Hummel v. State

128 So. 3d 127, 2013 WL 5729822, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 16768
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedOctober 23, 2013
DocketNo. 4D11-4895
StatusPublished

This text of 128 So. 3d 127 (Hummel 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
Hummel v. State, 128 So. 3d 127, 2013 WL 5729822, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 16768 (Fla. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Robert Hummel appeals a final order denying his rule 3.850 motion after an evidentiary hearing, on remand from a prior summary denial. We reverse and direct the trial court on remand to resen-tenee him for violating his community control in L.T. case no. 03-2284 in accordance with the negotiated plea agreement that the trial court vacated prior to giving him a significantly longer sentence.

Hummel entered a no contest plea to delivery of cocaine in his 2003 case and was on community control when an affidavit of violation of community control (VOCC) was filed against him, alleging only technical violations. In March 2005, [128]*128he executed a written agreement providing for him to plead no contest in return for a sentence of 61.05 months concurrent with the same sentence for L.T. case no. OS-424, in which he was charged with a new offense, robbery with a weapon. During the plea colloquy, the trial court found the knowing voluntary waiver of rights and a factual basis to accept the plea, but deferred sentencing until the afternoon. Nothing in the written plea agreement conditioned the plea on Hummel’s testifying against his co-defendant in the robbery case, and nothing was said during the colloquy about such a condition.

At the afternoon hearing, after initially sentencing Hummel to 61.05 months, the trial court stated that part of the condition for the resolution was that, if subpoenaed, Hummel would give truthful testimony in the robbery matter. When Hummel insisted he would not be testifying, the prosecuting attorney indicated that if the state was not to have his testimony, then there was no inducement for the plea offer. The trial court declared the plea to be vacated. Following a VOCC hearing, the trial court found Hummel guilty, revoked his community control, and sentenced him to the statutory maximum of fifteen years. Thereafter, a jury acquitted him of the robbery; the co-defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to life.

In the instant rule 3.850 motion, Hum-mel raised three claims of ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to object to: (1) the trial court’s withdrawing the plea; (2) the prosecutor and the court’s adding a condition to the plea that was not part of the written or oral plea agreement; and (3) his resentencing. The trial court summarily denied the motion, Hummel appealed, and this court reversed. Hummel v. State, 34 So.3d 788 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010).

This court’s opinion in the prior appeal reads in pertinent part as follows:

The record does not conclusively refute Hummel’s position that he never agreed to testify against his co-defendant as a condition of the plea agreement. The record contains no written plea agreement containing the condition that he testify against a co-defendant. No such condition was imposed before his plea was accepted and he was sentenced. If the plea agreement contained that condition, the judge should have been advised it was part of the agreement before the plea was accepted. Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.170(g)(1) (“Whenever a plea agreement requires the defendant to comply with some specific terms, those terms shall be expressly made a part of the plea entered into in open court.”). Then, if Hummel failed to comply with his agreement, the state could have moved to withdraw from the plea pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(g)(2). See, e.g., Spencer v. State, 623 So.2d 1211 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993) (reversing sentence in excess of initial sentence imposed pursuant to plea agreement, where plea agreement required defendant to testify truthfully if required, but, after original sentencing, defendant gave a statement that was less favorable to the state than the one he had given before entering the plea agreement, and state requested a higher sentence based on defendant’s breach of plea agreement; finding defendant did not breach agreement and reversing for resentencing).
This case is most like McCoy v. State, 599 So.2d 645 (Fla.1992), in which the supreme court held that where the terms of the plea agreement allegedly violated were not part of the court record, a trial court could not vacate a plea and sentence already entered and impose a harsher sentence. The court or[129]*129dered the original sentence to be reinstated.
The state’s position, that the condition of testifying had been clearly conveyed to Hummel prior to the plea proceedings, is not a matter of record. Cf. McFord v. State, 877 So.2d 874, 877 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004) (affirming conviction and sentence, where the trial judge made the terms of the substantial assistance agreement “crystal clear” during the plea colloquy and the evidence supported the conclusion that defendant violated the agreement). In this case, the factual question of whether Hummel was aware of the condition before entering the plea should be resolved in the course of an evidentiary hearing.
Accordingly, we reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Id. at 790-91 (footnote omitted; emphasis added).

On remand, the trial court held an evi-dentiary hearing to resolve the factual question of whether Hummel was aware of the condition of testifying at the co-defendant’s trial before entering the plea. The court heard testimony from Hummel and from the attorney who had been appointed to represent him at the time of the plea.

According to Hummel, the first time he heard he would have to testify was not until the afternoon hearing when the trial court said it. He maintained he knew nothing about testifying against a co-defendant before his plea agreement was signed. He testified that while counsel might have agreed to such a condition, it was not conveyed to him.1

Hummel’s prior attorney testified to remembering the prosecutor saying he wanted to know what Hummel knew about the robbery, but he did not specify any particular information. Though Hummel’s prior attorney expressed reluctance in using the term “condition,” he testified he would have presented the prosecutor’s request to Hummel — however, at the hearing, he had no independent recollection of doing so. He did testify that he spoke to Hummel after the morning session, to tell Hummel that the prosecutor would like some information about the co-defendant, and that Hummel would have to give information if the prosecutor asked for it. But when he was asked specifically whether he told Hummel that “prior to the plea,” he replied as follows:

Well, I would like to believe I always tell the truth in the courtroom, that’s why I said I would like to believe that. I specifically recall ... I told him if you know something you got to tell [the prosecutor], that’s something [the prosecutor] is requiring. I don’t know if Robert heard me, maybe there was an issue where he didn’t understand what I was talking about, that I can’t speculate to but I do know for a fact I told him.

When asked why he was saying he did not know if Hummel heard him, Hummel’s prior attorney continued to describe the event as follows:

The way you and I are speaking, no. I was seated right next to him in the box because he was in custody, I know there’s always a lot of action going on in [the] courtroom especially in the morning session, and I know I sat next to him and I said Robert, the guy, meaning [the prosecutor], wants some information and he said, okay, or something to that affect [sic].

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Related

Hummel v. State
34 So. 3d 788 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2010)
Spencer v. State
623 So. 2d 1211 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1993)
McFord v. State
877 So. 2d 874 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2004)
McCoy v. State
599 So. 2d 645 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1992)
Derrick v. State
983 So. 2d 443 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2008)

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Bluebook (online)
128 So. 3d 127, 2013 WL 5729822, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 16768, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hummel-v-state-fladistctapp-2013.