JAMES DANIEL JONES
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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A trial court's denial of a motion to correct an illegal sentence must be reversed when the record lacks sentencing transcripts necessary to determine whether the oral pronouncement of sentence conflicted with the written judgment.
[1] When a defendant challenges a sentence as illegal under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a) on the ground that the written judgment conflicts with the oral pronou…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“a court's oral pronouncement of sentence controls over the written document”
The court cited Ashley v. State for the long-standing principle that oral pronouncement of sentence controls over written judgment.
James Daniel Jones filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence arguing that the trial judge did not orally pronounce a 10-year mandatory minimum sen…
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FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
_____________________________
No. 1D17-3009 _____________________________
JAMES DANIEL JONES,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee. _____________________________
On appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County. Linda McCallum, Judge.
April 20, 2018
PER CURIAM.
Appellant challenges the denial of two motions to correct illegal sentence filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a). We reverse for further proceedings on Appellant’s argument that the written judgment conflicted with the oral pronouncement of his sentence. As to the remaining claims in both motions, we affirm. Appellant’s September 10, 2014 motion argued that the trial judge did not orally pronounce a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence as a habitual violent felony offender (HVFO), although such a sentence was discussed during the sentencing hearing. Appellant claimed that the written judgment reflected the minimum mandatory sentence without its having been orally
2
pronounced, in violation of Ashley v. State, 850 So. 2d 1265, 1268 (Fla. 2003) (adhering to “long-standing principle of law–that a court’s oral pronouncement of sentence controls over the written document”). The trial court attached several records to its unelaborated order denying Appellant’s 3.800(a) motion, concluding that the attached records refuted all of Appellant’s claims. The records attached to the order confirm that Appellant was placed on notice of the state’s intent to seek HVFO enhancement with a ten-year minimum-mandatory sentence, and that the written judgment included such a sentence. The records do not, however, include any transcripts of the sentencing hearing, and we are unable to determine if any such transcripts exist. Without any evidence of what the trial judge orally pronounced at sentencing, we are unable to conclude that Appellant’s claim is meritless. We therefore reverse the denial of this claim and remand for the lower court to determine whether the court file contains sentencing transcripts to resolve this claim. See Taylor v. State, 145 So. 3d 948, 949 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014) (citing Williams v. State, 957 So. 2d 600, 603 (Fla. 2007)). If not, Appellant’s motion should be denied without prejudice to his filing an amended motion attaching the sentencing transcripts. See id. REVERSED in part and AFFIRMED in part.
ROBERTS, KELSEY, and M.K. THOMAS, JJ., concur.
_____________________________
Not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 9.331. _____________________________
James Daniel Jones, pro se, Appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Michael McDermott, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Columbus Rickey Ashley v. State, 850 So. 2d 1265 (Fla. 2003)
- Williams v. State, 957 So. 2d 600 (Fla. 2007)
- Taylor v. State, 145 So. 3d 948 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014)