so found, we agree with the State that this cause should be remanded to allow Williams to agree to the departure sentence (accept departure as a condition for the plea) or withdraw his plea and proceed to trial.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
DAUKSCH, J., concurs.
GRIFFIN, J., dissents with opinion.
. The State urges that this was a proper departure sentence based on Williams' agreement to accept the greater sentence by his plea. If this were intended as a departure sentence, we believe that such intent would be clear from the record. Although a negotiated plea is a basis for departure, it should, nevertheless, be so stated in writing by the trial court. Calleja v. State, 562 So. 2d 395 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990).
While the supreme court has not expressly held that such reason for departure must be stated in writing, it has never held that it is an exception from the general rule. We doubt, however, that the failure to so state in writing this reason for departure would mandate a reversal and the imposition of a guideline sentence on remand because the defendant would be estopped to claim surprise at the sentence.
GRIFFIN, Judge,
dissenting.
The defendant entered into a written plea agreement which specified a sentence of 4⅛ years in the Department of Corrections. On appeal, defendant seeks to have the 4V2 year sentence vacated, claiming that he agreed to the sentence in reliance on a scoresheet that incorrectly identified the upper permitted range. He apparently contends that not only did he not “intend” to agree to a departure but that the judge did not “intend” to sentence him beyond the guidelines. No one has mentioned the state’s intent.
It may be, as the brief exchange cited by the majority suggests, that the sole basis for the plea agreement and the judge’s acceptance of the plea was an incorrect scoresheet. Against that is the scoresheet itself, which shows that after the original scoresheet was typed up and totalled, it was manually corrected to deduct legal constraint points. Because appellant initially got a low range sentence, the low range was also manually corrected. The upper range, in type, remained unchanged. It is possible that no one — judge, defense counsel, state attorney or defendant — noticed any of this, or ever checked it, but this court cannot engage in such fact-finding and declare the sentence imposed pursuant to a crystal-clear plea agreement was the product of mutual mistake. This issue should be raised in a Rule 3.850 motion so that a proper determination can be made at a hearing where the people who know about this case appear and, if necessary, testify. The trial court is the place for this problem (if indeed there is a problem) to be corrected.
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State v. Williams, 667 So. 2d 191 (Fla. 1996)…te, 540 So. 2d 903 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989); but see State v. Esbenshade, 493 So. 2d 487 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986). Fifth DCA: See Brooks v. State, 649 So. 2d 329 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995); Smith v. State, 553 So. 2d 748 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989); but see Williams v. State, 618 So. 2d 773, 774 n. 1 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993). . We have serious doubts as to whether Williams' sentence constituted a departure from the guidelines. The note to rule 3.988(g), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, provides: Any person sentenced for a felony offen…
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Taylor v. State, 710 So. 2d 636 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998)…a bargain obviously entitles the defendant to 3.850 relief from the sentence, see State v. Leroux, 689 So. 2d 235 (Fla.1996); Booker v. State, 693 So. 2d 73 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997); Turner v. State, 689 So. 2d 1107 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997); Williams v. State, 618 So. 2d 773 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993); Coward v. State, 547 So. 2d 990 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989); Richardson v. State, 432 So. 2d 750 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983). We therefore reverse the denial of that relief below. Perhaps the more difficult question is the appropriate procedur…
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Williams v. State, 934 So. 2d 632 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006)…t the sentence is not legal, the defendant should be given the opportunity to withdraw the plea when later challenging the legality of the sentence. Forbert v. State, 437 So. 2d 1079, 1081 (Fla.1983) (citations omitted); see also Williams v. State, 618 So. 2d 773, 774 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993) (holding that, where mutual mistake resulted in illegal sentence, defendant should have opportunity to agree to illegality or withdraw plea). Accordingly, we reverse and remand for the trial court to grant Williams the oppo…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Calleja v. State, 562 So. 2d 395 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990)