DAHROL JAMES, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Dahrol James appealed the denial of his motion to correct an illegal sentence and obtain additional jail credit. The court reversed and remanded, finding that James may be entitled to additional presentence jail credit based on a booking sheet showing he was in custody prior to his formal arrest, contrary to the trial court's findings.
James is entitled to jail credit for time actually spent in custody prior to sentencing, regardless of whether his formal arrest occurred later. The trial court erred by conditioning jail credit solely on the date of formal arrest rather than considering the booking sheet evidence showing earlier actual custody.
[1] A defendant is entitled to jail credit for the time actually spent in custody prior to sentencing, even if not formally arrested on a warrant.
[2] A defendant may be entitled to jail credit for time spent in custody before a warrant was executed, if the delay was beyond the defendant's control.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“[W]hile Wade may not have been formally arrested until sentencing, the fact that the State failed to take the simple step of executing the warrant does not bar him from receiving jail credit for the time he spent in custody prior to sentencing in case number 08-18974.”
Establishes that formal arrest date is not the determinative factor for jail credit; actual custody time counts.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceJames pleaded no contest in 2004 to burglary of a dwelling and received a 16-month sentence with 528 days' jail credit. In 2012, after probation revoc…
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Dahrol James appeals the summary denial of his amended motion to correct illegal sentence and to award additional jail *1036credit, filed under Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a) and 3.801. We reverse and remand for the postconviction court to reconsider whether James is entitled to additional presentence jail credit in circuit case number 2002-CF-8476. We affirm without comment the denial of James’ additional claims.
In 2004, James pleaded no contest in circuit case number 2002-CF-8476 to burglary of a dwelling, and the trial court sentenced him to sixteen months in prison, with 528 days’ jail credit, followed by ten years’ probation. In 2012, the trial court revoked his probation and sentenced him to ten years in prison with 962 days’ jail credit for time served while awaiting re-sentencing and 528 days’ credit for time he spent in jail prior to the imposition of the original sentence, for a total credit of 1490 days.
In January 2014, James filed his motion to correct illegal sentence and for jail credit. He then filed an amended motion and a supplemental amendment to his- motion. In summary, James claimed that the award of 528 days’ credit for time served prior to the original sentence was insufficient. He asserted that he should have received 730 days’ credit, starting from the date of his original arrest on December 17, 2002, until sentencing on December 17, 2004. He maintained that the partial credit of 528 days was only for the period from July 8, 2003, to December 17, 2004, and that he is entitled to the difference.
The State acknowledged that James’ motion was timely and not successive, but it argued that James had received the proper amount of jail credit. The postcon-viction court adopted and incorporated the State’s response and concluded that the record established that James received all the credit to which he was entitled. The court found that James was not arrested until July 8, 2003, and was not entitled to credit from December 17, 2002, to July 8, 2003.
The record demonstrates that the warrant in case number 2002-CF-8476 issued on January 8, 2003, and was executed on July 8, 2003. But a Polk County Sheriffs Office booking sheet shows that James was in custody in that case number on April 15, 2003. While it appears James may not have been formally arrested in the case until July 8, 2003, he would be entitled to jail credit for the time he actually spent in custody in case number 2002-CF-8476 pri- or to sentencing. See Wade v. State, 125 So.3d 1002, 1003-04 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013) (“[W]hile Wade may not have been formally arrested until sentencing, the fact that the State failed to take the simple step of executing the warrant does not bar him from receiving jail credit for the time he spent in custody prior to sentencing in case number 08-18974.”); see also Martinez v. State, 965 So.2d 1244, 1246 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007) (explaining that “[t]o condition receipt of jail credit under such circumstances on the sole factor of when the local sheriff finally gets around to arresting his or her prisoner would be to condition jail credit on a nonjudicial factor that was beyond Mr. Martinez’s control and which was completely arbitrary”). Because the State and the postconviction court appear to have overlooked the booking sheet, we reverse and remand for the postconviction court to determine whether James is entitled to additional jail credit from April 15, 2003, until July 8, 2003.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with directions.
LUCAS and SALARIO, JJ., Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Martinez v. State, 965 So. 2d 1244 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007)
- Jacobs v. State, 125 So. 3d 1002 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013)
- Wade v. State, 125 So. 3d 1002 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013)