Opinion ID: 1681659
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Rodriguez Disapproved

Text: Given this reading of the PRR Act, we disapprove the Second District's decision in Rodriguez. As noted earlier, we accepted jurisdiction of this case based on express and direct conflict between that decision and the Fifth District's decision in Reeves. In Rodriguez, the Second District held that standard (CPC) sentences could not run consecutively to a PRR sentence where the crimes arose out of the same episode. 883 So.2d at 909. The Second District stated: Mr. Rodriguez's current sentences reflect a five-year minimum mandatory term of imprisonment [as a prison releasee reoffender] for aggravated assault, followed by concurrent standard five-year sentences for three counts of felony batteryin other words, a ten-year total sentence with a five-year minimum mandatory term. Based on Kiedrowski v. State, 876 So.2d 692 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004) [holding that the imposition of a non-HFO sentence following an HFO sentence which had been enhanced to the statutory maximum was improper where defendant's two offenses arose out of a single criminal episode], and Fuller v. State, 867 So.2d 469 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004) [same], we conclude that these consecutive sentences, which arise from one criminal episode and together exceed the maximum incarceration permitted for any individual count under the Prison Releasee Reoffender Punishment Act, see § 775.082(9)(a)(3)(d), remain illegal and must be reversed. Id. The Second District further reasoned that its conclusion conformed with our decisions in Daniels v. State, 595 So.2d 952 (Fla.1992) (holding that the trial court lacked discretion to impose consecutive mandatory minimum sentences under the Habitual Violent Felony Offender (HVFO) statute, section 775.084(4), Florida Statutes (Supp.1988), for offenses arising out of the same episode), and Hale v. State, 630 So.2d 521 (Fla.1993) (holding that the trial court lacked discretion to impose consecutive enhanced maximum sentences under the HVFO statute for offenses arising out of the same episode). We disagree. Daniels and Hale were decided under the sentencing guidelines, not the Criminal Punishment Code. More significantly, in both Daniels and Hale, the habitual violent felony offender portion of the violent career criminal statute was at issue, not the PRR statute. Therefore, those two cases have little bearing on the interpretation of the PRR statute. Similarly, the Second District misplaces reliance on Kiedrowski v. State, 876 So.2d 692 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004), and Fuller v. State, 867 So.2d 469 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004). Those cases involved the habitual felony offender statute portion of the violent career criminal statute and likewise have little bearing on the interpretation of the PRR statute. Most importantly, because we read the PRR statute as sanctioning consecutive PRR and CPC sentences for offenses arising out of the same episode, we reach the opposite conclusion to that of the Second District in Rodriguez.