Opinion
Case No. 2D05-730.
Opinion filed June 7, 2006.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County, Mark R. Wolfe, Judge.
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Carol J.Y. Wilson, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Elba Caridad Martin, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
After finding that J.M.W. had committed the first-degree misdemeanors of battery and affray, the juvenile court withheld adjudication and placed her on probation. On this appeal, J.M.W. challenges both the finding that she committed the offense of affray and the order placing her on probation. We affirm without comment the order finding that J.M.W. committed the offenses of battery and affray. However, because the juvenile court did not specify the length of J.M.W.'s supervision, we reverse the order placing her on probation and remand for the entry of a corrected probation order.
J.M.W. argues that the juvenile court improperly imposed an indeterminate period of probation that exceeds the statutory maximum penalty for the offenses for which she was found guilty. She correctly points out that the probation order does not specify the length of time that she is to be on probation. J.M.W. filed a motion in the juvenile court to correct the probation order in accordance with Florida Rule of Juvenile Procedure 8.135(b)(2). Because the juvenile court did not properly dispose of the motion within the time provided in the rule, the motion is deemed denied. The State properly concedes that the probation order is unclear and that the order should be clarified.
The juvenile court found J.M.W. guilty of two first-degree misdemeanors. A misdemeanor of the first degree is punishable by a definite term of imprisonment not exceeding one year. § 775.082(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2004). J.M.W. was sixteen years old at the time of sentencing. The juvenile court orally pronounced that it would "withhold adjudication on both charges and place [J.M.W.] on probation." However, the juvenile court did not state the length of time that J.M.W. was to serve on probation. In addition, the juvenile court did not make a notation of the length of probation time on the written probation order. The probation order read: "______ year(s); or until the date of the child's nineteenth (19) birthday, whichever comes first."
Supervision "may not exceed the term for which sentence could be imposed if the child were committed for the offense." § 985.231(1)(a)(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (2004); A.W. v. State, 787 So. 2d 149, 149 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001); J.A.-W. v. State, 873 So. 2d 523, 524 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). Here, the maximum sentence reflected in the probation order — until J.M.W.'s nineteenth birthday — would be greater than the statutory maximum for her two misdemeanor offenses. Accordingly, we reverse the probation order, and we remand for the entry of a corrected probation order that limits the period of probation to a term that does not exceed the statutory maximum for the two offenses.
Affirmed in part; reversed in part; and remanded with directions.
WHATLEY and SILBERMAN, JJ., Concur.
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED.