STATE OF FLORIDA, PETITIONER,
v.
MICHAEL MYERS, RESPONDENT
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.
The Florida Supreme Court upheld a trial court's imposition of an 18-year sentence for sexual battery despite the statutory maximum of 15 years, holding that courts may exceed statutory maximums when the guidelines sentence calculated under the 1994 amendment exceeds that maximum.
The court held that when the 'true' recommended guidelines sentence exceeds the statutory maximum, the trial court is authorized to impose the guidelines sentence, even if it surpasses the statutory maximum. Therefore, the trial court properly imposed the 18-year sentence.
[1] When the recommended sentencing guidelines sentence exceeds the statutory maximum, a court is authorized to impose the guidelines sentence.
[2] A trial court may impose a sentence that exceeds the statutory maximum if the recommended guidelines sentence is greater than the statutory maximum.
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“We held that if the guidelines sentence — i.e., the "true" recommended guidelines sentence— exceeds the statutory maximum, the court is authorized to impose the guidelines sentence.”
Establishes the core holding regarding the court's authority to exceed statutory maximums when guidelines sentence exceeds that maximum.
Previewing 1 of 2 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMichael Myers, age 15, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery and two counts of battery for raping and sodomizing his 79-year-old grandmothe…
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 Statutory Maximum Sentence cases and more on FLexlaw
SHAW, Justice.
We have for review Myers v. State, 696 So. 2d 893 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), based on conflict with Mays v. State, No. 90,826, — So. 2d - (Fla. July 16, 1998). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. We quash Myers.
Michael Myers, who was fifteen years old at the time, raped and sodomized his seventy-nine year old Alzheimer’s-stricken grandmother on June 11, 1995. He pled guilty to three counts of sexual battery and two counts of battery. His median recommended sentence 1 under the guidelines was 16.75 years, and his recommended range was between 12.6 and 20.9 years. The statutory maximum sentence for sexual battery is 15 years. The court sentenced him to three 18-year terms on the sexual battery counts and two five-year terms on the battery counts, all to be served concurrently. The district court reversed, ruling that the trial court erred in exceeding the statutory maximum. The State claims that the trial court properly exceeded the statutory maximum. We agree.
We addressed this issue in Mays v. State, No. 90,826, — So. 2d - (Fla. July 16, 1998), wherein we construed the 1994 amendment to the sentencing guidelines. We held that if the guidelines sentence — i.e., the “true” recommended guidelines sentence— exceeds the statutory maximum, the court is authorized to impose the guidelines sentence. In the present ease, the “true” recommended guidelines sentence, i.e., 18 years, exceeds the statutory maximum, i.e., 15 years. The court thus was authorized to impose the guidelines sentence. We quash Myers.
It is so ordered.
HARDING, C.J., and OVERTON and WELLS, JJ., concur. PARIENTE, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with an opinion, in which KOGAN and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur. . See § 921.0014(2), Fla. Stat. (1995) (explaining that the median recommended sentence under the guidelines is equal to "total sentence points minus 28”).
[*1014] PARIENTE, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
For the reasons expressed in my concurring in part and dissenting in part opinion in Mays v. State, No. 90,826, — So. 2d — (Fla. July 16, 1998), I concur in part and dissent in part. Accordingly, in my opinion, the maximum sentence the trial court could impose beyond the 15 year statutory maximum was 16.75 years, which was the “recommended sentence” based on seoresheet calculations.
KOGAN and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (18 total)
-
Rollinson v. State, 743 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)…itted the acts in question after section 775.082(8) became law, so he had constructive notice of the statute’s enhanced sentencing provisions. As this court stated in Myers v. State, 696 So. 2d 893, 899 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), quashed on other grounds, 713 So. 2d 1013 (Fla.1998), “[o]ne is charged with knowledge of all the Florida Statutes.... ” We found that “[b]ecause every defendant is presumed to know the law and has actual knowledge of one’s own criminal history ... there is no possible claim of lack of noti…
-
Cameron v. State, 804 So. 2d 338 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)…21.0014(2), Fla. Stat. (1997) (“The recommended sentence length in state prison months may be increased by up to, and including, 25 percent or decreased by up to, and including, 25 percent, at the discretion of the court.”); see also State v. Myers, 713 So. 2d 1013 (Fla.1998) (where recommended sentence under guidelines exceeds general statutory maximum trial court nevertheless has discretion to vary recommended sentence upward with 25% range allowed by guidelines statutes). The court sentenced him to a term o…
-
Beulah Covey v. Shaffer, 277 So. 3d 694 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019)
Previewing 3 of 18 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Myers v. State, 696 So. 2d 893 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)