Golden v. State

509 So. 2d 1149, 12 Fla. L. Weekly 1496
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided June 17, 1987·No. BL-300·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

509 So.2d 1149 (1987)

Samuel Christopher GOLDEN, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. BL-300.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

June 17, 1987.

*1150 Samuel Golden, pro se.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Patricia Conners, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

ZEHMER, Judge.

The trial court denied Golden's rule 3.850 motion for post-conviction relief as insufficient on its face, and Golden appeals. Pursuant to our request, the Attorney General has filed a brief in response to appellant's contentions. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Appellant pled guilty on January 6, 1984, to a sexual battery offense that occurred *1151 before October 1, 1983, the date the sentencing guidelines became effective. He received a sentence of three hundred years' imprisonment, with the trial court retaining jurisdiction over the first one-third of that sentence. Appellant retained new counsel and filed a notice of appeal. He also filed, through his trial counsel, a rule 3.800 motion to withdraw plea or vacate sentence in the trial court. His appellate counsel then filed a motion in this court to relinquish jurisdiction to allow the trial court to consider the rule 3.800 motion. This court sua sponte decided to dismiss the appeal without prejudice. The trial court thereafter denied appellant's motion to withdraw plea on the ground that the appellate court had jurisdiction over the case. No further action was taken to pursue his appeal. The effect of these procedural irregularities is that appellant has never had his motion to vacate sentence or withdraw plea considered on the merits.

Appellant filed the rule 3.850 motion under review in December 1985 and alleged a number of grounds for reversal of his sentence. Appellant's motion included the information required by rule 3.850 with two exceptions: It did not state whether he had filed any previous 3.850 motions, and it stated that although he had filed an appeal he did not know its outcome.

The court denied the motion, giving four reasons: (1) Appellant is trying to retry issues previously litigated on direct appeal; (2) appellant's motion contains matter raised on direct appeal which may not form the basis for collateral attack in a motion for post-conviction relief; (3) appellant's motion fails to comply with the rules of criminal procedure by failing to allege essential matters which must be alleged before the court may consider such a motion; and (4) appellant's motion is insufficient because it does not state whether an appeal from the judgment and sentence was filed and, if an appeal was so filed, the disposition thereof or, further, whether previous post-conviction motions were filed and, if so, how many.

Appellant filed a motion for rehearing in which he alleged he had filed an appeal but that there had never been any briefs filed or any ruling by this court. He also admitted that he had erred in not supplying the information about previous 3.850 motions and stated that this was his first such motion. Appellant's motion for rehearing was denied without explanation.

The first issue we consider is a procedural one: whether appellant has now sufficiently satisfied the contents of motion requirements of rule 3.850 to make the motion facially sufficient. Of the court's four reasons for denying appellant's motion, the first two are clearly not valid in this case, as the state admits. The remaining two reasons relate to whether appellant's motion complied with the informational requirements of rule 3.850. The legal standard is one of "substantial compliance." Majors v. State, 451 So.2d 536 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). Although appellant's original motion was somewhat deficient, his motion for rehearing supplied the two missing items of information in detail sufficient to meet the "substantial compliance" standard. Because appellant has substantially complied with the requirements of rule 3.850, and because the state has asked us to reach the merits of appellant's motion, we now consider each of appellant's contentions on the merits.

Appellant first contends that the charging document in this case was signed with a rubber stamp, lacks a legal signature, and is fundamentally void, citing Dobson v. State, 434 So.2d 332 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). A rule 3.850 motion cannot be used to review ordinary trial errors cognizable by means of a direct appeal. McCrae v. State, 437 So.2d 1388, 1390. As the court stated in McCrae, "[A]ny matters which could have been presented on appeal are ... foreclosed from consideration by motion under the Rule [3.850]." Id. at 1390. Since the lack of a legal signature on a charging document may be raised on direct appeal, appellant is precluded from raising this issue in his 3.850 motion.

Appellant next argues that a sentence of three hundred years with jurisdiction retained over the first hundred years is cruel and unusual punishment and disproportionate *1152 to the seriousness of his offense, citing Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983). Appellant's three-hundred-year sentence is within the statutory maximum provided by law at the time he committed his offense. § 775.082(3)(a), Fla. Stat. (1983).[1] Construing the statutory language applicable to appellant, Florida courts have upheld a three-hundred-year sentence. Powlowski v. State, 467 So.2d 334 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985). Appellant's motion has not shown that his sentence falls within the criteria discussed in Helm. The harshness of the penalty is commensurate with the gravity of his offense. Appellant has not alleged that his sentence is greater than that imposed on most or all of the similarly situated criminals in Florida, nor that his sentence is more severe than other states would impose for the same offense. The allegations on this ground are facially insufficient.

Appellant next argues that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of first degree sexual battery. Appellant was charged with sexual battery using actual physical force likely to cause serious personal injury. The victim alleged that she was struck on the back on the head and neck with appellant's fists and was choked by appellant while he had his knee on her chest. Appellant notes that a doctor's report of the injuries to the victim showed she had no bruises on her body. We agree with appellant that the skimpy facts shown on the record may not support a charge of first degree sexual battery.[2] A guilty plea, however, if voluntary, is conclusive as to the defendant's guilt of the charge. Stovall v. State, 252 So.2d 376 (Fla. 4th DCA 1971). Although appellant also argues that his plea was involuntary, he predicates this issue on grounds which do not obviate his waiver of the sufficiency of the statement of facts presented at sentencing. To the extent that appellant is arguing that his counsel should have advised him not to plead guilty, this contention is also raised under appellant's argument on ineffective assistance of counsel, and will be discussed under that issue.

Appellant next argues that the trial court erred in not informing appellant of the possibility that the court would retain jurisdiction, in not giving appellant a hearing to determine aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and in attaching to the order retaining jurisdiction a letter from someone who was not the victim in this case. The record does not support appellant's first two contentions.

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Golden v. State, 509 So. 2d 1149, 12 Fla. L. Weekly 1496 (Fla. Ct. App. 1987).

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