James Fowler v. State of Florida

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: April 2, 2025
• Docket: 4D2023-1739
• Status: Published

Opinion

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT

JAMES C. FOWLER, Appellant,

v.

STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.

No. 4D2023-1739

[April 2, 2025]

Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Peter Holden, Judge; L.T. Case No. 19-011424CF10A.

Daniel Eisinger, Public Defender, and Summer Hill, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Rachael Kaiman, Senior Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

James Fowler appeals the order revoking his probation and his sentence. We affirm in part without discussion but remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The circuit court ordered a competency evaluation of the defendant after finding he violated probation but before sentencing him. The court reviewed the expert’s report and discussed it at a hearing. Then, on two separate occasions, the court accepted the report and found the defendant competent to proceed. But a written order reflecting the court’s oral pronouncement was never entered into the record. We remand the case for the court to issue a written order that conforms to its oral finding of competency. See, e.g., Johnson v. State, 266 So. 3d 234, 236 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019).

The parties agree that the circuit court erred when it found the defendant violated his probation by not paying costs without determining that the defendant had the ability to pay. Banks v. State, 262 So. 3d 876, 877 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019). We remand with instructions for the circuit court to enter a new revocation order that does not include the conditions relating to the costs.

Affirmed in part and remanded for further proceedings.

CIKLIN, CONNER and KUNTZ, JJ., concur.

* * *

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.