TERRY P. HINKEL, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 2006-09-15
No. 5D06-844
GRIFFIN and LAWSON, JJ., concur.
937 So. 2d 1201 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2006) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 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

The appellate court affirmed the trial court's summary denial of the defendant's motion for additional jail time credit, finding the motion facially insufficient.


Holding

The defendant's motion for additional jail time credit was facially insufficient because he failed to differentiate between cases from different counties and sufficiently plead his entitlement.


Headnotes

[1] A motion for jail time credit is facially insufficient if it fails to differentiate between cases from different counties.

[2] A defendant's signed acknowledgment of a specific number of jail credit days, without more, does not conclusively establish a waiver of entitlement to additional jail cre…

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

Facts & Procedural History

The defendant sought additional jail time credit beyond the 73 days agreed to in a plea, but failed to differentiate between cases from different coun…

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.


Opinion of the Court
PALMER, J.

PALMER, J.

Terry P. Hinkel (defendant) appeals the trial court’s summary denial of his rule 3.800(a) motion seeking additional jail time credit.1 Concluding that the defendant’s motion is facially insufficient, we affirm the trial court’s order without prejudice to the defendant’s right to file a facially sufficient motion.

Initially, it should be noted that the defendant has failed to differentiate between the Hernando County cases at issue and the Pasco County cases that he intermingles within the body of his motion. He does not explain whether he was arrested pursuant to charges from both counties, as opposed to a scenario where perhaps Pas-co or Hernando County might merely have lodged a detainer against him. Because the defendant has failed to differentiate his Hernando cases from his Pasco cases, he has failed to sufficiently plead his entitlement to receive jail credit.

Additionally, in his motion, the defendant claims that “[t]he court file contains county jail records/arrest affidavits which conclusively establish that, at the time of sentencing, defendant was entitled to credit for 185 days as time served prior to sentencing in this case[s]”. He then lists several “incarceration dates” totaling 185 days in an attempt to support his claimed entitlement to receive the additional jail credit. Unfortunately, the defendant’s motion is difficult to decipher and references both Hernando County cases and Pasco County eases.

In summarily denying the defendant’s motion, the trial court noted that the 73 days’ jail credit the defendant received was pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement. The trial court attached to the summary denial order a copy of the “Acknowledgement Regarding Amount of Credit for Time Served” (hereinafter Acknowledgement) that the defendant signed on the date of his sentencing. The Acknowledgement reflects the following in paragraph 3:

3. I agree and understand that, as part of this plea, I will be receiving the following credit for time served (check one and fill in as appropriate:
-- from_, 200_ To_, 200_.

X Total days credit for time served 73 days.

_ all credit time served.

-. no credit for time served (waived any credit for time served).

(Emphasis added). After this paragraph, the defendant’s signature appears in the appropriate place for his signature. The trial court concluded that, because the defendant signed the Acknowledgement stating that he understood and agreed that he would be receiving the 73 days jail credit, he was not entitled to receive any relief pursuant to the instant motion.

In the instant appeal, the defendant argues that the award of 73 days’ jail credit was the result of the trial court’s hurried and last minute calculation of 73 days which was then entered on the Acknowledgment form. He argues that his execution of the Acknowledgment form was not an express, voluntary, and specific waiver of the additional jail credit he later discovered he was lawfully entitled to receive.

The trial court found that the Acknowl-edgement signed by the defendant pursuant to his plea agreement was freely and voluntarily entered into. However, the trial court did not conclusively establish that a waiver of additional jail credit occurred in the instant case. See Fla. R.App. P. 9.141(b)(2)(D). Standing alone, the Acknowledgment document itself is inconclusive on the waiver issue. The Acknowl-edgement provided the trial court with a choice of several fields for purposes of addressing jail credit. The third field should be checked where the defendant is to receive “all credit time served.” Conversely, where a defendant is to receive no jail credit due to a waiver of such credit, field four appropriately addresses the circumstance.

In the instant case, the trial court checked the second field and filled in the blank with 73 days. Because the second field does not address waiver in a manner similar to the fourth field, this court can not presume (based on the Acknowledgment document standing alone) that a waiver of any entitlement to additional jail credit in fact occurred. See Silverstein v. State, 654 So. 2d 1040, 1041 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)(explaining where a defendant’s waiver of credit for time served on the incar-cerative portion of a split sentence is not clearly shown on the record, it will not be presumed).2

In Reed v. State, 810 So. 2d 1025 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002), the defendant was awarded 251 days’ jail credit, but claimed entitlement to 357 days’ credit. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for an award of jail credit finding that the defendant had entered into a plea agreement wherein she “stipulated” to 251 days’ credit. The trial court, however, only attached “a portion of the judgment and sentence which stated that [the defendant] would be allowed a total of 251 days’ jail credit followed by the phrase, ‘Stipulated Credit.’ ” Id. at 1026. The Second District affirmed the trial court’s decision based on the Court’s finding that the defendant’s motion was facially insufficient. However, in dicta, the Second District noted that, had the defendant’s motion been facially sufficient, it would have been compelled to reverse the trial court because the attached portion of the judgment and sentence did not refute the defendant’s claim. The Second District stated: “Without an attached signed plea agreement or the transcript of the plea colloquy showing that [the defendant] had stipulated to the jail credit, the trial court’s order and its attachments are insufficient to refute [the defendant’s claim] to additional jail credit.” Reed, 810 So. 2d at 1026. Accordingly, the trial court’s order summarily denying the defendant’s rule 3.800(a) motion seeking additional jail time credit is affirmed without prejudice to the defendant’s right to refile a facially sufficient rule 3.800(a) motion.

AFFIRMED.

GRIFFIN and LAWSON, JJ., concur. . See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.800(a).

. In other words, had language similar to the bold-faced type, which follows below, been added to the second field, it is suggested that waiver could have been conclusively shown by the Acknowledgment document:

Total days credit for time served 73 days (entitlement to additional jail credit has been waived).

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Joyner v. State, 988 So. 2d 670 (Fla. 3d DCA 2008)
    …plied against the defendant's two-year term of community control. . Speaking for himself, the writer of this opinion suggests that the Agreement on Credit for Time Served could be improved by including an express waiver clause, see Hinkel v. State, 937 So. 2d 1201 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006); Williams v. State, 711 So. 2d 1369, 1370 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998), in plain language and in capital letters or bold faced type.…
  • Rivera v. State, 3 So. 3d 1193 (Fla. 2009)
    …of the Third District Court of Appeal in Rivera v. State, 954 So. 2d 1216 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007), review granted, 968 So. 2d 557 (Fla.2007) (table), based on express and direct conflict with the decisions of the other district courts in Hinkel v. State, 937 So. 2d 1201 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006), Briggs v. State, 929 So. 2d 1151 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006), Reed v. State, 810 So. 2d 1025 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002), Henderson v. State, 720 So. 2d 1121 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998), Tillman v. State, 693 So. 2d 626 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997), Silverstein v…
  • King v. State, 3 So. 3d 1270 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009)
    …PER CURIAM. The trial court’s order summarily denying King’s Rule 3.800(a) motion seeking additional jail time credit is affirmed without prejudice to King’s right to file a facially sufficient Rule 3.800(a) motion. See Hinlcel v. State, 937 So. 2d 1201 (Fla. 5th DCA2006). AFFIRMED. PALMER, C.J., EVANDER and COHEN, JJ., concur.…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw