KIEFER FILPPULA, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 2014-03-14
No. 2D13-2432
LaROSE and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur.
133 So. 3d 1232 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2014) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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

Kiefer Filppula appealed his resentence following reversal of his original sentence, challenging sentencing errors including an illegal probation condition that required more than 364 days of incarceration. The court affirmed the new sentence because Filppula failed to preserve the errors by filing a motion to correct sentence under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b), which is the required mechanism for raising unpreserved sentencing errors on appeal.


Holding

Filppula's failure to file a motion to correct sentence pursuant to Rule 3.800(b) forecloses appellate review of the sentencing errors. Rule 3.800(b) is the required mechanism to preserve structural sentencing errors, including illegal sentences, for direct appellate review, even when counsel failed to object at sentencing or agreed the sentence was legal.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant must file a motion to correct sentence pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b) to preserve otherwise unpreserved structural sentencing errors,…

[2] A defendant cannot confer on the court the authority to impose an illegal sentence by agreement.

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Key Quotes

“an imposed term of incarceration as a condition of probation cannot exceed 364 days and must be served in a nonprison facility, such as a county jail”

Establishes the sentencing rule violated by Filppula's sentence for possession of alprazolam

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Facts & Procedural History

Filppula was resentenced following reversal of his original sentence. The new sentence imposed 60 days for possession of a prescription drug without a…

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Opinion of the Court
DAVIS, Chief Judge.

DAVIS, Chief Judge.

Kiefer Filppula challenges the new sentence he received following this court’s reversal of his original sentence. See Filppula v. State, 106 So.3d 45, 46 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013). Although the new sentence reflects some of the same errors and illegalities that led to the reversal of Filppu-la’s original sentence, the errors are of the type that must be preserved through the filing of a motion to correct sentence pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b) before this court can review them on direct appeal. Because Filppula’s counsel failed to file such a rule 3.800(b) motion, we affirm.

The written sentence reflects that at resentencing Filppula was sentenced to sixty days for possession of a prescription drug without a prescription, to five years for possession of cannabis with intent to sell, to “2 years prison with 5 years probation as a condition” for possession of al-prazolam, and to one year for possession of drug paraphernalia. The sentences for each count are to run concurrently, and according to the order of probation, the probation for possession of alprazolam is consecutive to the prison term for possession of cannabis. We note that the oral pronouncement, which controls over the written sentence,1 was for five years of probation for possession of alprazolam to run consecutive to the sentences on the other counts and that a condition of that probation was serving an additional two *1234years in prison on that count, resulting in three years’ probation following an aggregate seven-year prison sentence.

As stated in the first Filppula opinion, an imposed term of incarceration as a condition of probation cannot exceed 364 days and must be served in a nonprison facility, such as a county jail. 106 So.3d at 46. Thus Filppula’s sentence for the possession of alprazolam is again illegal. See id. The State concedes the problematic nature of this sentence and merely argues that Filppula is foreclosed from relief by his failure to fíle a motion to correct sentence pursuant to rule 3.800(b) and because his counsel did not preserve the error when counsel agreed at the resentencing that the proposed sentence was legal.

We do not agree that counsel’s acquiescence to the sentence forecloses relief; the fact that his counsel thought it was a legal sentence does not make it so. “A defendant cannot by agreement confer on the court the authority to impose an illegal sentence.” Williams v. State, 500 So.2d 501, 503 (Fla.1986), receded from on other grounds, Quarterman v. State, 527 So.2d 1380 (Fla.1988). But the State is correct that rule 3.800(b) is the necessary mechanism designed to correct otherwise unpreserved structural sentencing errors, including illegal sentences, and to preserve those errors for direct appellate review. See Jackson v. State, 983 So.2d 562, 573-74 (Fla.2008).

Thus, rule 3.800(b) creates a two-edged sword for defendants who do not object to sentencing errors before the sentence is rendered: on the one hand, it allows defendants to raise such errors for the first time after the sentence; on the other hand, it also requires defendants to do so if the appellate court is to consider the issue. In other words, for sentencing errors, to raise even fundamental error on appeal, defendants must first file a motion under rule 3.800(b).

Id. at 569. For that reason alone we affirm Filppula’s new sentence.2 However, we note that this affirmance does not impact any right Filppula may have to seek to correct his illegal sentence by filing a motion pursuant to either rule 3.800(a) or rule 3.850. The postconviction court should consider any such motion on an expedited basis.

Affirmed.

LaROSE and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Watlington, 45 Fla. L. Weekly D646 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020)
    …matter. Williams v. State, 500 So. 2d 501, 503 (Fla. 1986) (holding that the court could not impose an illegal sentence as part of a plea bargain), receded from on other grounds by Quarterman v. State, 527 So. 2d 1380 (Fla. 1988); Filppula v. State, 133 So. 3d 1232, 1234 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014) (holding that the court could not impose an illegal sentence at a resentencing even though defense counsel agreed the sentence was legal). Section 958.04(2) provides for youthful offender sentencing for a qualifying defendan…
  • Crews v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2018)
    …we do not address the merits of Crews's argument because he failed to preserve it for review by either objecting at the sentencing hearing or by moving to correct it pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b). See Filppula v. State, 133 So. 3d 1232, 1234 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014) (declining to consider the defendant's challenge to his illegal sentence on direct appeal because the defendant failed to preserve the challenge via motion under rule 3.800(b)). Accordingly, we affirm Crews's sentence on…

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