Opinion
No. 1D19-2829
03-24-2021
ERIC PIERCE, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.
Jessica J. Yeary, Public Defender, and Megan Long, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Sharon S. Traxler, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
On appeal from the Circuit Court for Clay County.
Don H. Lester, Judge.
In this appeal from his convictions and sentences for two counts of vehicular homicide, Appellant claims that the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences of ten and eleven years in prison, asserting that the trial court should have imposed concurrent sentences of 19.8 years for both counts where the Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet provided for a lowest permissible sentence of 19.8 years. We agree and reverse and remand for resentencing.
I.
After Appellant entered an open guilty plea to two counts of vehicular homicide, the trial court rejected Appellant's request for a downward departure and sentenced Appellant to concurrent terms of twenty-one years in prison as to each count. After filing a timely notice of appeal, Appellant filed a motion to correct sentencing error pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2). The motion claimed that the trial court was required to impose sentences of 19.706 years on each count because this was the lowest permissible sentence under the Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet and exceeded the fifteen-year statutory maximum for a second-degree felony.
The trial court entered an order granting Appellant's motion insofar as Appellant's individual sentences exceeded the statutory maximum of fifteen years for a second-degree felony. However, it rejected Appellant's argument that the lowest permissible sentence must be imposed when it exceeded the statutory maximum for each individual count. Citing Gabriel v. State, 44 Fla. L. Weekly D2913 (Fla. 5th DCA Dec. 6, 2019), the court found that the lowest permissible sentence must be imposed only when it exceeded the collective statutory maximum for all counts, which in Appellant's case was thirty years if the court imposed consecutive sentences of fifteen years in prison. Based on a corrected scoresheet, the court found that the lowest permissible sentence was 19.8 years, which did not exceed the collective statutory maximum of thirty years. Accordingly, the trial court ordered that Appellant be resentenced using a corrected scoresheet.
At Appellant's resentencing hearing, the State argued that "a 21-year sentence can still be fashioned here, based on just a consecutive sentence between the counts." Defense counsel acknowledged that the court could impose consecutive sentences as long as Appellant's constitutional rights were not violated and requested that the court "consider giving him the guidelines which is maybe about a little—little more than a year under 21 years." The court agreed that it could not exceed the twenty-one-year sentence originally imposed. The court then resentenced Appellant to consecutive terms of ten and eleven years in prison for a total sentence of twenty-one years.
II.
Under the Criminal Punishment Code, sentence points are scored for the primary offense, "the offense at conviction pending before the court for sentencing for which the total sentence points recommend a sanction that is as severe as, or more severe than, the sanction recommended for any other offense committed by the offender and pending before the court at sentencing"; additional offenses, those "for which an offender is convicted and which [are] pending before the court for sentencing at the time of the primary offense"; and the prior record, "a conviction for a crime committed . . . prior to the time of the primary offense." § 921.0021(1), (4) & (5), Fla. Stat. (2019). A scoresheet is used to calculate total sentence points that determine the lowest permissible sentence, i.e., the minimum sentence that may be imposed by the trial court absent a valid reason for departure. § 921.0024(1)(a) & (2), Fla. Stat. (2019). "The permissible range for sentencing shall be the lowest permissible sentence up to and including the statutory maximum, as defined in s. 775.082, for the primary offense and any additional offenses before the court for sentencing." § 921.0024(2), Fla. Stat. (2019). The Criminal Punishment Code also provides that the trial court "may impose a sentence up to and including the statutory maximum for any offense" and expressly allows for concurrent or consecutive sentencing. §§ 921.002(1)(g) & 921.0024(2), Fla. Stat. (2019). However, "[i]f the lowest permissible sentence under the code exceeds the statutory maximum sentence as provided in s. 775.082, the sentence required by the code must be imposed." § 921.0024(2), Fla. Stat. (2019).
