DOUGLAS M. WILLIAMS
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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A postconviction court must conduct an evidentiary hearing on a 3.850 motion when the defendant alleges scoresheet and jail credit errors, because the applicable standard is whether the trial court would have imposed the same sentence, not whether it could have. Summary denial is improper unless the allegations are conclusively refuted by the record.
[1] Under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, a postconviction court must conduct an evidentiary hearing on allegations of sentencing error unless the allegations are c…
[2] The applicable standard for determining whether a sentencing error requires resentencing under a 3.850 motion is whether the trial court would have imposed the same sente…
Previewing 2 of 5 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“Contrary to the standard under a 3.800(a) motion, which is whether the trial court could have imposed the same sentence, under a 3.850 motion, the test is whether the trial court would have imposed the same sentence.”
This establishes the controlling legal standard for reviewing scoresheet errors in postconviction proceedings under rule 3.850.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceWilliams pleaded nolo contendere to battery by a detained person after being charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. At sentencing, all …
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FIFTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
_____________________________
Case No. 5D2024-2941 LT Case No. 2021-CF-350-A _____________________________
DOUGLAS M. WILLIAMS,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee. _____________________________
3.850 Appeal from the Circuit Court for Sumter County. Mary Pavloff Hatcher, Judge.
Douglas M. Williams, Bonifay, pro se.
James Uthmeier, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Tabitha Mills, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.
May 30, 2025
PER CURIAM.
Douglas M. Williams (“Williams”) appeals the summary denial of his motion for postconviction relief filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the trial court would have imposed the same sentence had it been aware that an incorrect scoresheet had been used to calculate the sentence and
Williams later discovered that with the reduced credit, his sentence was no longer a time-served sentence. As a result, he filed a 3.800(a) motion, which was denied and affirmed on appeal, with Judge Makar noting in a special concurrence that the denial was without prejudice to the filing of a 3.850 motion. See Williams v. State, 389 So. 3d 541, 541 (Fla. 5th DCA 2024) (Makar, J., concurring in affirmance).
Williams then filed a 3.850 motion, but the postconviction court denied the motion concluding, in part, that “Defendant’s scoresheet indicates the charge of Burglary of a Dwelling, which Defendant was found not guilty of, was in fact, deleted from the scoresheet. . . . Consequently, Defendant’s claim is conclusively refuted by the record.” Williams now appeals.
When a postconviction court considers allegations in a 3.850 motion, Florida law mandates an evidentiary hearing unless the
Contrary to the standard under a 3.800(a) motion, which is whether the trial court could have imposed the same sentence, see Brooks v. State, 969 So. 2d 238, 243 (Fla. 2007), under a 3.850 motion, the test is whether the trial court would have imposed the same sentence. See State v. Anderson, 905 So. 2d 111, 118 (Fla. 2005); see also Val v. State, 741 So. 2d 1199, 1200 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999) (reversing for resentencing because the court could not “conclude with certainty that appellant’s sentence would have been the same if the trial court had used a properly prepared scoresheet”); Williams v. State, 720 So. 2d 590, 591 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998) (remanding for resentencing with a corrected scoresheet because “it cannot be said that the same sentence would have been imposed absent the error we here correct”); Annunziata v. State, 697 So. 2d 997, 999 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997) (remanding “[b]ecause it does not appear beyond reasonable doubt that different sentences would not have been imposed had the correct score and range been presented to the trial court”); Jenkins v. State, 687 So. 2d 360, 361 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (holding that scoresheet error required reversal for resentencing because “we are unable to conclude that appellant’s sentence would have been the same had the trial court utilized a correctly calculated scoresheet”).
Here, it is clear that all parties believed Williams had over 35 months of jail credit when the 35-month sentence was imposed, and it is apparent that the calculation of 35 months was based on the inclusion of a conviction that all later agreed should not have been there, resulting in a sentence that does not appear to have
Accordingly, we reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the trial court would have imposed the same sentence had it been aware that an incorrect scoresheet had been used to calculate the sentence and that an incorrect amount of jail credit had been awarded resulting in a sentence that was not a time-served sentence. See Jenkins v. State, 687 So. 2d 360, 361 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (holding that scoresheet error required reversal for resentencing because “we are unable to conclude that appellant’s sentence would have been the same had the trial court utilized a correctly calculated scoresheet”).
REVERSED and REMANDED.
MAKAR, JAY, and MACIVER, JJ., concur.
_____________________________
Not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 9.331. _____________________________
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Brooks v. State, 969 So. 2d 238 (Fla. 2007)
- State v. Anderson, 905 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 2005)
- Williams v. State, 720 So. 2d 590 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998)
- Carmine Annunziata v. State, 697 So. 2d 997 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997)
- Lines VAL v. State, 741 So. 2d 1199 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)
- State v. Stainton, 359 So. 3d 1261 (Fla. 5th DCA 2024)
- Jenkins v. State, 687 So. 2d 360 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
- Harris v. State, 204 So. 3d 973 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016)
- Rios v. State, 322 So. 3d 226 (Fla. 5th DCA 2025)