Opinion ID: 1829477
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: On January 14, 2004, Defendant-Petitioner Abraham Yisrael (a/k/a Eugene Lumsden) was convicted of cocaine trafficking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in Broward County Circuit Court. [1] The State later filed notice of its intent to seek an HVFO sentence enhancement. During sentencing, the trial judge relied on a DOC release-date letter, which indicated that Mr. Yisrael committed the target offenses within five or fewer years of having been released for his predicate felonies. Based on this letter, Yisrael qualified as an HVFO under section 775.084, Florida Statutes (2001). [2] Mr. Yisrael did not object to the trial judge's consideration of the release-date letter during sentencing. Nonetheless, Yisrael later filed a timely Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2) motion to correct sentence, alleging that (1) the letter was based upon inadmissible hearsay; (2) the letter was the only evidence the State produced to support its HVFO sentencing request; and (3) the trial court consequently could not have properly sentenced him as an HVFO. [3] Yisrael, however, neither attacked the validity of his predicate felonies, nor did he challenge the accuracy of his predicate-offense release date. The circuit court denied Yisrael's rule 3.800(b)(2) motion, and Yisrael appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. On appeal, sitting en banc, the Fourth District affirmed the order of the circuit court denying Yisrael's rule 3.800(b)(2) motion. Yisrael v. State, 938 So.2d 546, 547-50 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006). The court reasoned that the DOC letter was admissible under the public-records exception to the rule against hearsay. In the course of its decision, the Fourth District receded from its prior opinion in Sutton v. State, 929 So.2d 1105 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006), and certified direct conflict with the First District's decision in Gray v. State, 910 So.2d 867 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005), which held that a nearly identical DOC letter constituted inadmissible hearsay. However, apparently unknown on appeal to the Fourth District, the Public Defender's Office, and the State, the trial-level prosecutor actually included an attachment with the supposedly objectionable DOC letter (collectively labeled Exhibit C), which undermined Mr. Yisrael's hearsay objection and rendered Yisrael factually distinguishable from Gray and Sutton. See Appendix (Exhibit C). This attachment was included in the record filed with this Court, and is an example of what Florida courts have generally referred to as the DOC's Crime and Time Reports. The report provided under seal in this case clearly indicated that Mr. Yisrael's predicate-felony release date was 04/08/98. The decisions of the First District in Desue v. State, 908 So.2d 1116 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005), and Gray each specified that this type of report is admissible, despite a hearsay objection, as either a public or business record. See Desue, 908 So.2d at 1117-18; Gray, 910 So.2d at 869. Moreover, Sutton expressly followed Gray. See Sutton, 929 So.2d at 1108 (citing Gray in support of its holding). Therefore, if the Fourth District had been informed of this important fact, its opinion overruling Sutton and declining to follow Gray would have been unnecessary. [4] This Court's discretionary review follows from the Fourth District's certification of direct conflict between its decision in Yisrael and the First District's decision in Gray. See Yisrael v. State, 938 So.2d 546, 550 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006), review granted, 956 So.2d 458 (Fla. 2007) (table).