Court Opinion

ID: 9408343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-12 15:06:26.917872+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:43.326139
License: Public Domain

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
                            FOURTH DISTRICT

                          NICKOLAS WHITE,
                              Appellant,

                                    v.

                         STATE OF FLORIDA,
                              Appellee.

                             No. 4D22-126

                             [July 12, 2023]

   Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit,
Broward County; Martin S. Fein, Judge; L.T. Case No. 95-000066 CF 10B.

  Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Paul Edward Petillo, Assistant
Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

  Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jeanine
Germanowicz, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

    Nickolas White (“White”), who is currently serving a sentence of life
imprisonment for an offense he committed as a juvenile, appeals from the
trial court’s denial of his motion seeking judicial review of the sentence
pursuant to section 921.1402, Florida Statutes (2021). We reverse the
order on review because the trial court lacked jurisdiction to conduct the
sentence review proceeding during the pendency of White’s direct appeal
from his 2021 life sentence. Our disposition on this point moots our
consideration of White’s other arguments in this appeal.

    The trial court initially sentenced White in 1996 to life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole for a first-degree murder he committed
when he was a juvenile. In accordance with Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S.
460 (2012), and Horsley v. State, 160 So. 3d 393 (Fla. 2015), White was
resentenced in 2017 to life imprisonment with the possibility of judicial
review after 25 years. We reversed White’s 2017 sentence on direct appeal.
See generally White v. State, 271 So. 3d 1023 (Fla. 4th DCA 2019). The
trial court subsequently resentenced White in 2021 to life imprisonment
with the possibility of judicial review after 25 years.
    The trial court was divested of jurisdiction to conduct the sentence
review proceeding contemplated by section 921.1402 when White filed his
notice of appeal from his 2021 life sentence before the trial court’s
disposition of his sentence review motion. See Daniels v. State, 712 So. 2d
765, 765 (Fla. 1998) (“[D]uring the pendency of a defendant’s direct appeal,
the trial court is without jurisdiction to rule on a motion for postconviction
relief.”); Kosa v. State, 923 So. 2d 1285, 1285 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) (“Once
a notice of appeal has been filed, exclusive jurisdiction of the matter is
before the district court of appeal.”). As a result, the trial court’s order
denying White relief from his life sentence on his motion for sentence
review was a nullity. See Daniels, 712 So. 2d at 765 (holding that a ruling
on the merits of a postconviction motion rendered by the trial court during
the pendency of a defendant’s direct appeal “is a nullity”).

   We therefore reverse the order on review and remand for the trial court
to reconsider White’s motion for sentence review pursuant to section
921.1402 now that his currently pending direct appeal from his 2021 life
sentence has been resolved by this court. See generally White v. State, No.
4D21-2620, 2023 WL 3640196 (Fla. 4th DCA May 25, 2023) (table case).
On remand, the trial court may reconsider its disposition of the section
921.1402 motion without the need for further evidentiary proceedings.

   Reversed and remanded with instructions.

WARNER, GERBER and ARTAU, JJ., concur.

                            *         *         *

    Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

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