STEPHEN P. FISHER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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.
The court held that the defendant was improperly sentenced as a violent career criminal because he did not have the required three prior qualifying convictions sentenced separately.
[1] A defendant cannot be sentenced as a violent career criminal if prior qualifying felony convictions were not sentenced separately from each other.
[2] A prior felony conviction can only be counted towards a violent career criminal designation if it was sentenced separately from any other felony conviction to be counted.
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 intelligenceThe defendant pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced as a violent career criminal. He challenged this sentence in a postconviction motion, argui…
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.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Violent Career Criminal Sentencing cases and more on FLexlaw
Stephen P. Fisher, pro se, challenges the postconviction court’s denial of his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion. We affirm the denial after eviden-tiary hearing of Fisher’s claims of ineffective assistance of counsel without comment. However, as the State properly concedes, the trial court improperly sentenced Fisher on the underlying offenses as a violent career criminal. Accordingly, we reverse the denial of that claim and remand for further proceedings.
On August 24, 2009, Fisher entered open guilty pleas to burglary of an unoccupied structure, grand theft, and criminal mischief. The trial court accepted the pleas and sentenced Fisher on the burglary to ten years’ imprisonment as a violent career criminal.
A “violent career criminal” is a “defendant [who] has previously been convicted as an adult three or more times for [a qualifying] offense.” § 775.084(l)(d)(l)(a), Fla. Stat. (2009). Burglary qualifies as such an offense. Id.; § 776.08, Fla. Stat. (2009). However, “[i]n order to be counted as a prior felony for purposes of sentencing under this section, the felony must have resulted in a conviction sentenced separately prior to the current offense and sentenced separately from any other felony conviction that is to be counted as a prior felony.” § 775.084(5) (emphasis added).
Although Fisher has four prior burglary convictions, two of those were sentenced together on December 12, 2002, and the other two were sentenced together on *469February 11, 2009. Accordingly, only one conviction from each sentencing can be counted toward the violent career criminal designation, leaving Fisher with only two qualifying convictions — one shy of the statutorily required three necessary to sentence as a violent career criminal.
We therefore reverse only the postcon-viction court’s denial of Fisher’s claim of sentencing error in his rule 3.850 motion1 and remand for resentencing.
Reversed and remanded.
CASANUEVA and CRENSHAW, JJ, Concur.