Case Name: Tobias BARFIELD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1990-08-01
Citations: 564 So. 2d 616
Docket Number: No. 88-3269
Parties: Tobias BARFIELD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: WARNER, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 564
Pages: 616–617

Head Matter:
Tobias BARFIELD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 88-3269.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
Aug. 1, 1990.
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Joseph S. Shook, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Carol Cobourn Asbury, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
GARRETT, Judge.
Appellant seeks review of his cocaine conspiracy to traffic and attempted trafficking convictions and sentences.
We affirm the convictions and sentences, but write to address the trial judge's upward departure from the sentencing guidelines.
As the result of a previous crime, on February 27, 1987, appellant pled guilty to trafficking in cocaine and received a two year prison sentence as a youthful offender. On January 5, 1988, he was released into a supervisory program.
The trial judge wrote the following as his basis for the upward sentence departure:
3. The substantive offenses for which the Defendant now stands convicted occurred on April 5, 1990. Since the Defendant was recently released from prison at the time he committed the substantive offense, the Court finds cause to aggravate his sentence. Furthermore, the Defendant is found to be a continuing threat to the community and appears to show absolutely no sign of rehabilitation since he has committed another Trafficking in Cocaine offense within a very short time of his release from prison.
This court in Mauney v. State, 553 So.2d 707 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989), upheld an upward departure "where only 'a short period of time' ha[d] transpired between the crime at issue and release from incarceration for some other transgression." Id. at 707 (emphasis added); citing, Lee v. State, 537 So.2d 704 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) (other citations omitted). We note that only ninety days separated appellant's prison release and his new crime for the same transgression. Our supreme court in State v. Jones, 530 So.2d 53, 55 (Fla.1988), held that the temporal proximity of crimes can be a valid reason for departure when the timing of an offense relates to prior offenses and the release from incarceration or other supervision. Here appellant committed the same crime before and shortly after his period of incarceration and supervision.
We affirm appellant's convictions and sentences, however, we certify the following question to be of great public importance:
DOES THE TEMPORAL PROXIMITY OF CRIMES ALONE PROVIDE A VALID REASON FOR DEPARTURE FROM THE SENTENCING GUIDELINES WITHOUT A FINDING OF A PERSISTENT PATTERN OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT?
AFFIRMED.
WARNER, J., concurs.
DELL, J., specially concurs with opinion.