MARC CHANTELE WILLIAMS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2016-06-07
No. 1D15-1923
WOLF, WETHERELL, .and KELSEY, JJ., concur.
193 So. 3d 1017 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2016) Positive Treatment
Cited by 12 cases

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Holding

A sentence based on unsubstantiated allegations of witness intimidation violates due process and requires reversal, even if the conviction is affirmed.


Headnotes

[1] A sentence imposed within statutory limits is generally unassailable on appeal, except when based on constitutionally impermissible factors.

[2] Sentencing a defendant based on unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing violates due process.

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellant was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to sell. The trial court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, citing unsubstantiated alle…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant seeks review of his conviction and sentence for possession of cocaine with the intent to sell. We affirm Appellant’s conviction without further comment, but because we agree with Appellant that the trial court fundamentally erred when it based his sentence on unsubstantiated allegations of misconduct, we reverse Appellant’s sentence and remand for resentenc-ing before a different judge.

*1018Appellant was convicted after a jury tidal of possession of cocaine with the intent to sell, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. His score-sheet reflected a lowest permissible sentence of a non-state prison sanction, but based on Appellant’s “lengthy criminal history of convictions [and] arrests,” the prosecutor requested a five-year prison sentence followed by five years of drug offender probation. Appellant1 requested 24 months of drug offender probation in a “level-two program.”

The trial court sentenced Appellant to 10 years in prison followed by five years of drug offender probation. The court explained its rationale for this longer-than-requested sentence as follows:

The reason I have sentenced him to this sentence is because I believe that he has either been directly or indirectly involved in the threatening of witnesses in the cases against him, both in this case and in the past. And he comes across as being one-type person, and I don’t believe that, out on the street, he’s that person, and I believe 'that he has been a drug dealer for a long, long time, and I believe that he has endangered peoples’ lives while'he was doing that by committing acts of violence or threatening towards them. That’s why I gave him more than you asked for.

(emphasis added). Additionally, at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, the court stated to the prosecutor: “He has been harassing yóur witnesses,, and I was concerned about that, and I think I needed to make a statement to him. He needs to quit that.”

On appeal, Appellant contends that the trial court committed fundamental error when it based his sentence on unsubstantiated claims that he threatened witnesses in this case and prior cases. We agree.

“A sentence imposed within the statutory limits ... is generally unassailable on appeal.” Martinez v. State, 123 So.3d 701, 703 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013). However, an exception to this general rule exists when the sentence is based on constitutionally impermissible factors, such as unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing. Id. (“Taking ‘unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing’ as established fact violates due process.” (quoting Reese v. State, 639 So.2d 1067, 1068 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994))); see also Craun v. State, 124 So.3d 1027 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013) (remanding for resen-tencing where trial court specifically relied on speculation that defendant continued co-defendant’s ongoing scheme of defrauding victims); Epprecht v. State, 488 So.2d 129, 131 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986) (holding that speculation that defendant probably committed other crimes was impermissible sentencing consideration). This is because “a sentence based on mere allegation or surmise violates the fundamental constitutional rights of the defendant.” Martinez, 123 So.3d at 704.

At the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor asserted that Appellant had several prior cases in which the charges against him were dropped because the state- could not get "witnesses to testify.2 *1019The prosecutor implied that Appellant had threatened the witnesses .not to testify in the prior cases, and she argued that this information was “very relevant” because there were witnesses in the present case who were scared to testify because they had been threatened.

Thére was no record evidence of witness threats in this case,3 nor was there any evidence that Appellant was charged with threatening witnesses in the prior cases. However, it is clear from the trial judge’s comments at the sentencing hearing that he accepted as true, and based his sentencing decision on, the prosecutor’s assertions that Appellant threatened witnesses in this case and her implied assertions that he had threatened witnesses in prior cases.

Although it was not necessarily improper for the trial court to consider Appellant’s prior arrests not resulting in convictions at sentencing,4 it was improper for the court to base Appellant’s sentence in whole or in part on uncharged and wholly unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing. And because we are unable to say that the trial court would have imposed the same sentence absent consideration of the impermissible factors, we are required to reverse and remand for resentencing before a different judge. See Yisrael v. State, 65 So.3d 1177, 1178 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011), approved by Norvil v. State, 191 So.3d 406 (Fla.2016); MacIntosh v. State, 182 So.3d 888 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016); Mosley v. State,. — So.3d ——, 40 Fla. L. Weekly D2513, 2015 WL 6777209 (Fla. 2d DCA Nov. 6, 2015).

AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part; REMANDED for resentencing.

WOLF, WETHERELL, .and KELSEY, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Barlow v. State, 238 So. 3d 416 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018)
    …nsidered in determining a cause. Our judicial system is dependent upon the ability of trial judges to disregard improper information and to adhere to the requirements of the law in deciding a case or in imposing a sentence.”); Williams v. State, 193 So. 3d 1017, 1019 (Fla. 1st DCA 2016) (reversing only after noting “it is clear from the trial judge’s comments at the sentencing hearing that he accepted as true, and based his sentencing decision on, the prosecutor’s assertions [of unsubstantiated c…
  • Baehren v. State, 234 So. 3d 799 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018)
    …ally, a sentence within the permissible statutory range is not subject to review, but an exception is made “when the sentence is based on constitutionally impermissible factors, such as unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing.” Williams v. State, 193 So. 3d 1017, 1018 (Fla. 1st DCA 2016). Whether a trial court violates a defendant’s due process rights by considering impermissible factors in sentencing is a question of law subject to de novo review. Norvil v. State, 191 So. 3d 406, 408 (Fla. 2016). Our an…
  • Strong v. State, 254 So. 3d 428 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018)

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