Trial Court Erred in Denying Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence – Appeals Court Remanded to Vacate New Sentence
Our client pled to DUI with property damage and leaving the scene of an accident involving unattended property. The client also went to trial on DUI manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident with property damage. After a trial by jury the Client was found guilty of DUI manslaughter and of leaving the scene of an accident with property damage. The client was sentenced to 15-years in prison for the DUI manslaughter, time served on leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and leaving the scene of an accident involving unattended property, and 1-year of probation on the DUI with property damage.
The client filed a Rule 3.850 motion and the trial court vacated his judgment and sentence on the DUI manslaughter. The client was released on bond and ordered to report to probation and begin serving his probation sentence on the DUI with property damage conviction. After the client completed his probationary sentence, he took a plea on the DUI manslaughter to a reduced sentence and was remanded to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. Notably, when the trial court re-sentenced the client on the DUI manslaughter offense, it included the 1-year probationary sentence on the DUI with property damage.
While in prison the client filed a pro se motion to correct an illegal sentence under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a). Within his motion he argued that the trial court erred when it resentenced him to 1-year of probation on the DUI with property damage. The client attached a letter from the Department of Corrections to his motion showing he completed the 1-year of probation while he was out on bond after his sentenced was vacated. The trial court denied the clients motion and The Law Office of Robert Malove was retained.
On appeal we argued that the trial court erred by re-sentencing our client to 1-year of probation since he already served the 1-year of probation. We also argued that re-sentencing the client to a term of probation he already served was a double jeopardy violation. The First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, Florida, agreed that the trial court improperly re-sentenced the client to 1-year of probation and remanded it back to the trial court with directions to grant our client’s motion to correct an illegal sentence and vacate the re-imposed 1-year probation sentence.