Ciambrone v. State

• Decision Date: 18 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. 2D05-2205.,2D05-2205.
• Citation: 938 So.2d 550
• Parties: Heather CIAMBRONE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

938 So.2d 550

Heather CIAMBRONE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 2D05-2205.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

August 18, 2006.

Rehearing Denied October 6, 2006.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Michael Ufferman, Special Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Richard M. Fishkin, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

NORTHCUTT, Judge.

In 1995 a grand jury indicted Heather Ciambrone for first-degree felony murder in connection with the death of her son. She was declared incompetent for trial and committed to the Florida State Hospital for treatment. Ciambrone eventually regained her competency, and in 2001, she agreed to plead no contest to second-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of fifty-five years' imprisonment. Subsequently, she sought to withdraw her plea in a motion filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. She alleged that her plea was involuntary and that counsel had been ineffective in several ways. The circuit court denied her motion after an evidentiary hearing, and she has appealed. We agree with Ciambrone's contention that her plea was involuntary due to her counsel's incorrect advice regarding the amount of time she might expect to serve in prison under the gain time rules then in effect. Accordingly, we reverse with directions to permit her to withdraw her plea. The other issues Ciambrone raises have no merit and we will not discuss them further.

Ciambrone's son died in May 1995. Her eligibility for gain time is thus determined under section 944.275(4)(c)(2), Florida Statutes (1993), which states:

For sentences imposed for offenses committed on or after January 1, 1994, for offenses which are, were, or would have been ranked on the offense severity chart in s. 921.0012 in:

* * *

2. Levels 8, 9, and 10, up to 20 days of incentive gain-time, which shall be credited and applied monthly.

The evidence at the rule 3.850 hearing established that a key consideration in Ciambrone's decision to accept the State's plea offer was her ability to shorten her imprisonment by earning gain time. Her trial counsel testified that Ciambrone initially rejected the State's fifty-five-year offer because she did not want to spend that much time in prison. Counsel telephoned the Department of Corrections to ask how much time an inmate sentenced to fifty-five years' imprisonment for a crime committed in May 1995 might actually serve. A DOC employee told him that, with gain time, the inmate would serve between sixteen and eighteen years. Counsel relayed this information to Ciambrone. At the same time, he cautioned her that the information might not be accurate, that the award of gain time was strictly the prerogative of the DOC, and that she was not guaranteed a particular sentence.

Ciambrone testified that she had first rejected the State's offer of fifty-five years' imprisonment because, at her age, she saw no difference between that sentence and life imprisonment, the penalty she faced if she were convicted after a trial. But when counsel related the DOC employee's advice that her actual imprisonment might amount to around sixteen years, she began to change her mind. Counsel reminded her that she would receive six years of credit for her pretrial confinement. Thus, Ciambrone believed that she could be eligible for release from prison after about ten years. She testified that this possibility was the most significant factor in her decision to enter the plea agreement.

We note that confusion about the effect of gain time apparently was wide-spread at the time of Ciambrone's plea. Section 944.275(4), Florida Statutes (2001), set forth many different ways to calculate the time that could be awarded, based on the date of the prisoner's crime and the severity of the offense. According to testimony at the postconviction hearing, during that period it was not uncommon for defense attorneys to ask the DOC for estimates of the time their clients might serve based on particular sentences. See, e.g., Jones v. State, 834 So.2d 226 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002) (noting that trial counsel testified at the defendant's rule 3.850 hearing that she had telephoned the DOC to inquire about Jones's eligibility for gain time). And, in fact, the prosecutor at Ciambrone's rule 3.850 hearing thought that the information defense counsel had relayed to Ciambrone was accurate. After the initial hearing, the prosecutor contacted the DOC to ask how gain time was calculated. He then moved to reopen the evidentiary hearing so that a DOC representative could explain the rules and how the department computed gain time.

At the reopened hearing, a DOC correctional services administrator confirmed that Ciambrone was eligible for twenty days per month gain time based on a thirty-day month. See § 944.275(4)(c)(2), Fla. Stat. (1993). But this did not mean that she would serve only one-third of the imposed sentence. When a prisoner is first incarcerated, the DOC establishes a tentative release date based on the premise that he or she will serve every day of the sentence. The inmate must serve a month before receiving gain time for that month. The sentence is then reduced by the gain time awarded, and the inmate's tentative release date is adjusted accordingly. In other words, the inmate earns gain time, and his or her release date is adjusted, month by month as the sentence is served. The DOC administrator determined that someone in Ciambrone's position who was awarded the maximum gain time allowable...