State v. Lyles
| Decision Date | 07 March 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 75878,75878 |
| Citation | 576 So.2d 706,16 Fla. L. Weekly 197 |
| Parties | 16 Fla. L. Weekly 197 STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Randy LYLES, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Bradley R. Bischoff, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for petitioner.
Nancy Daniels, Public Defender and Nancy L. Showalter, Asst. Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, for respondent.
The State of Florida petitions this Court to review Lyles v. State, 559 So.2d 370 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), in which the First District Court of Appeal affirmed Lyles' aggravated battery conviction but reversed and remanded as to the guidelines departure sentence on the basis of Ree v. State, 14 F.L.W. 565 (Fla. Nov. 16, 1989), withdrawn and superseded by 565 So.2d 1329 (Fla.1990). The district court certified the following question as a matter of great public importance:
Whether a sentence must be reversed and remanded for resentencing pursuant to the options provided in Ree v. State, 14 F.L.W. 565 (Fla. Nov. 16, 1989), when there is no significant difference between the reasons for departure from the guidelines which were orally pronounced at the imposition of sentence and the written reasons which were entered the same day or within a few days of the imposition of sentence?
Subsequent to the decision of the First District Court of Appeal and certification of this question, we withdrew our initial opinion reported at 14 F.L.W. 565 and substituted the final opinion, Ree v. State, 565 So.2d 1329 (Fla.1990). The initial opinion was changed on rehearing to expressly state that the Ree opinion "shall only be applied prospectively." Id. at 1331. Lyles was sentenced on April 7, 1989, while our final opinion in Ree was filed on July 19, 1990. Consequently, Ree does not apply and that part of the district court's decision reversing and remanding for resentencing must be quashed with directions to affirm Lyles' sentence.
This certified question, however, presents a different factual situation from that contained in Ree, which the district court believed required clarification. The question asks that we determine whether the reasons for departure from the guidelines, which were orally pronounced at the imposition of the sentence, and the written reasons, which were entered the same day or a few days after the imposition of the sentence, should be considered to be contemporaneous in accordance with Ree. We find that the question presented should be addressed in order to clarify the responsibilities of trial judges in imposing departure sentences. In this case, we find that the reasons for departure from the sentencing guidelines were set forth contemporaneously with the sentence, and our Ree decision should be modified to allow this holding.
The sentencing hearing was held in this cause on April 7, 1989, and testimony and argument were received from both the state and the defense. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial judge stated:
With regard to the matters brought to the attention of this Court, specifically those matters set forth in the notice of intent to seek departure above sentencing guidelines where it is alleged that certain threats were made to Ms. Carmony, I'm going to find that as a matter of fact that those threats were, in fact, made to Ms. Carmony during the--prior to the trial of this cause, based upon the evidence adduced at this hearing. I think the law is clear that those are valid grounds.
Further, it is my intention to exceed the sentencing guidelines based upon that reason set forth in the notice of intent to seek departure above sentencing guidelines and also in the state's amended notice to seek intent to--to seek departure from the guidelines, that that reason has been proven by means of the two judgments and sentences or certified copies of judgments and sentences that have been entered into evidence and the fact that he was convicted of three separate misdemeanors during the time from his arrest until his conviction for the offense for which he stands before the Court, that those also would constitute a valid reason to exceed the guidelines in this particular case.
I will set forth those reasons in a written order as required by the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure.
(Emphasis added.) The final judgment adjudicating guilt was entered and filed on the appropriate sentencing judgment form on that date. The trial judge then did what he stated he would do; he prepared a written "Statement for Reasons for Departure from Sentencing Guidelines," which read as follows:
The Defendant was before the Court this date for sentencing in the above-styled cause, the Defendant having been found guilty of Aggravated Battery. At the sentencing hearing, the Court invited testimony and arguments in mitigation. The Court also heard arguments from the State and Defense regarding the issue as to whether the Court should depart from the recommended sentence of 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years under the sentencing guidelines. The purpose of this Statement is to manifest the Court's exercise of its authority to depart from the sentence recommended under the sentencing guidelines, and to state the Court's justification therefore.
The justification for the Court's departure from the sentencing guidelines is a[s] follows:
1. The Defendant threatened Cynthia Carmony, a witness in the instant case. These threats included, but were not limited to, a confrontation approximately two (2...
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