Case ID: so3d_190/html/0215-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "STEVENSON, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Johnny Trevon COOK, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
    No. 4D14-3290.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
    April 27, 2016.
    
      Carey Háughwout, Public Defender, and Alan T. Lipson, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
    Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Melynda L. Melear, Senior Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
   STEVENSON, J.

Johnny Cook appeals his conviction of four counts of attempted second-degree murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of shooting a deadly missile, and one count of possession of a firearm by a minor, and his sentence of an aggregate ninety-three years in prison. We affirm his conviction, but reverse the sentence and remand for resentencing.

A life-without-parole sentence for a juvenile nonhomicide offender is unconstitutional, under the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 82, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010), as modified (July 6, 2010). The Florida Supreme Court has recently held that Graham also applies to aggregate term-of-years sentences. See Gridine v. State, 175 So.3d 672, 674-75 (Fla.2015) (holding juvenile’s aggregate seventy-year sentence for attempted first-degree murder unconstitutional under Graham), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 136 S.Ct. 1387, 194 L.Ed.2d 380 (2016); Henry v. State, 175 So.3d 675, 679-80 (Fla.2015) (holding juvenile’s aggregate ninety-year sentence unconstitutional under Graham), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 136 S.Ct. 1455, 194 L.Ed.2d 552 (2016). Specifically, the court held “Graham is implicated when a juvenile nonhomicide offender’s sentence dobs not' afford any ‘meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and' rehabilitation.’ ” Henry, 175 So.3d at 679 (quoting Graham, 560 U.S. at 75, 130 S.Ct. 2011).

Cook was a juvenile at the time of the commission of the crimes. The trial court sentenced him to an aggregate of ninety-three years imprisonment for non-homicide offenses. The sentence for each count was a mandatory minimum. His sentence did not give him a “meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation,” and thus was unconstitutional. See Graham, 560 U.S. at 75, 130 S,Ct. 2011. We therefore reverse Cook’s sentence and remand for resentencing in accordance with Gridine and Henry,

Reversed and remanded for resentenc-ing.

GROSS and FORST, JJ., concur.