Shelton v. State
| Citation | 59 So.3d 248 |
| Decision Date | 18 May 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 4D08–4813.,4D08–4813. |
| Parties | Riley James SHELTON, III, Appellant,v.STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Terry P. Roberts of Law Office of Terry P. Roberts, Tallahassee, for appellant.Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Myra J. Fried, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.GERBER, J.
A jury convicted the defendant of home invasion with a firearm and attempted sexual battery with threat of force. The circuit court sentenced the defendant to life in prison on the home invasion charge and to a concurrent fifteen years in prison on the attempted sexual battery charge. In this appeal, the defendant argues that the circuit court used his lack of remorse against him in imposing the life sentence on the home invasion charge and thereby committed error. We find that the court did not use the defendant's lack of remorse against him in imposing the life sentence. Therefore, we affirm.
We provide the court's entire statement from the sentencing hearing to put in context the court's discussion regarding the defendant's lack of remorse:
Okay sir, based on the jury verdict in this case, on Count 1 home invasion robbery with a firearm as charged, I'll adjudicate you guilty of that offense. Count 2 attempted sexual battery ... on a ... person of 12 years of age or older with threat of force as charged, I'll adjudicate you guilty of that offense. You know ... it's interesting, I've ... read through the PSI, I've listened to all the comments here today, and I certainly feel very badly for your mother. No ... parent should ever have to be in a position of standing in a courtroom watching one of their children enduring something like this, but, you know, the interesting thing is [the victim] regardless of ... her age, she's somebody else's child as well, and she did not have to go through all of this. I think the testimony left no question that this crime occurred and it occurred the way that she ... described it.... I tend to agree with [the prosecutor], I think those masks came off because ... I don't think [the victim] was supposed to survive this incident. I'm not sentencing on that basis ... I think it's an appropriate ... conclusion to reach ... but I'm not sentencing on that basis. I am, however, considering the testimony as it was presented and this lady, quite frankly, for lack of a better way to characterize it, was terrorized in that household and these men ran after her when she tried to escape and brought her back at gunpoint to the house to terrorize her some more. I'm looking at a prior record here and at the ripe old age of 19, let's see, I have one, two, three, four, five, six prior convictions, three of them are felonies. Most of these convictions are either for weapons offense[s] or crimes of violence. I've heard absolutely no recognition whatsoever on [the defendant's] behalf that he's done anything wrong, that he feels any remorse in the least for what was done to this lady. I remember her testimony, I have notes of it, in which she broke down what each of the individuals did and quite frankly I do think that she's lucky to be alive and to have lived ... through this. And based on that sir, I ... think based on your record and based on this conduct, you have forfeited your right to remain out with us and I will sentence you on Count 1 to life imprisonment...
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