Opinion
Case No. 96-4538
Opinion filed December 15, 1997.
An appeal from the Circuit Court for Bay County. Glenn Hess, Judge.
Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender; Laura Anstead, Assistant Public Defender, Office of the Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General; Trina Kramer, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
As the state concedes, the defendant's guideline sentence of five and one-half years must be reversed because it exceeds the statutory maximum for the offense of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. The offense was committed on September 30, 1993. At that time, the statutory maximum was the outer limit of a legal sentence regardless of the defendant's sentencing guidelines score. If the guideline sentence exceeded the statutory maximum, the statutory maximum sentence was to be imposed. See Carter v. State, 556 So.2d 795 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). Accordingly, we reverse for resentencing on the charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. We find no error as to the sentences imposed on any of the other charges in this case.
Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
MICKLE, LAWRENCE, and PADOVANO, JJ., CONCUR.