STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
MICHAEL WELDON KINNEY, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1996-03-22
No. 95-02740
THREADGILL, C.J., and SCHOONOVER and QUINCE, JJ., concur.
670 So. 2d 1093 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1996) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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

Florida appeals a trial court's decision to vacate a 60-year habitual offender sentence for attempted first-degree murder and replace it with a 50-year non-habitual sentence. The court reverses, holding that attempted first-degree murder is properly classified as a first-degree felony subject to habitualization under Florida law, making the original 60-year sentence legal.


Holding

The court held that attempted first-degree murder is properly classified as a first-degree felony (not a life felony) and is therefore subject to habitualization. The 60-year habitual offender sentence was a legal sentence properly imposed, and the trial court erred in granting the motion to correct illegal sentence.


Headnotes

[1] A sentence imposed under a habitual offender statute is legal if the underlying offense is properly classified as a felony subject to habitualization.

[2] A motion to correct an illegal sentence is without merit when the sentence challenged was legally imposed.

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Key Quotes

“Since the attempted murder conviction was properly classified as a first degree felony, State v. Tripp, 642 So.2d 728 (Fla.1994), the sixty year prison sentence under the habitual offender statute was a legal sentence properly imposed upon the appellee by the trial court after this court's first mandate.”

Establishes the core legal principle that attempted first-degree murder is a first-degree felony subject to habitualization, making the 60-year sentence legal.

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellee Kinney was convicted in 1982 of attempted first-degree murder, robbery, and grand theft. After multiple appeals and remands involving sentenc…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

The state appeals the trial court’s resentencing of appellee for the crime of attempted first degree murder. We reverse.

In 1982 appellee was convicted of attempted first degree murder, robbery, and grand theft. The trial court sentenced him to sixty years in prison for the attempted murder, fifty years in prison for the robbery, and ten years in prison for the grand theft. The robbery sentence was ordered to run consecutively and the grand theft sentence concurrently to the attempted murder sentence. Appellee appealed the convictions and the sentences. This court in Kinney v. State, 441 So. 2d 1163 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983), affirmed all three convictions and the robbery sen tence. We vacated the enhanced sentences for attempted murder and grand theft because neither the written judgment nor the sentence indicated that appellee was found to be a habitual offender and because the procedural requisites of section 775.084, Florida Statutes (1981), were not followed.

Upon remand the trial court resentenced appellee as a habitual felony offender on all three convictions. The court also ordered the ten year grand theft sentence to run consecutively to the fifty year robbery sentence instead of concurrently with the sixty year attempted murder sentence.

Appellee then filed a second appeal contending that the trial court erred in habit-ualizing him on all three charges and in ordering the grand theft sentence to run consecutively to the robbery sentence. We agreed with appellee and in Kinney v. State, 458 So. 2d 1191 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984), vacated that portion of the robbery sentence which found appellee to be a habitual offender. We found that the habitualization on the attempted murder and grand theft convictions was proper and those sentences were affirmed. Kinney, 458 So. 2d at 1192. The grand theft sentence was vacated and remanded with directions that it be ordered to run concurrently with the attempted murder sentence.

The case was remanded to the trial court for the second resentencing of appellee which occurred in January of 1984. The trial court imposed a sixty year habitual offender sentence for the attempted murder conviction, a fifty year sentence for the robbery conviction, and a ten year habitual offender sentence for the grand theft conviction. No appeal was taken from those sentences.

In April 1993 appellee filed a motion to correct illegal sentence. Appellee alleged that the habitual offender sentence of sixty years for the attempted murder conviction was an illegal sentence because the crime was a life felony not subject to habitualization. The trial court agreed with appellee and entered an order vacating the attempted murder sentence. The trial court then imposed a nonhabitual sentence of fifty years in prison. The state filed a timely notice of appeal.

Since the attempted murder conviction was properly classified as a first degree felony, State v. Tripp, 642 So. 2d 728 (Fla.1994), the sixty year prison sentence under the habitual offender statute was a legal sentence properly imposed upon the appellee by the trial court after this court’s first mandate. Because the sixty year habitual offender sentence for the attempted murder was a legal sentence, the appellee’s motion to correct illegal sentence was without merit and the trial court erred in granting the motion and vacating the sentence. Wilhelm v. State, 543 So. 2d 434 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989).

This matter is reversed and remanded with directions to reinstate the habitual offender sentence of sixty years imprisonment for the attempted murder conviction.

THREADGILL, C.J., and SCHOONOVER and QUINCE, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Junior Bonilla v. State, 916 So. 2d 3 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Gipson v. State, 616 So. 2d 992 (Fla.1993); McCall v. State, 862 So. 2d 807 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003); Collins v. State, 800 So. 2d 660 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001); State v. Kinney, 670 So. 2d 1093 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996); Martin v. State, 795 So. 2d 143 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001). As this corut did in McCall, we certify direct conflict with Richardson v. State, 884 So. 2d 950 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003), supplemented on rehearing, 884 So. 2d at 952 (Fla. 4th DC…

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