ROGER HAUSE, 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.
Roger Hause appeals his conviction for burglary of an occupied dwelling and his sentence. The court affirms the conviction but reverses the sentence, finding that the trial court illegally combined incarceration and community control without written reasons for departing from sentencing guidelines.
The court affirms the conviction but reverses the sentence, holding that section 921.001(5) permits a trial court to impose either community control or incarceration (not exceeding 22 months), but not both, as these sanctions are mutually exclusive. Combining them constitutes a departure sentence requiring written reasons. A defendant may appeal an illegal sentence even if counsel requested it.
[1] A defendant's acquiescence to an illegal sentence does not preclude an appeal of that sentence.
[2] A trial court must provide written reasons for departing from presumptive sentencing guidelines when imposing a sentence that combines incarceration and community control…
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“even if he had agreed to the sentence, his acquiescence does not preclude him from appealing an illegal sentence”
Establishes that illegal sentences cannot be waived, even with defendant's agreement or counsel's request
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceHause was convicted of burglary of an occupied dwelling. The trial court scored 30 points under the sentencing guidelines, placing him in a range for …
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.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Nonstate Prison Sanction cases and more on FLexlaw
DELL, Chief Judge.
Roger Hause appeals from his judgment of conviction for burglary of an occupied dwelling. We affirm appellant’s conviction. See Armstrong v. State, 579 So. 2d 734 (Fla.1991).
Appellant also challenges his sentence of twenty-two months imprisonment, two years community control, followed by eleven years and two months probation. He contends the trial court erred when it sentenced him to a combination of incarceration, community control and probation in violation of the sentencing guidelines. We agree and reverse appellant’s sentence.
The state argues that appellant’s counsel waived any error in sentencing because he requested the sentence imposed. Appellant does not agree that he affirmatively sought the sentence. Furthermore, he correctly points out that even if he had agreed to the sentence, his acquiescence does not preclude him from appealing an illegal sentence. See Reed v. State, 616 So. 2d 592 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); Purvis v. State, 587 So. 2d 638 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991).
Appellant maintains that the sentence rendered constitutes an illegal sentence because the trial court departed from the presumptive sentencing guidelines without providing written reasons for the departure. See rule 3.701(b)(6), Fla.R.Crim.P. Under the presumptive guidelines set forth in rule 3.988(e), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, the trial court scored a total of 30 points for appellant’s commission of a second degree felony. Both the recommended sentencing range and permitted sentencing range applicable to appellant provide for “any nonstate prison sanction,” defined as “any lawful term of probation with or without a period of incarceration as a condition of probation, a county jail term alone, or any nonincarcerative disposition.” See rule 3.701(d)(8), Fla.R.Crim.P. In sentencing a defendant to any nonstate prison sanction, a trial court’s discretion is not limited by rule 3.701, but it may also consider section 921.001(5), Florida Statutes (Supp.1992), which provides in pertinent part:
[A]ny person sentenced for a felony offense committed after October 1, 1988, whose presumptive sentence is any non-state prison sanction may be sentenced to community control or to a term of incarceration not to exceed 22 months.
The parties agree that section 921.001(5) applies in this context.
Appellant argues that State v. VanKooten, 522 So. 2d 830 (Fla.1988), mandates reversal because the supreme court, construing language similar to that utilized by section 921.001(5), held that the presumptive guidelines direct a sentence of community control “or” incarceration, but not both penalties unless accompanied by written reasons for the departure. The state argues, however, that since the VanKooten opinion predated enactment of the relevant amendment to section 921.001(5), the trial court had discretion to impose a sentence of incarceration coupled with community control. We disagree.
In State v. Davis, 630 So. 2d 1059 (Fla. 1994), the supreme court, relying on the Van-Kooten rule, held that nonstate prison sanctions, which include incarceration, jail time, and community control, are disjunctive sentences, and thus combining any or all of them creates a departure sentence for which written reasons must be provided. Id. at 1060. Similarly in Felty v. State, 630 So. 2d 1092 (Fla.1994), the supreme court reaffirmed VanKooten and held that “where the sentencing guidelines specify incarceration or community control, these alternatives are mutually exclusive.” Id. at 1093.
Although the sentencing guidelines do not expressly specify incarceration or com munity control, we conclude that section 921.001(5) permits a trial court to sentence a defendant qualifying for a nonstate prison sanction to community control or a term of incarceration not exceeding twenty-two months, but not both. Thus, in the instant ease the imposition of twenty-two months imprisonment and two years community control constitutes a departure sentence for which the trial court provided no written reasons.
Accordingly, we quash appellant’s sentence and remand with instructions to either set forth valid written reasons for departure or for sentencing within the guidelines. See State v. Betancourt, 552 So. 2d 1107 (Fla. 1989); Davis v. State, 686 So. 2d 575 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994); Harmon v. State, 599 So. 2d 754 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992).
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART and REMANDED.
STONE and KLEIN, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Brown v. State, 659 So. 2d 1260 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)…le defendant was still incarcerated, we would not have discharged defendant; we most likely would have either remanded the case with instructions to set forth written reasons for departure or for sentencing within the guidelines. See Hause v. State, 643 So. 2d 679 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994). Potential sentencing options would have included a longer jail sentence, (a potential that Justice Grimes refers to in his concurrence in Felty ), jail time followed by a longer period of probation or a longer period of communit…
-
Solomon Jackson v. State, 654 So. 2d 234 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)…sentencing, we note that the combined sentence of jail lime, community control and probation constitutes an illegal departure sentence for which written reasons were not provided. See also Felty v. State, 630 So. 2d 1092 (Fla.1994); Hause v. State, 643 So. 2d 679 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994).…
-
Brooks v. State, 649 So. 2d 329 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995)…g the payment of this cost item as a condition of community control, the trial court must reference the statutory authority for its imposition.2 AFFIRMED in part; VACATED in part; REMANDED. COBB and GOSHORN, JJ., concur. . Compare Hause v. State, 643 So. 2d 679 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994), wherein the defendant merely acquiesced in the imposition of an illegal sentence and, thus, on appeal the court reversed the sentence. In this regard, we agree with Brooks that departure errors apparent on the face of the record…
Previewing 3 of 8 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- State v. Betancourt, 552 So. 2d 1107 (Fla. 1989)
- Armstrong v. State, 579 So. 2d 734 (Fla. 1991)
- State v. Davis, 630 So. 2d 1059 (Fla. 1994)
- State v. VanKOOTEN, 522 So. 2d 830 (Fla. 1988)
- State v. Bodine, 522 So. 2d 830 (Fla. 1988)
- Felty v. State, 630 So. 2d 1092 (Fla. 1994)
- Purvis v. The Honorable Hubert R. Lindsey, 587 So. 2d 638 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991)
- Harmon v. State, 599 So. 2d 754 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992)
- Norstrom v. State, 616 So. 2d 592 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993)
- Reed v. State, 616 So. 2d 592 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993)