KATRINA RENEE MCGARRAH, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Katrina McGarrah appeals her seventeen-year sentence for DUI manslaughter, challenging both the sentence length and imposed statutory costs. The court affirms the cost imposition but reverses the sentence because it exceeds the fifteen-year statutory maximum for the offense, and the trial court's correction was untimely.
The seventeen-year sentence is illegal because it exceeds the fifteen-year statutory maximum for DUI manslaughter. Although the Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet may require a sentence exceeding the statutory maximum in certain circumstances, McGarrah's scoresheet requires only 15.593 years, which does not exceed the statutory maximum. The trial court's belated correction of the sentence was ineffective because it occurred outside the sixty-day time period required by rule.
[1] A sentence exceeding the statutory maximum for an offense is permissible only if the lowest permissible sentence under the Criminal Punishment Code exceeds the statutory…
[2] When the lowest permissible sentence under the Criminal Punishment Code exceeds the statutory maximum for an offense, the sentence required by the Code must be imposed.
Previewing 2 of 3 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“McGarrah's seventeen-year sentence for DUI manslaughter is illegal. DUI manslaughter is a second-degree felony punishable by a maximum term of fifteen years.”
Establishes that the original sentence exceeds the statutory maximum for the offense.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMcGarrah pleaded no contest to DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony. She was sentenced to seventeen years' incarceration. She filed a motion under…
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Katrina Renee McGarrah appeals her sentence for DUI manslaughter and the imposition of certain statutory costs. We find no reversible error as to the imposition of costs. We reverse McGarrah’s sentence, however, because it exceeds the maximum permissible prison sentence authorized under her Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet. See § 921.0024(2), Fla. Stat. (2007).
McGarrah pleaded no contest to DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony, and *218was sentenced to seventeen years’ incarceration. McGarrah filed a Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2) motion with the trial court contending that her sentence was illegal because it exceeded the fifteen-year statutory maximum for the offense. Although the trial court eventually granted McGarrah’s motion and amended her judgment and sentence, it did so outside of the sixty-day time period set forth in the rule, rendering the amended judgment and sentence a nullity.1 See Fla. R.Crim. P. 8.800(b)(2)(B); Jackson v. State, 793 So.2d 117 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001).
As the trial court recognized and the State concedes, McGarrah’s seventeen-year sentence for DUI manslaughter is illegal. DUI manslaughter is a second-degree felony punishable by a maximum term of fifteen years. §§ 316.193(3)(c)(3)(a); 775.082(3)(e), Fla. Stat. (2007). A sentence can exceed the statutory maximum for an offense, but only if the lowest permissible sentence under the Criminal Punishment Code exceeds the statutory maximum for that offense. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.704(d)(25); § 921.0024, Fla. Stat. (2007). When the lowest permissible sentence under the Code exceeds the statutory maximum, the trial court must impose the sentence required by the Code. Id. McGarrah’s Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet provides for a lowest permissible sentence of 15.593 years. Because this sentence is greater than the fifteen-year statutory maximum sentence for DUI manslaughter, the court was required to sentence McGarrah to a term of 15.593 years for that offense. See § 921.0024(2) (providing in part: “If the lowest permissible sentence under the code exceeds the statutory maximum sentence ... the sentence required by the code must be imposed.”).
Accordingly, we reverse McGarrah’s sentence for DUI manslaughter and remand for imposition of a sentence consistent with this opinion. In all other respects, McGarrah’s convictions and sentences are affirmed.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for resentencing.
NORTHCUTT and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur.
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Archer v. State, 332 So. 3d 24 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021)…93(3)'s sentencing parameters are solely provided by section 775.082" because "[s]ubsection (5) requires probation and DUI school on any violation of section 316.193"). Contrary to the State's assertions, this court's decision in McGarrah v. State, 38 So. 3d 217 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010), does not require an affirmance. McGarrah addressed the legality of a seventeen-year sentence for DUI manslaughter where the statutory maximum sentence of fifteen years was exceeded by the defendant's lowest permissible sentence…
Authorities Cited
- Robbie Jackson v. State, 793 So. 2d 117 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)