Opinion ID: 1772363
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: issue 4. sentencing order defects

Text: Lawrence claims that the trial court committed reversible error by including non-record facts in its aggravation findings and by ambiguously assigning weight to the age mitigator. Specifically, the trial court alludes in a footnote to the fact that Rodgers has claimed that Lawrence was the shooter, see sentencing order at 4 n. 2, while the undisputed facts of this record indicate that Lawrence was not the actual killer. Lawrence also challenges the trial court's description of the attempted murder of Smitherman, in that the trial court said: Rodgers and [Lawrence] had been driving around that evening looking ... to find somebody to shoot and kill. Id. at 3. Regarding the age mitigator, Lawrence states that the trial court ambiguously assigned weight, saying orally that the mitigator got little weight while writing in the sentencing order that the mitigator got some weight. Id. at 16. Although the trial court should not have included in the footnote facts which were not from the record of this case, see Kormondy v. State, 703 So.2d 454, 463 (Fla.1997) ([I]t is crucial that a sentencing order only reflect facts drawn from the record in the particular case.), those statements are clearly harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial judge expressly accepted that Rodgers was the shooter, and there is overwhelming evidence supporting the prior violent felony aggravator. See Consalvo v. State, 697 So.2d 805, 818 (Fla.1997); Lockhart v. State, 655 So.2d 69, 74 (Fla.1995). Similarly, any error that the trial court made in orally pronouncing the weight given to the age mitigator was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See DiGuilio, 491 So.2d at 1135. The cumulative effect of these errors does not render the sentencing order unreliable. See id.