Court Opinion

ID: 4372129
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2019-02-28 15:03:08.313903+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:24:36.954169
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                 STATE OF FLORIDA
                 _____________________________

                         No. 1D18-1235
                 _____________________________

STATE OF FLORIDA,

    Appellant,

    v.

DAREL W. DOUGHERTY,

    Appellee.
                 _____________________________

On appeal from the Circuit Court for Leon County.
Robert R. Wheeler, Judge.

                        February 28, 2019

PER CURIAM.

      The State appeals the imposition of a downward departure
sentence after Appellee was convicted of 137 counts naming the
following offenses: aggravated white-collar crime; grand theft (over
$100,000); organized scheme to defraud; criminal use of personal
identification information ($50,000 or more); criminal use of
personal identification information; and 132 counts of uttering a
forged instrument. Because the trial court did not provide any
valid legal reason for departure that was supported by competent,
substantial record evidence, we reverse and remand for
resentencing. See State v. Adkison, 56 So. 3d 880 (Fla. 1st DCA
2011); Demoss v. State, 843 So. 2d 309, 311 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003)
(citing Banks v. State, 732 So. 2d 1065, 1067 (Fla. 1999)).
    REVERSED and REMANDED for further proceedings.

B.L. THOMAS, C.J., and JAY, J., concur; BILBREY, J., concurs with
opinion.

                 _____________________________

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

BILBREY, J., concurring.

     I fully concur in the majority’s holding that the downward
departure sentence was not supported by competent, substantial
evidence and must therefore be reversed and remanded for
resentencing. I write separately to note that, so long as supported
by the Criminal Punishment Code, nothing “precludes the
imposition of a downward departure sentence on resentencing
following remand.” Jackson v. State, 64 So. 3d 90, 93 (Fla. 2011).
To the extent that our previous cases hold otherwise, they have
been overruled by Jackson.

                 _____________________________

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

Joseph C. Bodiford and Gannon M. Coens of Bodiford Law, P.A.,
Tallahassee, for Appellee.

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