Court Opinion

ID: 9905380
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-29 15:04:19.614737+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:14.313352
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                 STATE OF FLORIDA
                  _____________________________

                        Nos. 1D2022-2271
                             1D2022-2272
                  _____________________________

STATE OF FLORIDA,

    Appellant,

    v.

DANIEL LEANDER MCCALL,

    Appellee.
                  _____________________________

On appeal from the Circuit Court for Dixie County.
Jennifer Jones Johnson, Judge.

                        November 29, 2023

PER CURIAM.

     Appellant, the State of Florida, challenges the trial court’s
imposition of a downward departure sentence in these
consolidated appeals. As the State argues, and as the trial court
acknowledged below, any duress Appellee, Daniel Leander McCall,
was facing at the time he committed the offenses at issue is not the
duress intended by the Legislature in its list of mitigating
circumstances justifying a downward departure sentence in
section 921.0026(2), Florida Statutes. See State v. Issel, 919 So. 2d
719, 720 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006) (explaining that duress usually
involves some sort of coercion or threat). There was no evidence
presented in the underlying cases that Appellee acted under
coercion or threat.
     As for the trial court’s finding that Appellee was emotionally
distressed when he committed the offenses, a trial court may
impose a downward departure sentence for reasons not delineated
in section 921.0026(2) if the reason given is supported by
competent, substantial evidence and is not otherwise prohibited.
See State v. Thompkins, 113 So. 3d 95, 98 (Fla. 5th DCA 2013).
The State contends that although emotional distress may be an
appropriate mitigating factor in some cases, the trial court’s
finding of emotional distress in this case was not supported by
competent, substantial evidence. We agree. The records before us
in these appeals are devoid of any of the evidence relied upon by
the trial court in finding that Appellee was emotionally distressed.

     Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s imposition of a
downward departure sentence and remand for resentencing. See
State v. Montanez, 133 So. 3d 1151, 1154 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014)
(holding that the trial court’s reason for the downward departure
sentences – that the appellee was “experiencing great difficulty in
his personal life due to his divorce which made him more
susceptible to substance abuse” – was not supported by competent,
substantial evidence).

    REVERSED and REMANDED for resentencing.

LEWIS, WINOKUR, and M.K. THOMAS, JJ., concur.

                 _____________________________

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

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Heather Flanagan Ross,
Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Jessica J. Yeary, Public Defender, and Lori A. Willner, Assistant
Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

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