Opinion ID: 1745718
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Guidelines Departure Sentence for Attempted Armed Robbery

Text: Finally, Torres-Arboledo claims that in sentencing him to fifteen years in connection with the attempted armed robbery conviction the trial court erred in: (1) using a guidelines score sheet that improperly assessed twenty-one points for victim injury and (2) departing from the recommended guidelines sentence without filing proper written reasons for departure. Although we agree with Torres-Arboledo that twenty-one points for victim injury were improperly assessed against him, we reject his contention that the trial court failed to provide adequate written reasons for departure. Under Rule 3.701(d)(7), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, [v]ictim injury shall be scored if it is an element of any offenses at conviction. Thus, since the first-degree murder conviction, a capital felony, cannot be scored as an offense at conviction, see McPhaul v. State, 496 So.2d 1009 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), and victim injury is not an element of attempted armed robbery, see Ritts v. State, 491 So.2d 1252 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), points for victim injury were improperly scored. However, it is clear from the record that regardless of the presumptive sentence under the guidelines, the trial court would have departed to the maximum penalty provided by law. The following reason for departure was orally given by the trial court and at the court's direction was written by the clerk at the bottom of the score sheet under reasons for departure: Anyone convicted of attempted robbery with a firearm which also results in a conviction for first-degree murder deserves, warrants and mandates the maximum penalty provided by law and although the score sheet it (sic) contains death [it] does not take into consideration first-degree murder as a surrounding circumstance of the crime itself. Torres-Arboledo's contention that this notation written by the clerk at the court's direction was not a written reason for departure is without merit. See State v. Jackson, 478 So.2d 1054 (Fla. 1985); Boynton v. State, 473 So.2d 703 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), approved, 478 So.2d 351 (Fla. 1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1029, 106 S.Ct. 1232, 89 L.Ed.2d 341 (1986) (The most common practice employed among the majority of trial judges is to write the reasons for departure on the score sheet form provided by the Sentencing Guidelines Committee ... in the place marked `Reasons for departure.'). Contra Echevarria v. State, 492 So.2d 1146 (Fla.3d DCA 1986) (notations of reasons for departure on sentencing guidelines score sheets do not suffice as a written order). Although Torres-Arboledo does not challenge the validity of the stated reason for departure, we find the fact that a defendant has been convicted of first-degree murder, a capital felony which cannot be scored as an additional offense at conviction, may serve as a clear and convincing reason for departure. See McPhaul, 496 So.2d 1009. Accordingly, we affirm Torres-Arboledo's convictions for first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery. We also affirm the override sentence of death and the departure sentence of fifteen years in connection with the attempted armed robbery. It is so ordered. McDONALD, C.J., and OVERTON, EHRLICH, SHAW, GRIMES and KOGAN, JJ., concur. BARKETT, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with an opinion.