SEAN PATRICK EMKE
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA

Fla. 2d DCA | 2020-09-18
No. 18-3943
Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2020)

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Holding

A sentence at the mandatory minimum under the criminal punishment code scoresheet, imposed without downward departure for possession of child pornography counts, is proper where the trial court scored one count as primary and thirty-nine as additional offenses.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court's decision not to downward depart from a recommended sentence is affirmed when no merit is found in the appeal of that decision.

[2] Sentences imposed for multiple counts of possession of child pornography can be affirmed based on prior appellate precedent.

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Facts & Procedural History

While serving probation on a 2010 conviction for twenty counts of possession of child pornography, Emke was arrested and charged with forty new counts…

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Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM.

Sean Patrick Emke appeals the imposition of a prison sentence of 636.45 months. While serving probation on a prior case of possession of child pornography,1 he was arrested and charged with forty new counts of possession of child pornography.

He entered an open plea of no contest on these new counts and admitted to violating 1In lower court case number 2010-CF-001445AX, Mr. Emke pleaded nolo contendere to twenty counts of possession of child pornography.

the terms of his probation. On Mr. Emke's criminal punishment code scoresheet, see Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.992(a), the trial court designated one count of possession of child pornography as the primary offense. The remaining thirty-nine counts of possession of child pornography were scored as additional offenses. According to Mr. Emke's scoresheet, his lowest permissible sentence, absent a downward departure, was 636.45 months in prison. The trial court sentenced Mr. Emke to 636.45 months in prison on each count.

Mr. Emke raises two issues on appeal. We find no merit as to the first issue and affirm without comment the circuit court's decision not to downward depart on his sentences. As to his second issue, we affirm the sentences imposed based upon our decision in Champagne v. State, 269 So. 3d 629 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019). But see Gabriel v. State, 44 Fla. L. Weekly D2913 (Fla. 5th DCA Dec. 6, 2019), review granted No. SC19-2155, 2020 WL 1888656 (Fla. Apr. 16, 2020).

Affirmed.

MORRIS, SLEET, and LUCAS, JJ., Concur.


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