Court Opinion

ID: 9387963
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-04-19 15:03:47.045456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:16.702774
License: Public Domain

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
                             FOURTH DISTRICT

                          BLAKE LEE MARCH,
                              Appellant,

                                    v.

                          STATE OF FLORIDA,
                               Appellee.

                             No. 4D21-2718

                             [April 19, 2023]

  Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm
Beach  County;    Daliah    H.    Weiss,    Judge;   L.T.    Case    No.
502020CF001941AMB.

  Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Logan T. Mohs, Assistant
Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

  Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Melynda L. Melear,
Senior Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

KUNTZ, J.

    Blake Lee March appeals his conviction and sentence. We briefly write
to address his argument that because “burglary with an assault or battery”
is not an enumerated crime in the prison release reoffender statute,
section 775.082(9)(a)1., Florida Statutes (2021), he could not be sentenced
under the PRR statute. We disagree.

   The PRR statute states that “‘prison release reoffender’ means any
defendant who commits, or attempts to commit: . . . q. Burglary of a
dwelling or burglary of an occupied structure[.]” § 775.082(9)(a)1., Fla.
Stat. (2021). March was convicted of burglary of a dwelling with assault
or battery, a greater degree of the included crime. We agree with the First
District’s opinion in Campbell v. State, 29 So. 3d 1147, 1149 (Fla. 1st DCA
2010) (“giving [the PRR and burglary statutes] their plain meaning, reveals
that burglary of a dwelling with an assault or battery is punishable by a
life sentence under the PRR statute.”). 1

  As a result, we conclude March was eligible to be sentenced under the
PRR statute and affirm his conviction and sentence.

    Affirmed.

MAY and CIKLIN, JJ., concur.

                              *          *          *

     Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

1The First District also concluded that “[i]t would be illogical to construe the PRR
statute in a way that allows an enhanced sentence for simple burglary of a
dwelling, but not for a greater degree of that same crime.” Campbell, 29 So. 3d
at 1149-50.

                                         2