Sainz v. State, 3D00-1979.

• Citation: 811 So.2d 683
• Decision Date: 13 March 2002
• Docket Number: No. 3D00-1979.,3D00-1979.
• Parties: Carlos SAINZ, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Florida (US)

811 So.2d 683

Carlos SAINZ, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 3D00-1979.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

March 13, 2002.

G. Richard Strafer, Miami, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Jill K. Traina, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Before COPE, GREEN and RAMIREZ, JJ.

On Rehearing Granted

COPE, J.

On consideration of the State's motion for rehearing, we withdraw the opinion dated November 28, 2001 and substitute the following opinion:

Carlos Sainz appeals his sentences, as well as the denial of his motion to withdraw his plea. We conclude that the State's cross-appeal is well taken, and that defendant-appellant Sainz must serve the term agreed to in the plea bargain.

I.

In 1987, three Colombian citizens were murdered in defendant's apartment in New Jersey. The Colombians were there in connection with a drug transaction.

After the murders, defendant fled to Florida. New Jersey soon arrested two other participants in the crimes (Andres Garcia and Jose Cabrera), and issued an arrest warrant for defendant.

In April 1988, City of Miami police officer James Hayden stopped defendant's car for a minor traffic infraction. Defendant got out of the car and shot the officer twice, wounding him seriously. Defendant was apprehended three days later in Miami. Defendant was charged with attempted first degree murder with a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm while engaged in a criminal offense, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The New Jersey authorities were notified that the defendant had been taken into custody. New Jersey personnel came to Florida and offered the defendant a plea bargain on the three New Jersey homicide charges. In exchange for his testimony against his New Jersey codefendants, defendant would receive a life sentence (parole eligible) with a thirty-year mandatory minimum sentence. Defendant had admitted to his Florida public defender that he personally had killed two of the Colombians.

Given that there were three homicides, the defendant's exposure in New Jersey was to a life sentence with three consecutive thirty-year mandatory minimum sentences, for a total mandatory minimum of ninety years. Defendant also had a theoretical exposure to the death penalty, although the death penalty had not been sought at the time of the plea. Defendant decided to accept the New Jersey offer.

With regard to the Florida charges, defendant agreed in substance to serve a mandatory thirty years concurrent with the anticipated New Jersey sentence. This was not to be shortened in the event that there was any subsequent action to reduce the New Jersey sentence. The New Jersey authorities were anxious to have the defendant transported immediately to New Jersey to assist in the prosecution of the two codefendants. There was a concern that if the Florida court imposed sentence on the defendant, this would result in his being transported to the Department of Corrections and could create a delay of several weeks before he could be transferred from the Florida Department of Corrections to the State of New Jersey. To avoid this problem, it was understood that the trial court would accept the guilty plea, but postpone sentencing. This would allow the defendant to go to New Jersey to testify, and then be returned to Florida for sentencing.

On May 6, 1988, the trial court accepted the plea in a thorough plea colloquy. The court entered judgment and the defendant was fingerprinted. The court scheduled September 8, 1988 for sentencing.

Defendant was transferred to New Jersey. The New Jersey authorities placed him in the same jail as codefendant Andres Garcia, against whom defendant was to testify. Garcia communicated threats to the defendant through an air duct. Defendant repudiated the plea agreement and refused to testify. New Jersey then prepared to prosecute defendant for the homicides as well as related drug and firearm charges.

New Jersey refused to return defendant to Florida for pronouncement of the Florida sentence. In 1989 the Florida court issued an alias capias which operated as a hold in New Jersey.

The New Jersey case against the defendant went to trial in 1994, at which time the defendant was convicted of drug and firearm charges but acquitted of the homicide charges. He was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment (parole eligible), with a ten-year mandatory minimum term.¹

In October 1995, defendant filed a motion in the Florida court to preclude his being sentenced in Florida. He contended that section 775.14, Florida Statutes, creates a five-year statute of limitations on sentencing. Defendant argued that since he had not been sentenced within the five-year period, he could not now be sentenced pursuant to his plea bargain and was entitled to be discharged from his Florida sentence. He argued alternatively that he should be allowed to withdraw from his plea or that his Florida sentence should be made coterminous with his New Jersey sentence. There were various hearings on these motions, but they were not resolved.

