Westbrook v. State
| Decision Date | 12 February 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-3017,89-3017 |
| Citation | 574 So.2d 1187,16 Fla. L. Weekly 454 |
| Parties | 16 Fla. L. Weekly 454 Edward WESTBROOK, Appellant, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Elliot H. Scherker, Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Monique T. Befeler, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and NESBITT and LEVY, JJ.
Defendant was convicted of robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment as a habitual offender. He claims error in his sentence. We affirm based on the following analysis.
Defendant's basic premise is that the robbery with a deadly weapon statute, § 812.13(2)(a), Fla.Stat. (1989), which he violated is a first-degree felony punishable by life imprisonment. Thus, he claims, the court erred in sentencing him under the habitual offender statute, § 775.084(4)(a), Fla.Stat. (1989), because that statute does not provide for the enhancement of life felonies. He cites Barber v. State, 564 So.2d 1169 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), to support this theory.
We find that neither the applicable statutes nor Barber supports his argument. First, the robbery statute on its face permits sentencing under the habitual offender statute. Even though conviction under section 812.13(2)(a) is a first-degree felony punishable by life imprisonment, the trial judge is required to enter a guidelines sentence. In defendant's case, his guidelines scoresheet total provided for a recommended sentence of twelve to seventeen years, not life imprisonment. The defendant's highest permitted sentence under the guidelines, without the necessity of written reasons for departure, would have been twenty-two years imprisonment with a one-cell upward departure. However, because the robbery statute permits sentencing under the habitual offender statute where applicable, the trial judge, upon finding the defendant recidivist, was permitted to impose the enhanced life sentence.
Secondly, the statement in Barber, 564 So.2d at 1173, concerning the possible nonapplicability of the habitual offender statute to those convicted of a first degree life felony is purely dicta. Moreover, Barber is not controlling here since the habitual offender statute addressed in that case was the 1987 version which was substantially rewritten by the Florida Legislature in 1989 to take penalties prescribed under the habitual offender statute outside the...
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...Florida Supreme Court's recent holding in Burdick v. State, 594 So.2d 267 (Fla.1992), and this Court's holdings in Westbrook v. State, 574 So.2d 1187 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991) and Henry v. State, 576 So.2d 409 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991). Thus, as to that offense, we note an alternative basis for affirming......
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Hayes v. State, 91-2067
...So.2d 50 (Fla.1992); Newton; Tucker v. State, 576 So.2d 931 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991), approved, 595 So.2d 956 (Fla.1992); Westbrook v. State, 574 So.2d 1187 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991), approved, 595 So.2d 50 (Fla.1992); Paige v. State, 570 So.2d 1108 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990) and Young v. State, 600 So.2d 24 ......
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Burdick v. State, 90-619
...by simply making a determination that the defendant fit the statutory definition of an habitual felony offender. Westbrook v. State, 574 So.2d 1187 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991). In essence, appellant here asks us to judicially amend Section 775.081, Florida Statutes to add another classification of f......
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West v. State, 90-2208
...in regard to first-degree felonies punishable by life. Accord Newton v. State, 581 So.2d 212 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991); Westbrook v. State, 574 So.2d 1187 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991); Paige v. State, 570 So.2d 1108 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990). Accordingly, we affirm appellant's sentences on his convictions for th......