DARIAN WILLIAMS, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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A defendant qualifies as a habitual violent felony offender if they have at least one prior qualifying felony conviction, regardless of whether multiple convictions were sentenced on the same day.
Williams appealed the denial of his motion to correct an illegal sentence, arguing his prior felony adjudications, all sentenced on the same day, did …
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PER CURIAM.
Darían Williams appeals an order denying his motion to correct illegal sentence under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a). We affirm.
Defendant-appellant Williams argues that he does not qualify as a habitual violent felony offender (“HVFO”) because all of his prior felony adjudications were felonies for which he was sentenced on the same day.- He argues that under a Second District decision, Rutherford v. State, 820 So. 2d 407 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002), his prior felonies had to be sentenced on two or more different days in order to qualify him for HVFO sentencing. The Rutherford decision is apparently wrongly decided.
As the Second District has explained in another of its decisions, “A defendant needs only one qualifying prior conviction in order to be sentenced as a habitual violent felony offender.” Hall v. State, 821 So. 2d 1154 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002) (citation omitted); see Weford v. State, 784 So. 2d 1222, 1223 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001); Daniels v. State, 634 So. 2d 187, 193 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994). Since only one qualifying felony is needed for an HVFO adjudication, it does not matter if the qualifying felony was sentenced together with, or separate from, other qualifying felonies.
In the present case the defendant’s motion indicates that he has at least one prior felony which qualifies him as an HVFO. It follows that the denial of the motion to correct illegal sentence in this case was correct.
Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Ponton v. State, 73 So. 3d 70 (Fla. 2011)…So. 2d 407 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002). As to that case, we have previously explained that the Second District apparently has an internal conflict of decisions. There is no sequential conviction requirement for an adjudication as an HVFO. Williams v. State, 898 So. 2d 966 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005). We affirm on point three under authority of Williams. We affirm as to the remaining claims without comment. Ponton, 16 So. 3d at 918. Ponton sought this Court’s discretionary review, asserting that the above decision conflicts w…1 / 3
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Ponton v. State, 16 So. 3d 918 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009)…So. 2d 407 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002). As to that case, we have previously explained that the Second District apparently has an internal conflict of decisions. There is no sequential conviction requirement for an adjudication as an HVFO. Williams v. State, 898 So. 2d 966 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005). We affirm on point three under authority of Williams. We affirm as to the remaining claims without comment. Affirmed.…
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Smith v. State, 61 So. 3d 1188 (Fla. 3d DCA 2011)…PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Clines v. State, 912 So. 2d 550, 553 (Fla.2005) (holding to qualify as a habitual violent felony offender, a defendant must have been convicted of one prior enumerated felony); Williams v. State, 898 So. 2d 966 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005) (stating only one prior qualifying conviction is required to sentence a defendant as a habitual violent felony offender).…
Previewing 3 of 6 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Daniels v. State, 634 So. 2d 187 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994)
- Weford v. State, 784 So. 2d 1222 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001)
- Hall v. State, 821 So. 2d 1154 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002)
- Rutherford v. State, 820 So. 2d 407 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002)