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Paul v. State

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District
Nov 22, 2002
830 So. 2d 953 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2002)

Opinion

Case No. 5D02-3299

Opinion filed November 22, 2002

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Orange County, A. Thomas Mihok, Judge.

Rodney Paul, Tallahassee, pro se.

No Appearance for Appellee.


Paul appeals from the trial court's summary denial of his motion filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800 (a) to correct his sentence. In his motion he also requested an evidentiary hearing and he asked the court to find his plea was involuntarily entered. We affirm, but without prejudice to file a motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, if timely and if there are sufficient grounds.

The record shows Paul pled guilty to delivery of cocaine and possession of cocaine, and that he was sentenced to concurrent terms of four and one-half years. He was also adjudicated a habitual offender for the delivery of cocaine conviction.

Evidentiary hearings are not authorized under rule 3.800 (a) and if the record does not disclose a sentencing error on its face, the court cannot deal with it. In this case, the record does not disclose Paul was improperly habitualized. Rather it shows he was habitualized because of the delivery of cocaine conviction and the scoresheet states he had two prior convictions for sale of cocaine, as well as a conviction for sale of a counterfeit substance.

See Bover v. State, 797 So.2d 1246 (Fla. 2001).

This appears adequate to support an habitual offender sentence under section 775.084(1)(a)(3), Florida Statutes (2002), which only requires that the felony for which the defendant is sentenced as an habitual offender and one of the two required prior felony convictions not be a violation of section 893.13 (purchase or possession of a controlled substance).

In addition, involuntary plea claims are not properly raised in a motion pursuant to rule 3.800 (a), since they constitute attacks on the judgments, not the sentences. They should be raised in a motion filed pursuant to rule 3.850.

AFFIRMED.

PALMER and ORFINGER, R.B., JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Paul v. State

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District
Nov 22, 2002
830 So. 2d 953 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2002)
Case details for

Paul v. State

Case Details

Full title:RODNEY PAUL, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee

Court:District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District

Date published: Nov 22, 2002

Citations

830 So. 2d 953 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2002)

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