LAGARRIAN R. DONALDSON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Donaldson appeals a postconviction court's partial denial of his Rule 3.850 motion. The court granted relief on his claim that his fifteen-year sentence for first-degree burglary was illegal because he had successfully completed a youthful offender boot camp program, but denied his claim that his plea was involuntary based on counsel's misadvice about sentencing exposure. The appellate court reverses and remands for an evidentiary hearing on the involuntary plea claim.
The appellate court held that correction of an illegal sentence does not preclude a defendant from pursuing a claim that his plea was involuntary. A defendant who pleads guilty with the understanding that the sentence is legal, when it is in fact illegal, should be given the opportunity to withdraw the plea when later challenging the legality of the sentence.
[1] A youthful offender who violates probation after successfully completing a "boot camp" program cannot be sentenced to more than 364 days in jail, under the statute applic…
[2] Correction of an illegal sentence does not automatically preclude a defendant from raising a claim that their plea was involuntary.
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“when a defendant pleads guilty with the understanding that the sentence he or she receives in exchange is legal, when in fact the sentence is not legal, the defendant should be given the opportunity to withdraw the plea when later challenging the legality of the sentence”
Establishes the legal principle that correction of an illegal sentence does not preclude pursuit of an involuntary plea claim
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceDonaldson pleaded no contest to first-degree burglary and was sentenced as a youthful offender to three years' imprisonment followed by three years' p…
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Lagarrian R. Donaldson appeals the postconviction court order granting in part and summarily denying in part his motion filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. The State properly concedes error. Therefore, we reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing on one of Donaldson’s claims. We affirm the denial of his remaining claims without comment.
Donaldson pleaded no contest to first-degree burglary, and the court sentenced him as a youthful offender to three years’ imprisonment followed by three years’ probation. During his incarceration, Donaldson successfully completed the youthful offender training program, also known as “boot camp.” Donaldson was resentenced to probation for the remainder of his original prison sentence followed by the original three years’ probation.
As a part of a negotiated agreement, Donaldson admitted to violating his probation by committing the new offenses of burglary of a dwelling, a second-degree felony, and grand theft, a third-degree felony. The court revoked Donaldson’s probation and resentenced him to fifteen years’ imprisonment for first-degree burglary, and, for the new law violations, to fifteen years’ imprisonment for burglary and five years’ imprisonment for grand theft, all to be served concurrently.
Donaldson then filed this motion for postconviction relief, alleging in part that (1) his fifteen-year sentence for first-degree burglary was illegal because he was originally sentenced as a youthful offender and had successfully completed boot camp; and (2) his plea was involuntary because counsel misadvised him that he faced life in prison for first-degree burglary when he actually only faced up to a year in jail after violating probation. The postconviction court granted relief on Donaldson’s first claim after the State conceded error; under the statute applicable to Donaldson, a youthful offender who violated probation could not be sentenced to more than 364 days in jail if he had completed the youthful offender “boot camp” program. See §§ 958.04(2)(b), .045(5)(c), Fla. Stat. (2005);1 Cutler v. State, 927 So.2d 249, 250 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006); Bloodworth v. State, 769 So.2d 1117, 1118 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000). He was resentenced to one year in jail for first-degree burglary. However, the post-conviction court denied Donaldson’s involuntary plea claim, reasoning that Donaldson had already received relief in the form of resentencing.
The postconviction court erred in denying this claim. When a defendant enters into a plea agreement for an illegal sentence, the correction of the illegal sentence does not necessarily preclude the defendant from stating a claim that his plea was involuntary. “[W]hen a defendant pleads guilty with the understanding that the sentence he or she receives in exchange is legal, when in fact the sen*1223tence is not legal, the defendant should be given the opportunity to withdraw the plea when later challenging the legality of the sentence.” Forbert v. State, 437 So.2d 1079, 1081 (Fla.1983). As the State concedes, Donaldson alleged a facially sufficient claim that is not conclusively refuted by the record. See Davis v. State, 15 So.3d 770, 772 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009). Therefore, we reverse the summary denial of this claim and remand for an evidentiary hearing.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
VILLANTI, WALLACE, and SLEET, JJ., Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Forbert v. State, 437 So. 2d 1079 (Fla. 1983)
- Baron Ellis Bloodworth v. State, 769 So. 2d 1117 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000)
- Davis v. State, 15 So. 3d 770 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009)
- Cutler v. State, 927 So. 2d 249 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006)