Opinion
Case No. 97-0976
Opinion filed March 18, 1998 JANUARY TERM 1998
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Joyce A. Julian, Judge; L.T. Case No. 96-013908CF10A.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Melynda L. Melear, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Anthony Calvello, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
We reverse because the trial court was without authority to deviate from the mandatory minimum sentence required under section 893.13(1)(c)1, Florida Statutes (1995), which provides that a person convicted of violating it "must be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 3 calendar years." See State v. Swider, 654 So.2d 562 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995);State v. Randall, 627 So.2d 571 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993);Hill v. State, 624 So.2d 826 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993). On remand, appellee must be given an opportunity to withdraw her plea, if she desires to do so. See State v. Nichols, 536 So.2d 1052 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988).
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
STONE, C.J., KLEIN and GROSS, JJ., concur.