Court Opinion

ID: 9942677
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-21 18:05:02.986677+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:48:24.195226
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                STATE OF FLORIDA
                 _____________________________

                        No. 1D2023-0256
                 _____________________________

MICHAEL EDWARD HAND,

    Appellant,

    v.

STATE OF FLORIDA,

    Appellee.
                 _____________________________

On appeal from the Circuit Court for Calhoun County.
Brandon J. Young, Judge.

                        February 21, 2024

PER CURIAM.

     The trial court adjudicated Appellant—a violent felony
offender of special concern—guilty of selling methamphetamine, a
second-degree felony, and placed him on probation. Appellant
checked in with his probation officer the following day, but never
again reported as instructed under condition 9 of his probation. He
does not dispute this. It appeared also that Appellant had changed
residences without permission in violation of condition 3, because
he was not at his mother’s address when his probation officer
checked on him, and Appellant’s mother said he had moved. The
trial court found that Appellant had violated his probation on both
grounds, revoked his probation, and sentenced him to 84 months
in prison, a legal sentence.
     Before us, Appellant argues that the evidence failed to support
either basis for revoking probation. The State concedes that the
evidence of changing residences without permission in violation of
condition 3 cannot stand because it was based solely on Appellant’s
absence from the home when the probation officer visited, coupled
with hearsay that he was no longer living there. We accept that
concession of error. See Rutland v. State, 166 So. 3d 878, 878 (Fla.
1st DCA 2015) (holding “a probation officer’s hearsay testimony,
by itself, that another person told him or her the probationer no
longer lived at the residence is insufficient to support a change of
residence violation,” even coupled with the probationer’s absence
when the officer visited). We remand for the trial court to strike
this basis for revoking probation. See id. at 878–79. Appellant need
not be present for this action.

     We nevertheless affirm the judgment and sentence because
competent, substantial record evidence supports the trial court’s
finding that Appellant willfully and substantially violated his
probation by failing to follow reporting instructions. Significantly,
the record also demonstrates that the trial court would have
imposed the same sentence on this basis alone. The trial court’s
sentencing comments clearly emphasized Appellant’s status as a
violent felony offender, his history of failed probation, and
specifically the current violation for failure to report:

         [T]his defendant was placed on supervision in
    February, he was released the second week of March of
    this year, and he did not report at any time to probation,
    other than the day that he was released or the day after
    that he was released from custody. He did not report any
    other time to probation. . . .

        The testimony is very clear that the defendant not
    only did not contact [the probation officer] the next day
    on March the 17th, but has contacted her at no point
    during the time that he’s supposed to be on supervision
    and made himself unavailable to supervision.

     This “overwhelming focus” on Appellant’s repeated and
clearly established failure to comply with the reporting
requirements of his probation supports the conclusion that the

                                 2
trial court would have imposed the same sentence without the
alleged residence violation. See Rutland, 166 So. 3d at 878–79
(noting trial court’s “overwhelming focus” at violation hearing on
failure to report).

    AFFIRMED as modified.

LEWIS, RAY, and KELSEY, JJ., concur.

                 _____________________________

    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
               _____________________________

Jessica J. Yeary, Public Defender, and Joel Arnold, Assistant
Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Kristie Regan, Assistant
Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

                                3