MARK GUGLIELMO, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 2002-06-07
No. 5D01-985
THOMPSON, C.J., PETERSON and SAWAYA, JJ., concur.
817 So. 2d 1072 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2002) 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

Mark Guglielmo, convicted of second-degree murder following a guilty plea, appeals the trial court's denial of his habeas corpus petition seeking the right to file a belated Rule 3.850 motion claiming ineffective assistance of counsel. The Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed the denial, holding that Steele v. Kehoe requires a hearing only when counsel failed to timely file a 3.850 motion, not when the defendant merely disputes the motion's substance.


Holding

The trial court correctly denied the habeas corpus petition without a hearing. Steele v. Kehoe requires a hearing only when a defendant alleges that counsel agreed to file a Rule 3.850 motion but failed to do so in a timely manner. Here, the motion was timely filed, and disputing the substantive adequacy of a timely-filed motion does not trigger the Steele hearing requirement.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant is not entitled to a hearing on a petition for writ of habeas corpus alleging ineffective assistance of counsel in filing a Rule 3.850 motion when the motion…

[2] A hearing on a claim that a defendant missed the deadline to file a Rule 3.850 motion is only mandated when the defendant alleges that private counsel agreed to file the…

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Key Quotes

“Steele only mandates a hearing in the trial court if the defendant alleges that his private counsel agreed to file the rule 3.850 motion and then failed to timely file the motion.”

States the specific condition under which Steele requires a hearing, which Guglielmo did not satisfy.

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Facts & Procedural History

Guglielmo was indicted for first-degree murder in the death of his wife in 1994. He entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Mark Guglielmo appeals the trial court’s denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. We affirm.

On June 21, 1994, the grand jury returned an indictment charging Mark Gu-glielmo with the first-degree murder of his wife Kimberly Guglielmo. Guglielmo murdered his wife, cut her body in half, put the body in the trunk of his car, drove to New York and dumped his wife’s body in the Hudson River. On March 23, 1995, he entered a plea agreement with the state. The written agreement stated that Gugliel-mo was entering a plea of guilty to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon and that Guglielmo would not take any appeals.

Nevertheless, Guglielmo has taken a number of appeals since his judgment and sentence. Guglielmo hired private counsel to file a Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion. Although private counsel timely filed a 3.850 motion, Guglielmo was unhappy with the issues raised in that motion and unhappy that his counsel failed to have the memorandum of law verified. On September 24, 1998, that 3.850 motion was denied on the merits. On April 13, 1999, the trial court denied Guglielmo’s request that he be allowed to cure the memorandum of law of its defect and resubmit it as part of the already-ruled-upon rule 3.850 motion.

Relying on Steele v. Kehoe, 724 So. 2d 1192 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998), aff'd, 747 So. 2d 931 (Fla.1999), a different counsel asked the trial court to grant a writ of habeas corpus because, he alleged, prior counsel did not timely and properly file the rule 3.850 motion. Although Guglielmo initially alleged that the earlier motion was not filed timely, in fact, the bulk of the motion and attachments reveal that the motion was timely filed. New counsel argued that, according to Steele, Guglielmo was entitled to a hearing before the trial court to determine whether he should be granted the right to file another rule 3.850 motion, in order to later demonstrate legal malpractice. The trial court denied the petition without a hearing. Guglielmo, now pro se, appeals the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus.

Guglielmo contends that the supreme court’s Steele decision requires the trial court to grant him a hearing on his petition, and to consider whether he has the right to file a belated rule 3.850 motion because prior counsel failed to timely and properly file his rule 3.850 motion. Unfortunately for Guglielmo, Steele does not require that a hearing be held to decide whether a rule 3.850 motion was timely and properly filed. Steele only mandates a hearing in the trial court if the defendant alleges that his private counsel agreed to file the rule 3.850 motion and then failed to timely file the motion. Steele v. Kehoe, 747 So. 2d 931, 934 (Fla.1999) (“We agree with the district court that due process entitles a prisoner to a hearing on a claim that he or she missed the deadline to file a rule 3.850 motion because his or her attorney had agreed to file the motion but failed to do so in a timely manner”). Nowhere in the Steele opinions — either the Florida Supreme Court’s opinion or the Fifth District Court of Appeal’s opinion — is a hearing required if the defendant concedes that the rule 3.850 motion was timely filed but quibbles with the substance of the motion.

Guglielmo’s counsel agreed to file the rule 3.850 motion and did so in a timely manner. Steele does not require that the trial court grant Guglielmo a hearing, and the trial court therefore correctly denied Steele’s petition for writ of habeas corpus.

AFFIRMED.

THOMPSON, C.J., PETERSON and SAWAYA, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Price v. State, 937 So. 2d 702 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006)
    …offense. The trial court correctly held that a habeas corpus petition cannot be used to litigate matters that could have [*703] and should have been raised on direct appeal. This includes the legal sufficiency of the information. See Moore v. State, 817 So. 2d 1072 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). AFFIRMED. PLEUS, C.J., ORFINGER and MONACO, JJ., concur.…
  • Baker v. State, 155 So. 3d 422 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014)
    …ion for post-conviction relief. The grounds raised by Baker are inappropriate for a habeas petition because they could have and should have been raised on direct appeal. See Price v. State, 937 So. 2d 702, 702-03 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006); Moore v. State, 817 So. 2d 1072 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). Additionally, if these grounds were asserted pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, they are time-barred. See Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.850(b). Generally, “[i]f a party seeks an improper remedy, the cause shall be treat…

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