VICTOR LOVE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Victor Love appeals the trial court's summary denial of his Rule 3.850 post-conviction motion, challenging the imposition of consecutive minimum mandatory sentences for two robbery convictions. The court reverses and remands, holding that the trial court erroneously denied the claim as a matter of law without making factual findings regarding whether the offenses arose from a single criminal episode.
The court reversed and remanded, holding that if the offenses were committed within a single criminal episode, the minimum mandatory portions of the sentences must run concurrently. The trial court erred in summarily denying the claim as a matter of law without making factual determinations regarding whether the offenses arose from a single criminal episode.
[1] Consecutive habitual offender sentences imposed for offenses arising from a single criminal episode are illegal.
[2] A motion to correct an illegal sentence is facially sufficient if it identifies portions of the record that support the claim that offenses arose from a single criminal e…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“If, as appellant contends, his offenses were committed within the course of a single criminal episode, minimum mandatory portions of the sentences must run concurrently.”
Establishes the governing legal principle that minimum mandatory sentences must run concurrently when offenses arise from a single criminal episode.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceLove pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and was sentenced as a habitual offender to 25 years with a 10-year minimum mandatory on count I and 25 y…
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[*229] PER CURIAM.
Victor Love raises several points of alleged error in his motion for post-conviction relief filed under Rule 3.850, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, which lack merit. The trial court erred, however, in summarily denying the allegation concerning the imposition of consecutive minimum mandatory sentences, and we reverse and remand for further proceedings as to that allegation.
Love pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and was sentenced as a habitual offender to 25 years’ incarceration with a 10-year minimum mandatory on count I, and to 25 years’ incarceration with a five-year minimum mandatory on count II. The 25-year sentences were ordered to run concurrently, but the minimum mandatory portions of each sentence were ordered to run consecutively. If, as appellant contends, his offenses were committed within the course of a single criminal episode, minimum mandatory portions of the sentences must run concurrently. See Hale v. State, 680 So. 2d 521 (Fla.1993).
The trial court denied this claim of error without making a factual determination regarding whether the offenses for which Love was convicted arose in the course of a single criminal episode. The court accepted as true appellant’s factual allegation, but cited section 775.021(4), Florida Statutes (1993), for the proposition that a criminal defendant who, in the course of a single criminal episode, “commits an act or acts constituting one or more separate criminal offenses, upon conviction and adjudication of guilt, will be sentenced separately for each criminal offense, and the sentencing judge may order the sentences to be served concurrently or consecutively.” In Hale, however, the supreme court held that section 775.021, Florida Statutes, does not apply to the imposition of consecutive minimum mandatory sentences which are authorized for enhancement of habitual offender sentences under section 775.084(4)(b), Florida Statutes (1993). 630 So. 2d at 524-25.
Appellant’s allegation of error in the trial court’s imposition of sentence is facially sufficient. See Hale; Rodgers v. State, 645 So. 2d 20 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). The trial court erroneously denied the claim as a matter of law and did not attach any portion of the record conclusively demonstrating that Love is not entitled to relief. We remand to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
ERVIN, MINER and BENTON, JJ., concur.