JOSE CASTRO, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Castro challenges the revocation of his probation and a fifteen-year departure sentence imposed upon revocation. The court affirms the probation revocation based on aggravated child abuse but reverses the departure sentence as impermissible under sentencing guidelines.
The court affirmed the probation revocation as the evidence supported a finding that Castro committed aggravated child abuse. However, the court reversed the fifteen-year sentence because the trial court improperly relied on the egregious nature of the current offense to impose a departure sentence, and because fifteen years exceeded the five-year maximum penalty for aggravated assault.
[1] A trial court's determination that a defendant violated probation is entitled to deference when the evidence supporting that determination is testimonial and the physical…
[2] A defendant's probation may be revoked upon proof that the defendant violated a law, even if the defendant claims the conduct was permissible corporal punishment.
Previewing 2 of 6 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“[T]his is not a case of corporal punishment, sir. The pictures are clear that this was not only child abuse, it is aggravated child abuse.... What you did, sir, shocks the conscience of this court's mind.”
Trial court's finding that the incident constituted aggravated child abuse, not permissible corporal punishment, supporting the probation revocation.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceCastro pleaded guilty to aggravated battery, battery, and aggravated assault, receiving five years probation with conditions prohibiting law violation…
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CAMPBELL, Acting Chief Judge.
Appellant challenges the revocation of his probation and the departure sentence imposed upon the revocation. While we find no error in the revocation of appellant’s probation, we do find error in the court’s fifteen-year departure sentence. Accordingly, we affirm the revocation, but reverse and remand for resentencing within the guidelines.
Appellant had entered negotiated pleas of guilty to aggravated battery and battery in case no. 95-7805, and to aggravated assault in case no. 95-8975. The plea agreement specified that the maximum penalty appellant faced for aggravated assault was five years. Appellant was sentenced to five years probation on the aggravated battery, time served on the battery, and a concurrent term of five years probation on the aggravated assault. The probation conditions included standard condition five, which prohibited appellant from violating any law, and special condition “T,” which prohibited appellant from having any violent contact with anyone.
Five months later, an affidavit of violation of probation was filed, alleging that appellant’s arrest for aggravated child abuse constituted a violation of both standard condition five and special condition “T.” Specifically, it was alleged that appellant had violated standard condition five by violating a law. It was alleged that he had violated condition “T” by physically striking his girlfriend’s nineteen-month-old son, M.F., on the buttocks as punishment for a toilet training accident, causing bruising.
Although appellant maintained that the incident was merely a spanking, or corporal punishment, the court violated appellant’s probation on both standard condition five and special condition “T.”
At the probation revocation hearing, child care workers at the child’s day care center testified that on July 16, 1996, the day after the child had wet his pants and appellant had picked him up from day care, they observed bruising on the child’s buttocks. Lisa Denmark testified: “It was entirely purple, many with red dots all through it. And it was from the elastic of the underwear down to the bottom of the buttocks, all the way from side to side, from hip to hip.” Dana Denmark testified that she also observed that the child’s bottom was dark red and purple from side to side and from the top of his underwear to the bottom of his buttocks. Larry Jarmon, the protective investigator for the Department of Children and Families, testified that the child had extensive bruising on his buttocks, from the top of his belt line to the bottom of the buttocks and from left to right. Jarmon introduced photographs of the bruising taken three days after the incident. After viewing the photographs, the court stated: “[T]his is not a case of corporal punishment, sir. The pictures are clear that this was not only child abuse, it is aggravated child abuse.... What you did, sir, shocks the conscience of this court’s mind.... [T]he punishment that you chose to inflict on this child is reprehensible.” According to a circuit clerk’s certificate on file with this court, those photographs are no longer available.
Given the unavailability of the photographs for our review, which were pivotal in the trial court’s determination, and the testimonial support for that determination, we defer to the trial court’s conclusion that appellant committed aggravated child abuse. We, therefore, find no error in the court’s determination that appellant violated his probation and we, accordingly, affirm that revocation.
The court, however, did err in sentencing appellant. The State concedes that the court improperly used the egregious nature of the current offense to bump appellant’s sentence to fifteen years. The reasons given for the bump were clearly due to the new offense, and this is not permissible. See Routenberg v. State, 677 So. 2d 1325 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996); Williams v. State, 614 So. 2d 642, 643 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993). Moreover, since aggravated assault is a third degree felony, with a maximum penalty of five years, a fifteen-year sentence was impermissible. We reverse and remand appellant’s sentence for resentencing within the guidelines.
We affirm the revocation of appellant’s probation, and reverse and remand for resentencing within the guidelines.
BLUE and QUINCE, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Reyes v. State, 711 So. 2d 1378 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998)…ating the law,” and that the evidence does not support the trial court’s finding that the defendant violated this condition. We affirm. Probation condition five is a general probation condition for which knowledge is presumed. See Castro v. State, 708 So. 2d 652 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998). Furthermore, the testimony presented at the revocation hearing establishes that the order of probation was read to the defendant by his probation officer. The testimony presented also supports the trial court’s finding that the d…
Authorities Cited
- Stephens v. State, 677 So. 2d 1325 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996)
- Routenberg v. State, 677 So. 2d 1325 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996)
- Williams v. State, 614 So. 2d 642 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993)