JOHN W. MANN, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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The court held that the defendant's sentence as a habitual violent felony offender was not illegal, despite the trial court's oral pronouncement referring to him as a habitual offender.
[1] A trial court's oral pronouncement of sentence may be interpreted in light of the parties' acknowledgments and prior adjudications, especially when a misstatement appears…
[2] A defendant previously adjudicated a habitual violent felony offender remains subject to that adjudication even if the trial court misstates the designation during a subs…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe defendant had previously been adjudicated a habitual violent felony offender (HVO). Upon violating probation, both parties acknowledged he would b…
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On Rehearing Denied
COPE, J.
On consideration of the motion for rehearing, we withdraw our previous opinion and substitute the following opinion:
John W. Mann appeals an order denying his motion to correct illegal sentence. He contends that his habitual violent felony offender sentence (“HVO”) is inconsistent with the trial court’s oral pronouncement at the sentencing proceeding. We conclude that the position of defendant-appellant Mann is without merit, and affirm the order denying relief.1
The defendant entered into a plea bargain in circuit court case numbers 96-26121, 97-9198, and 97-12145. He pled guilty in all three cases as a habitual violent felony offender (“HVO”) and was sentenced to a combination of community control, probation, and alcohol treatment. See Mann v. State, 824 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002). Thus, as matters stood after the 1997 plea bargain, the defendant had already been adjudicated an HVO.
In 1998, the defendant was found to have violated his probation. At sentencing, both the State and the defense acknowledged that the defendant would be sentenced as an HVO, with the State arguing for a longer sentence and the defense arguing for a shorter sentence. TR., Oct. 6,1998, at 25-28.
When the trial court pronounced sentence, it stated the following:
THE COURT: Mr. Mann, I am going to sentence you as follows. In case number 96-26121, to ten years as an habitual offender with a five year minimum mandatory. In case number 97-9198 on Count I to twenty years as an habitual offender with a ten year minimum mandatory. On Count II, ten years with five year minimum mandatory to run concurrent. Sentence imposed in this case will run concurrent with the sentence imposed in the first case.
In case number 97-12145 to ten years with a five year minimum mandatory on Count I. Credit time served to Counts II and III. Ten years with a five year minimum mandatory on Count IV to run concurrent with Count I and concurrent with the sentences imposed in the other two cases.
Id. at 29.2
The defendant points out that in the above passage, the court pronounced sentence as a habitual offender (“HO”), and did not use the phrase, habitual violent offender. Thus, it is the defendant’s argument that he is entitled to have the sentencing order modified to be an HO sentence, not HVO, and eliminate the HVO mandatory minimum sentences. Under the circumstances of this case, we disagree.
First, the defendant had already been adjudicated an HVO at the time of his 1997 plea bargain. Both sides acknowledged at the sentencing proceeding that the sentence upon revocation of probation would be as an HVO. The only dispute between the sides was what the length of the sentence should be.
Against that background, and in considering the nature of the sentence imposed, it is clear that the trial court merely mis-poke by stating that the sentence would be as a habitual offender, rather than stating as a habitual violent offender. We reach that conclusion not only for the reasons already stated, but also because the trial court imposed HVO mandatory minimum sentences upon revocation of probation.
Although the defendant relies on Ashley v. State, 850 So. 2d 1265 (Fla. 2003), that case is not applicable here. In Ashley the State requested an HVO adjudication while the defense argued that the court had discretion to impose a lesser sanction. At a July 9, 1999 sentencing, the court sentenced Ashley as a habitual offender to twenty-five years in prison. The court did not impose a mandatory minimum sentence. Id. 850 So. 2d at 1266. On July 12, 1999, Ashley was brought back to court and his sentence was increased. The court changed the sentence to be an HVO adjudication and added a ten-year mandatory minimum term. The Florida Supreme Court concluded that this amounted to an increase of Ashley’s sentence after he had begun to serve the sentence, thus violating double jeopardy principles. Id. 850 So. 2d at 1267.
The present case is quite different. Here, the defendant was adjudicated to be an HVO in 1997; thus the 1998 sentence upon revocation of probation would likewise be as an HVO. It is clear that in saying the sentence was as a habitual offender, rather than an HVO, this was a mere slip of the tongue which did not give rise to a double jeopardy issue. See McCray v. State, 838 So. 2d 1213 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003). The sentence was not increased after it was imposed, and thus there was no double jeopardy violation such as occurred in Ashley.
Affirmed.
. We have taken judicial notice of this court's files in Mann v. State, 824 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002) and Mann v. State, 747 So. 2d 943 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999).
. Subsequently this court vacated the HVO adjudication in circuit court case number 96-26121 and remanded for resentencing in that case only. Mann v. State, 824 So. 2d at 331.
The motion to correct illegal sentence which is now before us was filed in circuit court case number 97-9198.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Cited By
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State v. Akins, 69 So. 3d 261 (Fla. 2011)…sion in Ashley II, in concluding that modification of Akins’ sentence in 2005 offended double jeopardy. See Akins, — So. 3d at-. Noting that the issue in Akins was not identical to Ashley II and that it appeared to be in conflict with Mann v. State, 851 So. 2d 901 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003), the Second District reversed and remanded the trial court’s order denying Akins’ December 15, 2008, motion to correct sentence and certified the aforementioned question as one of great public importance. See Akins, — So. 3d at-.…1 / 2
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Clark v. State, 72 So. 3d 222 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011)…Duhart v. State, 930 So. 2d 654, 656 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006) (holding that the trial court’s failure to repeat the defendant’s HFO designation at the fourth sentencing hearing did not prevent the trial court from correcting the omission); Mann v. State, 851 So. 2d 901, 903 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003) (holding that where the defendant was sentenced as a habitual violent felony offender [HVFO] in his original sentence, the subsequent omission of the word “violent” at resentencing was just a slip of the tongue and did not af…
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Akins v. State, 98 So. 3d 60 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009)…and the designation has not been set aside.” This court reached a similar outcome in Barron v. State, 827 So. 2d 1063 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002). [*64] This issue in this case appears most similar to that which arose with a split sentence in Mann v. State, 851 So. 2d 901 (Fla. Sd DCA 2003). In Mann, the defendant was designated a habitual violent felony offender at the original sentencing. Id. at 902. When he violated his probation, the court orally imposed his sentence on violation of probation as a “habitual offen…
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
- Columbus Rickey Ashley v. State, 850 So. 2d 1265 (Fla. 2003)
- Miller v. State, 838 So. 2d 1213 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)
- Frazier v. State, 824 So. 2d 330 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)