Court Opinion

ID: 4420851
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2019-07-29 13:03:54.042235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:12.654940
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                STATE OF FLORIDA
                 _____________________________

                         No. 1D18-2898
                 _____________________________

GLORIA B. WILLIAMS,

    Appellant,

    v.

STATE OF FLORIDA,

    Appellee.
                 _____________________________

On appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County.
Marianne Aho, Judge.

                          July 29, 2019

PER CURIAM.

     In 1998, Gloria Williams stole a newborn infant from a
Jacksonville hospital and fled to South Carolina, where she raised
the child for some eighteen years. After her eventual
apprehension, Williams entered a negotiated plea to kidnapping
and interference with custody. Under the terms of the agreement,
she would be sentenced to between zero and twenty-two years for
the kidnapping, and between zero and five years (concurrent) as to
the interference with custody. The State agreed that it would
request that the federal government not pursue any additional
charges. After a sentencing hearing, the court imposed a sentence
of eighteen years. This is Williams’s direct appeal.
     Williams’s counsel has filed a brief pursuant to Anders v.
California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), concluding that there is no
arguable issue for appeal. In this circumstance, we must complete
a full and independent review of the record, see In re Anders Briefs,
581 So. 2d 149, 151 (Fla. 1991), and having done so, we too
conclude there is no arguable issue for reversal. We reject as
meritless the arguments Williams made in her pro se brief—that
the eighteen-year sentence was unreasonable in light of mitigating
factors and that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The
sentence was lawful.

    AFFIRMED.

ROWE, KELSEY, 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.
               _____________________________

Andy Thomas, Public Defender, Steven L. Seliger, Assistant Public
Defender, and Megan Long, Assistant Public Defender,
Tallahassee; Gloria B. Williams, pro se, for Appellant.

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

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