THOMAS HAGLEY, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 2014-06-06
No. 5D12-4195
PALMER and LAWSON, JJ., concur.
140 So. 3d 678 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2014) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

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Holding

The court held that while a court can correct clerical errors in sentencing orders, it cannot strip a defendant of jail credit entirely if the oral pronouncement implied credit was due, and that probation revocation orders must accurately reflect the violated conditions.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may correct clerical errors in a sentencing order, such as an overstatement of jail credit, without violating double jeopardy principles, provided the corre…

[2] A court's oral pronouncement of a sentence generally becomes final at the end of the sentencing hearing, and an increased sentence after that point may violate double jeo…

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Facts & Procedural History

The defendant's probation was revoked based on new law violations, and the written sentencing orders awarded significant jail credit. The State moved …

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Opinion of the Court
ORFINGER, J.

ORFINGER, J.

Thomas Hagley appeals his sentences, as amended, for violating probation (“VOP”) in four separate felony cases. In each of the cases, Hagley’s probation was *679revoked based on a new law violation. The trial judge’s oral pronouncement of sentence was “eighteen months Department of [CJorrections, concurrent with each other, less credit for time served, but consecutive to any sentence he is currently serving.” The written sentencing orders, entered later the same day, awarded Hag-ley almost 500 days of jail credit in each ease. Believing the amount was overstated, the State filed a “Motion to Clarify Sentence,” arguing that the trial court’s written orders contained scrivener’s errors regarding the amount of jail credit. The court ultimately agreed, and reduced Hag-ley’s jail credit in each of the cases to zero. Hagley asserts this modification of his sentences violated his double jeopardy rights. While we disagree with Hagley’s double jeopardy argument, we reverse the sentences because Hagley is entitled to a determination of the correct amount of jail credit earned on each case.

Generally, a court’s pronouncement of a sentence becomes final when the sentencing hearing ends. E.g., Troupe v. Rowe, 283 So.2d 857, 858 (Fla.1973); Comtois v. State, 891 So.2d 1130, 1131 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005). “Once a sentence has been imposed and the person begins to serve the sentence, that sentence may not be increased without running afoul of double jeopardy principles.” Ashley v. State, 850 So.2d 1265, 1267 (Fla.2003); see Dunbar v. State, 89 So.3d 901, 905 (Fla.2012) (reiterating that double jeopardy is offended when altered sentence is more onerous and “disrupts the defendant’s legitimate expee-tations of finality”). However, that does not mean that once a sentence is orally pronounced, mistakes in the resulting sentencing order cannot be corrected. Florida has long recognized a court’s inherent power to correct clerical errors such as calculation of jail credit. When sentencing documents erroneously over-report the amount of jail time actually served by a defendant prior to sentencing, and the error is apparent on the face of the record, this Court has held that there is no double jeopardy violation if the court simply corrects the jail credit award to accurately reflect the amount of time served. Gallinat v. State, 941 So.2d 1237, 1238 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006).1

Here, the oral pronouncement was simply that Hagley would receive jail credit; it mentioned no specific amount. Therefore, the court was allowed to correct the jail time credit if the amount of credit reflected in the initial sentencing orders was erroneous. However, instead of recalculating credit, the trial court stripped Hagley of all jail credit in his VOP cases, contradicting the oral pronouncement. This was error. Hagley is entitled to the correct amount of credit in each case.2 Ransone v. State, 48 So.3d 692, 694 (Fla.2010); Daniels v. State, 491 So.2d 543, 545 (Fla.1986); see § 921.161(1), Fla. Stat. (2011) (providing “the court imposing a sentence shall allow a defendant credit for all of the time she or he spent in the county jail before sentence” and that “credit must be for a specified period of time and shall be provided for in the sen*680tence”). Unfortunately, the record does not reveal how much credit Hagley is entitled to receive in his VOP cases. On remand, a hearing will be necessary to determine the correct amount.

Further, as the State concedes, the trial court must also correct the order revoking Hagley’s probation. The trial court found that Hagley violated the condition of his probation relating to new law violations and dismissed all violations of other conditions. The amended orders revoking probation all provide that the court found violations of Conditions 2, refraining from new law violations, and 5, requiring that the defendant make certain payments. However, Condition 5 was dismissed, and thus should be stricken from the amended orders revoking probation. In case number 05-2008-CF-062834-A, the condition requiring that Hagley refrain from committing new law violations was Condition 1, not 2. Hence, the amended order revoking probation in that case should reflect that the court found a violation of Condition 1, not Condition 2.

In conclusion, we reverse the amended sentences revoking Hagley’s jail-time credit and remand for a hearing to determine the correct amount of credit he earned in each of the four separate cases. In addition, the amended orders revoking probation shall be corrected.

REVERSED and REMANDED.

PALMER and LAWSON, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Spear v. State, 294 So. 3d 995 (Fla. 5th DCA 2022)
    …that if it was not the court’s intent to award Spear the additional credit in each case, amended judgments and sentences would be required. Based upon this letter, the trial court, citing to this court’s opinions in Gallinat and Hagley v. State, 140 So. 3d 678, 679 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014) (recognizing that a court has the “inherent power to correct clerical errors such as calculation of jail credit”), sua sponte entered orders that the judgments and sentences in each case be corrected to show that Spear no…
  • …gust 1, 2005 — the date of his original judgment. (Doc. 8-2 at 20–30, 107–10) Under state law, the correction of the award of jail credit is ministerial and the amended judgment relates back to the date of the original judgment. Hagley v. State, 140 So. 3d 678, 679 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014) (“Florida has long recognized a court’s inherent power to correct clerical errors such as calculation of jail credit.”); Luke v. State, 672 So. 2d 654, 655 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) (“[T]he court’s recitation of the number of days…

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