Leopard v. State
| Decision Date | 31 July 1986 |
| Docket Number | BG-10,Nos. BG-9,s. BG-9 |
| Citation | 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1662,491 So.2d 1284 |
| Parties | 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1662 David Brett LEOPARD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Michael E. Allen, Public Defender, Steven L. Bolotin, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Royall P. Terry, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
David Leopard appeals his sentences for first degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, escape and kidnapping, asserting that the trial court erred in departing from the recommended guidelines sentence. We affirm.
The murder and robbery victim, a Panama City doctor whose house doubled as a medical clinic, was found with 21 stab and puncture wounds in his blood-spattered residence amid evidence that his drug cabinet had been rifled. Appellant was arrested in Daytona Beach, asleep in the victim's stolen truck. Bloody palm prints and a bloody footprint found at the crime scene connected him to the crimes. He and two other inmates subsequently escaped from the Bay County Jail after overpowering a guard, but were recaptured. Appellant pled nolo contendere to all four charges.
The first degree murder conviction was not included in the determination of the guidelines recommended sentence of 12-17 years for the other three offenses. The trial judge sentenced appellant to life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum 25 years without parole for the first degree murder. He departed from the recommended sentence and imposed consecutive life sentences for the armed robbery and the kidnapping, and a consecutive 15 year sentence for the escape.
The trial judge gave eight written reasons for departure, including the fact that a capital felony (first degree murder) was committed prior to the commission of the crimes for which appellant was being sentenced, and that the first degree murder and armed robbery were committed "in a most brutal fashion by beating and stabbing the victim to death in his own home."
Following the trial judge's recitation of the reasons for departure, the prosecutor queried, "Your honor, do you also find anyone (sic) of those reasons is sufficient to justify departure from the guidelines?" The trial judge replied,
Appellant asserts that, because the trial judge's reasons for departure were "word-for-word identical" to reasons given by the prosecutor in a letter to the judge two days before the sentencing hearing, the trial judge did not properly discharge his responsibility for articulating clear and convincing reasons for departure, citing Carnegie v. State, 473 So.2d 782 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985) and Boynton v. State, 473 So.2d 703 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985).
The fact that the court employed language very similar to that used in the assistant state attorney's letter does not, in and of itself, demonstrate that the court delegated any of its required functions to the prosecutor. However, we emphasize the responsibility of the trial judge to provide clear and concise written reasons for departure after careful consideration of the appropriate aggravating and mitigating factors. This duty is not met by a mere "rubber stamp" by the trial judge of reasons articulated by one of the parties, without careful consideration of...
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Eldridge v. State, 87-1236
...So.2d 649 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986) and see the dissent to Tuthill v. State, 518 So.2d 1300, 1303 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987).7 See Leopard v. State, 491 So.2d 1284 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Smith v. State, 454 So.2d 90 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984) (capital felony not scored as additional offense valid reason for depart......
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Seccia v. State, 1D97-3046.
...DCA 1987); Smith v. State, 501 So.2d 139 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987); Davis v. State, 493 So.2d 82, 83 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Leopard v. State, 491 So.2d 1284, 1286 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986). Although these cases construe the pre-1994 guidelines, those guidelines also provided that "[a]ll other offenses for......
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Monzon v. State, 93-2143
...4th DCA 1989); Kelly v. State, 546 So.2d 441 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989); Cridland v. State, 522 So.2d 538 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988); Leopard v. State, 491 So.2d 1284 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986). ...
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State v. Coley, 86-1250
...Allen v. State, 12 F.L.W. 1505 (Fla. 4th DCA June 17, 1987); Williams v. State, 500 So.2d 604 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986); Leopard v. State, 491 So.2d 1284 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Webster v. State, 461 So.2d 965 (Fla.2d DCA 1984); Mincey v. State, 460 So.2d 396 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Smith v. State, 454......