Jesus Ruiz v. State of Florida

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: December 10, 2025
• Docket: 3D2024-2054
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed December 10, 2025. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D24-2054 Lower Tribunal No. F84-24737A ________________

Jesus Ruiz, Appellant,

vs.

State of Florida, Appellee.

An Appeal under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.141(b)(2) from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Laura Shearon Cruz, Judge.

The Law Office of Robert David Malove, P.A., and Robert David Malove and Hani Demetrious (Fort Lauderdale), for appellant.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and Linda Katz, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Before EMAS, LOGUE, and GORDO, JJ.

PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Albritton v. State, 476 So. 2d 158, 160 (Fla. 1985)

superseded on other grounds by ch. 87-110, § 2, Laws of Fla. (holding that

“when a departure sentence is grounded on both valid and invalid reasons []

the sentence should be reversed and the case remanded for resentencing

unless the state is able to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the absence

of the invalid reasons would not have affected the departure sentence.”);

Ruiz v. State, 516 So. 2d 1057, 1058 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987) (“Ruiz I”) (affirming

defendant’s sentence because the two invalid bases for an upward departure

were subsumed within the third basis (an escalating pattern of criminal

activity), and holding “it is clear to us . . . that the sentence would have been

the same without the invalid reasons”); see also Tundidor v. State, 221 So.

3d 587, 605 (Fla. 2017) (holding “the error is harmless if the record

conclusively shows that the trial court would have imposed the same

sentence using a corrected scoresheet.”).