ANTHONY SMALLS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2009-05-11
No. 1D08-2700
KAHN, DAVIS, and CLARK, JJ., concur.
18 So. 3d 606 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2009) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

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Holding

The court held that the trial court erred in summarily denying the motion for postconviction relief by relying on photographs not part of the record to refute the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.


Headnotes

[1] A detached garage is not considered part of a dwelling for burglary purposes unless it is attached to the house or substantially enclosed together with the house.

[2] Documents outside the official record cannot be used to conclusively refute postconviction claims.

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellant pleaded guilty to burglary of a dwelling based on counsel's advice, later claiming ineffective assistance because the detached garage burgla…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant, Anthony Smalls, seeks review of an order summarily denying his motion for postconviction relief filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. Because Appellant’s claim that his counsel was ineffective for advising him to plead guilty to burglary of a dwelling when no factual basis existed to support the plea has not been conclusively refuted, we reverse the order and remand with instructions to hold an evidentiary hearing and to appoint counsel to assist Appellant.

Appellant pled guilty to burglary of a dwelling and battery in July 2003. The trial court sentenced him as a habitual felony offender to fifteen years’ imprisonment on the burglary offense and to one year imprisonment on the battery offense, with the sentences to run concurrently. Appellant filed a rule 3.850 motion, raising two claims for relief, and an addendum, raising the claim at issue. Appellant alleged that had counsel informed him that the burglary he committed was a third-degree felony by virtue of the fact that the victim’s yard was not enclosed so as to include the detached garage within the curtilage, he would not have pled to burglary of a dwelling, a second-degree felony. In September 2006, the trial court summarily denied relief as to this claim, relying on the prosecutor’s assertion at the plea hearing that the garage was in the victim’s enclosed yard. We reversed the order in part and remanded for record attachments conclusively refuting the claim or for an evidentiary hearing. See Smalls v. State, 973 So.2d 630 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008).

On remand, the trial court denied Appellant’s motion to appoint postconviction counsel. The State filed a response to Appellant’s postconviction relief motion and attached copies of photographs of what it claimed was the victim’s home and detached garage. The photographs were allegedly taken close in time to the actual burglary and were located in the “state attorney file.” The State admitted below that the photographs had not been previously admitted into evidence. Although the trial court held a hearing, the State acknowledges on appeal that it was not an evidentiary hearing.

*608The court thereafter denied Appellant’s postconviction relief motion, relying on the copies of the photographs attached to the State’s response. It found no deficiency on Appellant’s counsel’s part in advising Appellant to plead because, according to it, the copies of the photographs showed that the garage was located in close proximity to the victim’s house, there was a chain-link fence on the backside of the property “directly behind the detached garage,” and there was a row of shrubs “which separates the detached garage from the closest neighbor.” It concluded, “[b]ased on the evidence,” that the detached garage was well within the curtilage of the dwelling to be considered part of the dwelling. It attached copies of the photographs to its order. Appellant appealed. The State subsequently filed additional copies of the photographs with this Court.

As we have explained, unless a garage is attached to a house or is substantially enclosed along with a house, a defendant who burglarizes the garage is guilty of burglary of a structure, not burglary of a dwelling. See McAllister v. State, 859 So.2d 611, 612 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003); see also Sassnett v. State, 838 So.2d 650, 652 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) (“Pertinent case law establishes that burglary of a detached garage not enclosed together with the home by a fence does not constitute burglary of a dwelling....”). Thus, the pivotal issue in this case was whether the detached garage was substantially enclosed along with the victim’s house.

In determining that the detached garage was part of the dwelling because it had a chain-link fence directly behind it and because there was a row of shrubs separating it from the closest neighbor, the court impermissibly relied upon photographs that were not part of the record in this case. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850(d); see also Johnson v. State, 736 So.2d 713, 714 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999) (holding that documents that were outside of the official record could not be used to conclusively refute the appellant’s postconviction claims). As such, the photographs did not conclusively refute Appellant’s claim.1

Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s order and remand with instructions to hold an evidentiary hearing on Appellant’s claim and to appoint counsel to assist Appellant.

REVERSED and REMANDED with instructions.

KAHN, DAVIS, and CLARK, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Raphael Gilbert Surinach v. State, 111 So. 3d 186 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)
    …llant’s taped confession to law enforcement), which the state admits were not part of the trial court’s files or records below until they were attached to the state’s response to the motion. This was error. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850(d); Smalls v. State, 18 So. 3d 606, 608 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009); Johnson v. State, 736 So. 2d 713, 714 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999). See also Cortinas v. State, 91 So. 3d 903, 904 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012). Affirmed in part; reversed in part and remanded for further proceedings. WARNER, GROSS and…
  • Harris v. State, 204 So. 3d 973 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016)
    …Weekly D1638 (Fla. 5th DCA July 15, 2016). “Documents prepared to refute claims in a postconviction motion are not substitutes for an evidentiary hearing .... ” Flores v. State, 662 So. 2d 1350, 1351-52 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995); see also Smalls v. State, 18 So. 3d 606 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009) (holding that court impermissi-bly relied on photographs attached to the State’s response, that were not part of the record, in summarily denying the post-conviction motion). Accordingly, we reverse the summary denial of claim 2…
  • Skyler Jones v. State, 35 So. 3d 73 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010)
    …ecords after affording the parties a reasonable opportunity to present information relevant to the propriety of taking judicial notice and to the nature of the matter noticed, the trial court did not follow that procedure); see also Smalls v. State, 18 So. 3d 606, 608 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009) (concluding that the trial court erred in relying upon photographs that were not part of the record in summarily denying relief as to a postconviction claim). Accordingly, the order is AFFIRMED as to claims one through fiv…

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