GEORGE WILLIAM MASTER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Master appeals the trial court's denial of his motion to correct an illegal sentence for custodial familial sexual battery. The court reverses and remands because the trial court failed to attach supporting documents to its order, though the reasoning that a valid plea bargain may preclude challenge to guideline scoresheet errors was substantively correct under Boerstler v. State.
The trial court's reasoning that a valid plea bargain may preclude challenge to scoresheet errors is consistent with Boerstler v. State, but the trial court must either attach the pertinent documents to its order or conduct an evidentiary hearing to support its ruling.
[1] A negotiated sentence, agreed upon by the parties, is not rendered illegal due to a scoresheet error that causes the sentence to exceed the guidelines range.
[2] A trial court's order denying a motion to correct an illegal sentence must be supported by attached documentation or an evidentiary hearing.
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“a valid plea bargain provides a sufficient basis for departure, he maintains that it will not support an illegal sentence”
Establishes Master's core argument that even negotiated sentences cannot be illegal due to scoresheet errors
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMaster was initially charged with capital sexual battery but pleaded guilty to three counts of custodial familial sexual battery in exchange for a 25-…
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PER CURIAM.
Before us is an appeal from the trial court’s order denying Appellant’s motion to correct an allegedly illegal sentence. According to the order, Appellant was initially charged with capital sexual battery; however, he later pleaded guilty to three counts of custodial familial sexual battery in exchange for a sentence of 25 years’ incarceration. He now argues that his sentence is illegal due to the scoring of victim injury points in a manner contrary to the supreme court’s ruling in Karchesky v. State, 591 So. 2d 930 (Fla.1992).
He asserts that without the erroneous scoring of 120 points for victim injury, his score would place him into a recommended range of 9-12 years’ incarceration. While he concedes that a valid plea bargain provides a sufficient basis for departure, he maintains that it will not support an illegal sentence. In denying the motion, the trial court implicitly recognized that there indeed may be a Karchesky issue when it ruled that Appellant was estopped from raising such issue in light of the fact that his sentence was negotiated.1 In so ruling, the trial court expressly relied on the charging documents, the written plea agreement, and the judgment in which the reason for departure was specified as being the negotiated sentence.
However, none of these documents was attached to the final order. Recently, in Boerstler v. State, 622 So. 2d 184 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993), we decided a similar issue. Significant to our decision was the fact that the written plea agreement did not reflect that the plea was conditioned on the sentence’s being within the guidelines.
Thus, we held that the defendant’s sentence, imposed in accordance with a valid plea agreement, was not rendered illegal “due to the circumstance that because of a [Karche-sky ] scoresheet error, it exceeded the actual guidelines range.” Id.
In the instant case, the trial court’s reasoning is consistent with Boerstler, but it failed to attach the pertinent information to its order. Therefore, we must reverse and remand for the trial court to attach the pertinent documents to support its order or to conduct an evidentiary hearing.
REVERSED and REMANDED for further proceedings.
ZEHMER, C.J., and KAHN and BENTON, JJ., concur. . The trial court relied for this ruling on the decisions in Beasley v. State, 605 So. 2d 959 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992), and Morris v. State, 605 So. 2d 511 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992). See also Boerstler v. State, 622 So. 2d 184 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993).
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Melville Joseph Corp v. State, 698 So. 2d 1349 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997)…arme v. State, 690 So. 2d 1358 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997); Vigil v. [*1350] State, 684 So. 2d 847 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996); Baldwin, supra; Anderson v. State, 679 So. 2d 880 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996); Fann v. State, 647 So. 2d 150 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Master v. State, 637 So. 2d 268 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). Without such attachments, the appellate court is often precluded from conducting meaningful review. In this case, if appellant entered a negotiated plea bargain for the specific sentences imposed, without any conditional promis…
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Gentile v. State, 673 So. 2d 76 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996)…line range. This court, in Russell v. State, 656 So. 2d 203 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995), recently affirmed the defendant’s sentence, despite a scoresheet error, noting that the defendant had agreed to the specific sentence imposed. See also Master v. State, 637 So. 2d 268 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994) (departure due to improper scoring does not render plea illegal when plea was not conditioned on receiving guideline sentence); Ash v. State, 624 So. 2d 418 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993) (if scoring was not considered in state’s decision to…
Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Karchesky v. State, 591 So. 2d 930 (Fla. 1992)
- Silas v. Morris, 605 So. 2d 511 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992)
- Boerstler v. State, 622 So. 2d 184 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)
- Beasley v. State, 605 So. 2d 959 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992)