FRANKLIN SANCHEZ, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Franklin Sanchez appeals the denial of his postconviction rule 3.850 motion for ineffective assistance of counsel, challenging his 35-year sentence for home invasion robbery with a firearm. The court affirms the denial of some claims but reverses and remands regarding a scoresheet error involving improperly calculated prior record points.
The court affirmed the denial of the claim regarding the life felony designation because, although erroneous, it had no effect on the points actually assessed and the record demonstrates no prejudice. The court reversed the summary denial of the claim regarding the 23 prior record points because the state failed to show the same sentence would have been imposed without those points, requiring remand for further proceedings.
[1] A conviction for home invasion robbery with a firearm cannot be reclassified to a life felony when the use of a firearm is an essential element of the offense.
[2] A claim of ineffective assistance of counsel requires a demonstration of prejudice to counsel's client.
Previewing 2 of 5 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“Failure to demonstrate prejudice defeats the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.”
Establishes that under Strickland, prejudice is required to prove ineffective assistance; applying this standard to the life felony designation claim.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceSanchez was convicted of home invasion robbery with a firearm and acquitted of kidnapping. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He filed a rule 3.8…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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On Motion Fob Rehearing
We grant appellant’s motion for rehearing, withdraw our previously issued opinion and substitute the following in its place.
Franklin Sanchez appeals the summary, denial of his rule 3.850 motion for postcon-viction relief. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.
Sanchez was convicted of home invasion robbery with a firearm and was acquitted on a kidnapping charge. He was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison. In his rule 3.850 motion, he raised multiple claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, including a claim of failure of counsel to object to erroneous scoresheet calculations. We address the arguments made under the latter claim only.
We first reject the claim of ineffective assistance for failure to object to the scoresheet’s designation of the home invasion robbery with a firearm as a life felony. This was erroneous, as is the judgment of conviction identifying the offense as a life felony, because the offense was a first degree felony punishable by life. § 812.135(2)(a), Fla. Stat. (2007). It could not properly have been reclassified to a life felony because the use of a firearm was an essential element of the offense. § 775.087(1), Fla. Stat. (2007). See State v. Tripp, 642 So.2d 728 (Fla.1994); Ruth v. State, 949 So.2d 288 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007); Young v. State, 841 So.2d 697 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003). However, appellant has not directly challenged the judgment of conviction under his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Further, insofar as he has claimed ineffective assistance for failure to object to the scoresheet designation of his conviction as a life felony, the record demonstrates that this designation had no effect on the amount of points actually assessed. Home invasion robbery with a firearm is a level ten offense for which 116 points were properly charged. § 921.0022(3)(j), Fla. Stat. (2007). Failure to demonstrate prejudice defeats the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
We reverse, however, the trial court’s summary denial of appellant’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to scoresheet error in the assessment of 23 points under the prior record category, based on a Broward Circuit Court kidnapping conviction. Sanchez alleged that he was not convicted of that offense due to a negotiated settlement. The state has failed to show that the same sentencing would have been imposed notwithstanding the inclusion of these points. See State v. Anderson, 905 So.2d 111 (Fla. 2005).
Accordingly, we reverse the claim addressed above and remand for either attachment of portions of the record conclusively refuting the claim addressed above, or an evidentiary hearing. The trial court’s summary denial of all other claims is affirmed.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded.
WARNER, STEVENSON and LEVINE, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984)
- State v. Anderson, 905 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 2005)
- State v. Vinney Tripp, 642 So. 2d 728 (Fla. 1994)
- Hardy L. Ruth v. State, 949 So. 2d 288 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007)
- Young v. State, 841 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)
- Derrek Carnell Douglas v. State, 841 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003)