Case ID: so2d_767/html/0492-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "BROWNING, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

James Edward SCAIFE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
    No. 1D99-30.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
    May 17, 2000.
    
      Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender; and Archie F. Gardner, Jr., Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.
    Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General; Lori D. Stith and L. Michael Billmeier, Assistant Attorneys General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
   BROWNING, J.

Edward Scaife (Appellant) appeals the trial court’s reclassification of his second-degree felony aggravated battery conviction, as a first-degree felony for sentencing purposes. Appellant was convicted of “aggravated battery with great bodily harm or with a firearm.” Appellant argues that the alternative manner in which the aggravated battery was charged allowed the jury to convict on a theory of aggravated battery with great bodily harm or aggravated battery with a firearm and, under such circumstances, reclassification is improper.. We agree and reverse.

Reclassification of an aggravated battery conviction from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony is error when it is unclear from the verdict form whether a defendant was found guilty of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, for which reclassification is available, or aggravated battery with the use of a firearm, for which reclassification is not available because use of a firearm is an essential element of the offense. See Montgomery v. State, 704 So.2d 548 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997); McNeal v. State, 653 So.2d 1122 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995). In the case at bar, the jury’s verdict provided that Appellant was: “Guilty of aggravated battery with great bodily harm or with a firearm.” Because it is unclear from the verdict form whether the jury convicted Appellant of aggravated battery with use of a firearm, or aggravated battery with great bodily harm, reclassification was error. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for resentencing under a corrected sentencing guidelines scoresheet. Upon re-sentencing, as agreed by the parties in their briefs, Appellant should receive a three-year minimum mandatory sentence for the use of a firearm.

REVERSED and REMANDED.

MINER and BENTON, JJ., CONCUR.