In this case, Appellant claims that the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences of ten and eleven years in prison where the Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet provided for a lowest permissible sentence of 19.8 years in prison, asserting that the trial court should have imposed concurrent sentences of 19.8 years for both counts. The issue here is whether the lowest permissible sentence applies under section 921.0024(2) when the lowest permissible sentence exceeds the statutory maximum for each individual count or when it exceeds the collective statutory maximum for all counts. Although this issue has been addressed by the Second and Fifth Districts, those courts have come to different conclusions.
In Champagne v. State, 269 So. 3d 629 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019), the Second District concluded that the lowest permissible sentence "is an individual minimum sentence which applies to each felony at sentencing for which the [lowest permissible sentence] exceeds that felony's statutory maximum sentence, regardless of whether the felony is the primary or an additional offense." Id. at 636. The court expressly rejected the alternative interpretation that the lowest permissible sentence "is a collective minimum sentence." Id. However, the court did certify the matter as a question of great public importance to the Florida Supreme Court. Id. at 639.
Subsequently, in Gabriel v. State, 44 Fla. L. Weekly D2913 (Fla. 5th DCA Dec. 6, 2019), review granted, No. SC19-2155, 2020 WL 1888656 (Fla. Apr. 16, 2020), the Fifth District disagreed with Champagne and held that the lowest permissible sentence must be applied under section 921.0024(2) only when it exceeds the collective statutory maximum—not each individual statutory maximum. The court certified conflict with Champagne as well as the same question of great public importance. Id.
In determining which of these two competing interpretations should apply here, we are constrained by our prior decision in Busbee v. State, 187 So. 3d 1266 (Fla. 1st DCA 2016). In that case, the defendant received concurrent fifteen-year sentences for a second-degree felony and two third-degree felonies. This court held that the fifteen-year sentences for the two third-degree felonies were illegal because they exceeded the five-year statutory maximum. Id. at 1268-69. This court further held that the trial court was required to impose the lowest permissible sentence of 140.175 months under the Criminal Punishment Code for both offenses. Id. Essentially, we embraced the interpretation adopted in Champagne that the lowest permissible sentence is an individual minimum sentence that applies to each felony at sentencing for which the lowest permissible sentence exceeds that felony's statutory maximum sentence—regardless of whether the felony is the primary or an additional offense. In doing so, we implicitly rejected the alternative interpretation adopted in Gabriel that the lowest permissible sentence must be applied only when it exceeds the collective statutory maximum.
In light of Busbee, the trial court was required to impose sentences of 19.8 years for each count of vehicular homicide where the Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet provided for a lowest permissible sentence of 19.8 years.
III.
We conclude that this court in Busbee embraced the interpretation of section 921.0024(2) adopted in Champagne that the lowest permissible sentence is an individual minimum sentence that applies to each felony at sentencing for which the lowest permissible sentence exceeds that felony's statutory maximum sentence, regardless of whether the felony is the primary or an additional offense. Consistent with Busbee and Champagne, the trial court should have imposed concurrent sentences of 19.8 years for both counts of vehicular homicide where the Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet provided for a lowest permissible sentence of 19.8 years. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for resentencing. We further certify conflict with Gabriel and also certify the following question of great public importance that was certified in both Champagne and Gabriel:
IS THE LOWEST PERMISSIBLE SENTENCE AS DEFINED BY AND APPLIED IN SECTION 921.0024(2), FLORIDA STATUTES, AN INDIVIDUAL MINIMUM SENTENCE AND NOT A COLLECTIVE MINIMUM SENTENCE WHERE THERE ARE MULTIPLE CONVICTIONS SUBJECT TO SENTENCING ON A SINGLE SCORESHEET?
REVERSED and REMANDED for resentencing; CONFLICT and QUESTION CERTIFIED. JAY, M.K. THOMAS, and NORDBY, JJ., concur.
Not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion under Fla . R. App. P. 9.330 or 9.331. Jessica J. Yeary, Public Defender, and Megan Long, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Sharon S. Traxler, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.