Brown v. State

• Decision Date: 30 August 1995
• Docket Number: 94-2411,Nos. 94-2304,s. 94-2304
• Citation: 659 So.2d 1260
• Parties: 20 Fla. L. Weekly D1958 Donald BROWN, a/k/a Donald Lewis, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 1260

659 So.2d 1260

20 Fla. L. Weekly D1958

Donald BROWN, a/k/a Donald Lewis, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Nos. 94-2304, 94-2411.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Fourth District.

Aug. 30, 1995.

Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Allen J. DeWeese, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Joseph A. Tringali, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

KLEIN, Judge.

Appellant argues that the trial court improperly revoked his community control because his original sentence, which was based on a plea, was illegal. Although his original sentence was illegal because it provides for incarceration, followed by community control, followed by probation, whereas the guidelines specify incarceration or community control, Felty v. State, 630 So.2d 1092 (Fla.1994), appellant never challenged his sentence when it was imposed. He therefore falls within the line of cases in which:

[S]entences imposed in violation of statutory requirements, which are to the benefit of the defendant and to which he agreed, may not be challenged after the defendant has accepted the benefits flowing from the plea, but has failed to carry out the conditions imposed on him.

Bashlor v. State, 586 So.2d 488, 489 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991), citing Clem v. State, 462 So.2d 1134, 1136 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984) (a defendant cannot complain, after revocation of probation, of the illegality of a sentence placing him on probation, because he accepted the benefits).

Appellant also argues that revocation was improper because it was based exclusively on hearsay testimony. While hearsay testimony is admissible in a revocation hearing, Couch v. State, 341 So.2d 285, 286 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977), a court cannot revoke probation based solely on hearsay. Adams v. State, 521 So.2d 337 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988). Here, the court found appellant guilty of changing his residence without permission, and the sole evidence supporting this was the testimony of appellant's community control officer, who testified that when she went to appellant's address to verify his residence, appellant's sister told her that appellant no longer lived there. Although there was non-hearsay evidence supporting the finding of two other violations, we must reverse because we can neither determine whether the trial court would have revoked appellant's probation for the other two violations alone, nor conclude whether his sentence would have been the same. Davis v. State, 474 So.2d 1246 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985).

In addition, the written order revoking probation recited six violations; but the court orally found appellant guilty of only three violations. Therefore, after remand, the order should be corrected so that it is not inconsistent with the court's oral pronouncement. Archie v. State, 558 So.2d 183 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990).

Affirmed in part and reversed in part.

DELL, J., concurs.

PARIENTE, J., concurs specially with opinion.

PARIENTE, Judge, concurring specially.

Defendant's argument is that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter the order revoking community control because the original sentence was an illegal sentence and thus defendant was never "legally" on community control. However, in my opinion it is important to focus on the nature of the illegality; specifically, we are not dealing with a jurisdictional flaw in the original sentence or a sentence which exceeded the statutory maximum.

In this case, d...