In 1999, New Jersey paroled the defendant and he was transferred to Florida. In 2000, a successor Florida judge conducted an evidentiary hearing on defendant's requests for relief.

The trial court rejected the defendant's claim that his sentencing was time-barred under section 775.14, and also rejected the defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. However, the court ruled that the Florida sentence would be coterminous with the New Jersey sentence, which is presently scheduled to expire in May 2003.

The defendant has appealed, contending that he is entitled to be relieved entirely of his obligations under the Florida plea bargain. The State has cross-appealed, arguing that the agreement for a thirty-year sentence for attempted murder of the police officer should be enforced.

II.

The defendant argues that he should be released because the sentence he agreed to was not formally pronounced until over five years after the plea bargain was accepted by the court. The defendant relies on section 775.14, Florida Statutes, for this proposition. The trial court rejected this argument, and so do we.

A.

Section 775.14 provides:

775.14 Limitation on withheld sentences. —Any person receiving a with-held sentence upon conviction for a criminal offense, and such withheld sentence has not been altered for a period of 5 years, shall not thereafter be sentenced for the conviction of the same crime for which sentence was originally withheld.

(Emphasis added).

By its plain words, this statute says that if a defendant receives a withheld sentence (this defendant did not), and that withheld sentence has not been altered, then the defendant shall not thereafter be sentenced for the same crime for which sentence was originally withheld.

It is important to understand the reason for the existence of this statute. Prior to the enactment of the Florida probation statute in 1941, the trial court would place a defendant on probation by simply withholding sentence. Typically the trial court would order that "`... the passing of sentence herein be deferred from day to day and term to term until finally disposed of and the Court herein expressly reserves jurisdiction of this cause to impose sentence herein at a later date as the Court may deem advisable.'" Bateh v. State, 101 So.2d 869, 870 (Fla. 1st DCA 1958), cert. discharged with opinion, 110 So.2d 7 (Fla.1959); see also Helton v. State, 106 So.2d 79 (Fla.1958)

; Vernon W. Clark, Probation in the Criminal Courts of Florida, 14 Fla. L.Rev. 213, 218-25 (1961).

Under this procedure, the withheld sentence was, in fact, the sentence. An order withholding sentence was an order for unsupervised probation. Vernon W. Clark, supra, 14 Fla. L.Rev. at 218. If the defendant committed another crime, the court could revoke the order withholding sentence, and impose any lawful sentence. Helton, 106 So.2d at 80. This system of withholding sentence persisted well into 1950's. See id.

The system of withholding sentence was subject to abuse, because sentencing could be withheld indefinitely. In Helton, for example, the trial court had withheld sentencing for twelve years, even though the offense only carried a five-year legal maximum. Id. at 80-81.

In this setting, the 1957 legislature enacted section 775.14. The statute provided, as already stated, that if a person received a withheld sentence and the withheld sentence was not altered for five years, the defendant could not thereafter be sentenced for the conviction of the crime on which the sentence was withheld. The statutory purpose was to impose a five-year maximum on probation imposed by the withholding of sentence.²

B.

In State v. Gazda, 257 So.2d 242 (Fla. 1971), the Florida Supreme Court applied the statute to sentencing where the defendant pled guilty and left the sentencing decision to the court. The trial court accepted the plea but directed that "`adjudication and sentence be withheld and a presentence investigation be ordered.'" Id. at 243. The defendant was transported to the state tuberculosis hospital for examination and care, with instructions to return him to the court when cured. Instead the defendant absconded and was not found for a period of more than five years.

The Gazda court concluded that section 775.14 was applicable, apparently because the trial court had entered an order stating that the court was withholding sentence. However, the court decided that the defendant was not entitled to any relief under the statute because the defendant had fled from Florida. The court ruled that the statute was tolled during defendant's absence from the state.

The important point about Gazda is that it overturned the district court of appeal's ruling that section 775.14 is absolute and allows no exceptions. The Florida Supreme Court reasoned that the defendant could not be allowed to profit from his...