SYLVESTER EUGENE CURTIS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Curtis appeals his re-sentencing on a probation violation for cocaine possession, arguing the increased sentence violated double jeopardy. The court affirmed, holding that because Curtis had not yet begun serving his sentence or been transferred to a place of detention when re-sentenced on the same day, double jeopardy was not implicated and the trial court had authority to correct the sentencing guidelines applied.
The trial court had authority to re-sentence Curtis, and the increased sentence did not violate double jeoparty because Curtis had not begun serving his sentence and remained in court custody when recalled for re-sentencing.
[1] A trial court may alter or increase a sentence after it has been announced, provided the defendant has not yet commenced serving the sentence and remains in the court's c…
[2] Double jeopardy protections are not implicated when a trial court re-sentences a defendant to a longer term of incarceration before the defendant has begun serving the or…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“When a defendant has not been transferred from the court's custody to a place of detention at the time his sentences are altered, service of the sentences has not officially commenced, and defendant's rights are not impinged by the trial court's timely alteration of his sentences.”
Establishes the key legal standard for when double jeopardy is implicated in re-sentencing cases.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceCurtis was found guilty of violating probation for possession of cocaine. The trial court initially sentenced him to a downward departure of 17.8 mont…
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DELL, J.
Sylvester Curtis appeals from a sentence of 17.8 months in prison, imposed after he was found guilty of violating his probation for possession of cocaine. We affirm.
The trial court sentenced appellant under the 1995 sentencing guidelines to a downward departure sentence. As its reason for departure, the trial court found that appellant had a drug addiction and was amenable to treatment. The State did not object to the sentence. After the trial court had pronounced sentence and appellant had left the courtroom, the trial court resumed with other matters. At that point, the State advised the trial court that it should have sentenced appellant under the 1998 sentencing guidelines. Appellant was returned to the courtroom. The trial court concluded that it had rendered an illegal sentence and over appellant’s objection, sentenced him to a guidelines sentence of 17.8 prison months under the 1998 sentencing guidelines.
Appellant contends that his revised sentence violates double jeopardy because the sentencing hearing was concluded and his sentence had commenced when he was returned to the courtroom for re-sentencing. However, the record does not show that he had reached his place of incarceration when the trial court recalled his case nor does it support appellant’s argument that he had commenced serving his sentence.
In Williams v. United States, 422 F. 2d 1318 (5th Cir.1970), the trial court sentenced the defendant to concurrent terms of four years on each of two counts. Later that same day, before the defendant left the courthouse, the trial court returned him to the courtroom and re-sentenced him to two consecutive four year terms. The trial court explained that it had intended to say “consecutively” instead of “concurrently” at the earlier sentencing. The court wrote:
When a defendant has not been transferred from the court’s custody to a place of detention at the time his sentences are altered, service of the sentences has not officially commenced, and defendant’s rights are not impinged by the trial court’s timely alteration of his sentences. [Citations omitted.] Williams had not been removed from the trial court’s custody and thus had not commenced service of his sentence. Therefore, the court’s correction of his sentence was permissible. We affirm the judgment of the district court.
Id. at 1318.
The First District Court of Appeal in Rizzo v. State, 430 So. 2d 488 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), rev. denied, 440 So. 2d 353 (Fla.1983), pointed out that:
It is well established that once a defendant has begun a lawfully-imposed sentence, the defendant may not thereafter be re-sentenced for an increased term of incarceration. [Citations omitted.] However, as the United States Supreme Court indicated in Bozza v. U.S., 330 U.S. 160, 67 S.Ct. 645, 91 L.Ed. 818 (1947), “the Constitution does not require that sentencing should be a game in which a wrong move by the judge means immunity for the prisoner,” and as our own court has held in Williams v. State, 365 So. 2d 201 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), a trial court need not adhere to a sentence “merely because it has been announced.” Accord, Kroll v. U.S., 433 F. 2d 1282 (5th Cir.1970); Williams v. U.S., 422 F. 2d 1318 (5th Cir.1970). The record in the present case does not suggest that the written judgment and sentence forms had been filed, or that appellant had commenced service of his sentence ...
Id. at 488-489. We agree with the First District that where the record does not show that a defendant has begun serving his sentence, double jeopardy is not implicated. See Crisel v. State, 677 So. 2d 95 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). In Crisel, appellant appeared for sentencing for several drug offenses and his sentences were orally pronounced. Later during the same day, the court ordered appellant’s driver’s license revoked. On appeal, the court, relying on Rizzo and Williams, rejected appellant’s argument that this was an additional sentence that violated double jeopardy, finding that it was not shown on the record that appellant had actually begun serving the sentence originally pronounced. Id.
We hold that the trial court had the authority to increase appellant’s sentence and that the increased sentence did not violate double jeopardy, because appellant had not begun serving his sentence and was still in court custody.
AFFIRMED.
GUNTHER and KLEIN, JJ., concur.
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Whitehead v. State, 21 So. 3d 157 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009)…uirements of Dowling. The more troubling issue is the defendant’s double jeopardy argument. A sentence can be changed if it is done at the same sentencing hearing, before the defendant has commenced serving his sentence. [*161] See Curtis v. State, 789 So. 2d 394, 395-96 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001); see also Chaney v. State, 617 So. 2d 844, 845 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993); Moore v. State, 538 So. 2d 123, 124 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989). Until the sentencing hearing comes to an end, “the trial court has jurisdiction to modify, vacat…
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Tywan Obara v. State, 958 So. 2d 1019 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007)…State tried to distinguish Ashley, arguing that double jeopardy principles are not implicated because Mr. Obara had not begun to serve his sentence, as he had not yet been transferred from the court’s custody. We acknowledge that in Curtis v. State, 789 So. 2d 394 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001), the fourth district court adopted the State’s view.2 However, Curtis overlooked the supreme court’s decision in Troupe v. Rowe, 283 So. 2d 857 (Fla.1973). In Troupe, the trial court accepted the defendant’s plea, im [*1022] pose…
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Hobgood v. State, 166 So. 3d 840 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015)…g order after the sentencing hearing was over and “without the parties present,” because [*845] “[t]he trial court initially pronounced a sentence it had no discretion to impose” by not including the term in its oral pronouncement); Curtis v. State, 789 So. 2d 394 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (affirming the imposition of a more onerous sentence where the trial court initially sentenced the defendant under sentencing guidelines from the wrong year, thereby making the initial sentence illegal). In the present case, beca…
Previewing 3 of 5 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Bozza v. United States, 330 U.S. 160 (U.S. 1947)
- Kroll v. United States, 433 F.2d 1282 (5th Cir. 1970)
- Williams v. United States, 422 F.2d 1318 (5th Cir. 1970)
- Abreau v. State, 365 So. 2d 201 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978)
- Rizzo v. State, 430 So. 2d 488 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983)
- Ramirez v. State, 677 So. 2d 95 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996)
- Crisel v. State, 677 So. 2d 95 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996)