FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL

STATE OF FLORIDA

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No. 1D17-554

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AHMAD GARY SHEAFFERS,

Appellant,

v.

STATE OF FLORIDA,

Appellee.

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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Escambia County.

John L. Miller, Judge.

April 17, 2018

RAY, J.

Appellant, Ahmad Gary Sheaffers, challenges consecutive

twenty-year sentences for two counts of aggravated assault with 

the discharge of a firearm, which were imposed at resentencing 

after this Court reversed his original sentences in light of Williams 

v. State, 186 So. 3d 989, 993 (Fla. 2016) (holding that when 

“multiple firearm offenses are committed contemporaneously, 

during which time multiple victims are shot at, then consecutive 

sentencing is permissible but not mandatory”). See Sheaffers v. 

State, 199 So. 3d 569 (Fla. 1st DCA 2016). Appellant raises two 

issues on appeal, neither of which merits reversal. We write only 

to address his argument that the 2016 version of section 

775.087(2)(a), Florida Statutes, also referred to as the “10-20-Life” 
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statute, applied at the time he was resentenced for crimes he 

committed before the 2016 amendment. 

Appellant argues that the postconviction court should have 

granted his motion to correct sentencing error contending that the 

2016 version of the 10-20-Life statute applied to his resentencing 

because his sentences were not final before the law’s effective date. 

At the time of his offenses in 2014, aggravated assault was

included as an enumerated felony requiring a mandatory 

minimum sentence of twenty years when a firearm was discharged 

during the commission of the felony. § 775.087(2)(a), Fla. Stat. 

(2013). Effective July 1, 2016, aggravated assault was removed 

from the list of enumerated felonies for which mandatory 

minimum sentences are required. See Ch. 2016-7, § 1, at 1, Laws 

of Fla. (2016). Appellant submits that because aggravated assault 

was no longer an enumerated felony at the time of his resentencing 

hearing in 2017, the mandatory minimum sentence should not 

have applied to him. 

Whether section 775.087, Florida Statutes (2016), applies to 

Appellant’s sentences is a question of law that we review de novo. 

See Smiley v. State, 966 So. 2d 330, 333 (Fla. 2007). The Florida 

Constitution prohibits the amendment or repeal of criminal 

statutes from affecting the “prosecution or punishment for any 

crime previously committed.” Art. X, §9, Fla. Const. We have 

previously explained,

The effect of this constitutional provision is to give all 

criminal legislation a prospective effectiveness; that is to 

say, the repeal or amendment, by subsequent legislation, 

of a pre-existing criminal statute does not become 

effective, either as a repeal or as an amendment of such 

pre-existing statute, in so far as offenses are concerned

that have been already committed prior to the taking 

effect of such repealing or amending law. 

Davis v. State, 892 So. 2d 518, 519 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004) (quoting 

Raines v. State, 28 So. 57, 58 (Fla. 1900)). See also State v. Battle, 

661 So. 2d 38, 39 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995) (“The controlling statute for 

punishment is the statute in effect at the time of the commission 

of the crime.”). 
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Contrary to Appellant’s argument, it is the date of the 

commission of the crime, not the date the sentence becomes final, 

that dictates which punishment statute applies. As the 

postconviction court correctly ruled, the sentences imposed in 2017 

were controlled by the statute in effect at the time of Appellant’s 

offenses. Accordingly, the sentences are AFFIRMED.

B.L. THOMAS, C.J., and WOLF, J., concur.

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Not final until disposition of any timely and 

authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 

9.331.

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Andy Thomas, Public Defender, and Megan Long, Assistant Public 

Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Daniel Krumbholz, 

Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.