Hernandez v. State

137 So. 3d 542, 2014 WL 1374046, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 5161
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 9, 2014
DocketNo. 4D13-4030
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 137 So. 3d 542 (Hernandez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hernandez v. State, 137 So. 3d 542, 2014 WL 1374046, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 5161 (Fla. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Alfredo Hernandez seeks a second appeal, alleging that his appellate attorney was ineffective for failing to file a Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2) motion to correct sentence before the initial appellate brief was filed. See Martinez v. State, 123 So.3d 701, 703 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013) (appellate counsel may be deemed ineffective for failing to file such a motion). He claims that counsel should have preserved for appellate review an error arising from the trial court’s failure to order preparation of a presentencing investigation report (“PSI”). See Albarracin v. State, 112 So.3d 574, 574 n. 1 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) (“The trial court’s failure to consider a mandatory presentence investigation report before sentencing a defendant is a sentencing error that can be preserved via the filing of a rule 3.800(b) motion.”). We grant the petition.

Hernandez was convicted of trafficking in marijuana in an amount greater than twenty-five pounds (count I), and unlawful[543]*543ly renting property for the purpose of trafficking or manufacture of a controlled substance (count II). His scoresheet provided for a minimum term of thirty-four and a half months in prison. His convictions authorized maximum terms of thirty years and five years respectively. Count I required a three year mandatory minimum term. See § 893.135(l)(a)l., Fla. Stat. (2011).

The trial court sentenced Hernandez to a ten year prison term for count I, with the three year mandatory minimum, and to a concurrent five year term on count II. The trial court did not order a PSI before it imposed the sentences, and no post-sentencing motion raised the absence. This court affirmed the direct appeal, which did not present any sentencing challenges. Hernandez v. State, 95 So.3d 240 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012). Hernandez then filed this petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel in failing to file a rule 3.800(b)(2) motion to argue that the trial court should have ordered the PSI for both counts.

The state concedes that, as a first-time felony offender, Hernandez was entitled to the PSI with respect to count II, and therefore counsel was ineffective for failing to file the rule 3.800(b)(2) motion to preserve the issue. It argues, however, that counsel was not ineffective with respect to count I, as Hernandez was not entitled to the PSI because of the mandatory minimum term for that crime. See Comparato v. State, 419 So.2d 1131, 1134 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982) (where probation is not a viable alternative, the trial court is not required to order a PSI before sentencing). We accept the state’s concession, grant the petition, and authorize a new appeal, which will permit the filing of the rule 3.800(b)(2) motion. In doing so, as discussed below, we afford Hernandez greater relief than that offered by the state’s limited concession.

The state and Hernandez’s point of disagreement concerns a first-time felony offender’s right to a PSI in a case which carries a minimum mandatory sentence. Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.710(a) provides:

In all cases in which the court has discretion as to what sentence may be imposed, the court may refer the case to the Department of Corrections for investigation and recommendation. No sentence or sentences other than probation shall be imposed on any defendant found guilty of a first felony offense or found guilty of a felony while under the age of 18 years, until after such investigation has first been made and the recommendations of the Department of Corrections received and considered by the sentencing judge.

(emphasis added).

First-time felony offender Hernandez was entitled to preparation of the PSI before his sentencing on count II, the count without a mandatory minimum, because probation was not imposed. See Comparato, 419 So.2d at 1134. Probation was not an alternative for count I, which carries a mandatory minimum three year term. However, under the plain language of the rule, a PSI should have been prepared for both counts because Hernandez did not receive a sentence of probation on either count.

The state relies on Comparato’s holding that the mandatory language of rule 3.170, requiring a PSI for all first-time felony offenders who are not sentenced to probation, does not apply to defendants for whom probation was not a potential sentence because of the drug trafficking mandatory minimum term. As support, Com-parato cited the supreme court’s decisions of Hargrave v. State, 366 So.2d 1 (Fla. 1978), and State v. Brunson, 369 So.2d 945 (Fla.1979). We disagree with Compara-to ’s view that Hargrave and Brunson pre-[544]*544elude a first felony offender’s entitlement to a PSI where a mandatory minimum term prevents the court from imposing a probationary sentence.

The rule itself does not limit the PSI accordingly. The plain language provides that, with respect to first-time felons and felons under the age of eighteen years, “[n]o sentence or sentences other than probation shall be imposed ... until after such investigation has first been made and the recommendations of the Department of Corrections received and considered by the sentencing judge.” The committee notes point to the mandatory nature of the PSI in those two instances, but comment: “[o]f course, no report is necessary where the specific sentence is mandatory, e.g., the sentence of death or life imprisonment in a verdict of first degree murder.”

Such was the case in Hargrave, where the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder, meaning life in prison or death were the only legal sentences that could have been imposed. 366 So.2d at 4. The supreme court reasoned that the trial court had no discretion to place the defendant on probation, and therefore no PSI was required. Hargrave relied on Thompson v. State, 328 So.2d 1 (Fla.1976), which held that “once the jury returns a verdict of first degree murder, the trial court is exempt from the mandatory presentence requirements of Rule 3.710.” 328 So.2d at 4.

Brunson also differs from this case because the juvenile felon in that case was before the trial court for sentencing following a violation of probation. 369 So.2d at 946. Brunson construed rule 3.710 “to allow the trial judge to exercise his discretion ... and sentence the juvenile as if he were a second felony offender over the age of eighteen.” Id. at 947. It did so based on Barber v. State, 293 So.2d 710 (Fla. 1974), which held that if a first-time felon is placed on probation and violates that probation, a PSI is not required before sentencing the felon to prison. Id. at 711-12.

We point out that Hargrave is a 1978 case, decided prior to the creation of mandatory minimum terms such as the one at issue in this case. § 893.135(1)(a)1., Fla. Stat. (2011); see also Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Exemplifying the Law of Unintended Consequences, 28 Fla. St. U.L. Rev. 935, 935-36 (2001) (noting mandatory mínimums became popular in the mid-1980s). It is significant in this case that the trial court did not impose the minimum mandatory three year term on count 1, but rather exercised its discretion to impose a ten year term, which was within the allowable range of three to thirty years. Had the court imposed only the minimum mandatory sentence, Hargrave suggests that no PSI would be required for count I.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 So. 3d 542, 2014 WL 1374046, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 5161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hernandez-v-state-fladistctapp-2014.