GEDDES WILLIS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1999-07-02
No. 98-01483
PATTERSON, C.J., and PARKER and DAVIS, JJ., Concur.
736 So. 2d 1251 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1999) Negative Treatment
Cited by 7 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Geddes Willis appealed his cocaine possession conviction and sentence. The appellate court affirmed the conviction but reversed the sentence because it exceeded both the statutory maximum and the sentencing guidelines range, and remanded for resentencing.


Holding

The court affirmed the denial of the mistrial motion but reversed the sentence as illegal because it exceeded both the statutory maximum of 60 months and the guidelines maximum of 80 months. The court declined to decide the constitutional validity of the 1995 sentencing guidelines, which remained pending before the Florida Supreme Court.


Headnotes

[1] A sentence exceeding both the statutory maximum and the maximum permitted by sentencing guidelines is an illegal sentence.

[2] When the median recommended sentence exceeds the statutory maximum, a trial court must impose a sentence within the recommended guidelines sentencing range.

Previewing 2 of 4 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

Key Quotes

“a trial court must impose a sentence within the recommended guidelines sentencing range when the median recommended sentence exceeds the statutory maximum”

Establishes the governing legal principle that the guidelines sentencing range cannot be exceeded even when below the statutory maximum

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Willis was convicted of possession of cocaine, a third-degree felony with a maximum statutory sentence of 60 months. The trial court calculated a sent…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Geddes Willis (“Willis”) appeals his conviction and sentence for possession of cocaine. Willis raises three issues on appeal.

First, Willis alleges that the trial court erred in denying his request for a mistrial, arguing that certain testimony impermis-sively implied that he was involved in collateral crimes.

Second, Willis contends that his sentence exceeds both the statutory maximum and recommended sentencing range.

Finally, Willis argues that his sentence is illegal because he was sentenced under the 1995 sentencing guidelines, which he specifically alleges are invalid because Chapter 95-184, Laws of Florida violates the single-subject requirement outlined in Article III, Section 6 of the Florida Constitution.

We affirm the trial court’s denial of Willis’ motion for mistrial without comment.

However, we reverse his sentence and remand for resentencing.

We address each of the sentencing issues in turn.

We note that possession of cocaine is a third-degree felony carrying a maximum statutory sentence of sixty months (five years). See § 893.13(6)(a), Fla. Stat. (1997); § 775.082(3)(d), Fla. Stat. (1997).

However, a trial court must impose a sentence within the recommended guidelines sentencing range when the median recommended sentence exceeds the statutory maximum. See Mays v. State, 717 So. 2d 515, 516 (Fla.1998). In the instant case, the trial court calculated Willis’ scoresheet to produce a median recommended sentence of sixty-four months. The scoresheet gave a permissible sentencing range of forty-eight months to eighty months.

The trial court imposed a split sentence of sixty-four months’ incarceration followed by twenty-four months’ probation. When these two components of the split sentence are added together, their sum equals an actual sentence of eighty-eight months.

Thus, Willis’ actual sentence exceeds both the statutory maximum and the maximum permitted by the guidelines. When a sentence exceeds both the statutory maximum and the maximum permitted by the guidelines, it is an illegal sentence. See Ortiz v. State, 696 So. 2d 916, 917 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997), receded from on other grounds, Maddox v. State, 708 So. 2d 617 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998).

Consequently, we must reverse the trial court’s sentence and remand for imposition of a new sentence.

When the trial court sentenced Willis, it used a scoresheet prepared under the 1995 sentencing guidelines. In Heggs v. State, 718 So. 2d 263, 264 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998), this court questioned, without deciding, whether the 1995 version of the guidelines violated the single-subject rule outlined in Article III, Section 6 of the Florida Constitution. We referred the matter to the Florida Supreme Court for immediate resolution. See id. at 265. The Florida Supreme Court has not yet resolved this issue. As previously noted in this opinion, this case must be remanded for resentencing.

Thus, we decline the State’s invitation to stay this appeal pending an outcome in Heggs. Rather, upon remand for resentencing, Willis may take such action as he deems appropriate to preserve any sentencing issue, pending resolution of Heggs by the Florida Supreme Court.

Conviction affirmed, sentence reversed, and remanded for resentencing.

PATTERSON, C.J., and PARKER and DAVIS, JJ., Concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Netherly v. State, 804 So. 2d 433 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
    …nt, to be followed by ten years’ probation. The split sentences imposed in both cases are illegal because they exceed the maximum statutory sentence for third-degree felonies, as well as the maximum permissible guidelines sentence.6 Willis v. State, 736 So. 2d 1251 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999) (reversing an illegal split sentence, the sum of which exceeded the statutory maximum and the maximum sentence permitted by the guidelines). On [*440] remand for resentencing based on the failure of proof as to count 2, the court…
  • Eckard v. State, 758 So. 2d 742 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000)
    …26(2)0), Fla. Stat. (1997). Appellee concedes that the trial court’s total sanction of 204 months exceeds both the 5-year statutory maximum and the 185-month upper end of the sentencing guidelines range and is therefore illegal. See Willis v. State, 736 So. 2d 1251 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999); Nunez v. State, 721 So. 2d 346 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998); Moyer v. State, 715 So. 2d 1112 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998); Ortiz v. State, 696 So. 2d 916 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997), receded from on other grounds, Maddox v. State, 708 So. 2d 617 (Fla. 5th…
  • Padilla v. State, 750 So. 2d 671 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999)

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw